Imagine the Future with Pirelli

The communication project linked to Pirelli’s 2012 annual report invites students from a variety of international universities to “imagine” tomorrow, by selecting a word that they feel best captures elements they would like to count on in the future. Students between the ages of 18 to 30 are invited to submit their entries to the following websites (here and here), with accompanying 140-word descriptions explaining their choice.

The words, accompanied by the texts explaining their choices, will be chosen and sent to a jury to identify the ten most representative options. The words chosen, along with the reflections proposed by the students, will be published in the volumes of the Pirelli 2012 annual report and interpreted by the pencil of Liza Donnelly, one of the New Yorker’s most renowned, incisive and refined artists. The ten “authors” will also receive a two-month paid work experience at Pirelli’s Milan headquarters, which include the group’s main R&D center, the Pirelli Foundation, which gathers and distributes the company’s historic and cultural legacy, and the Hangar Bicocca, a space dedicated to the production, exhibition and promotion of contemporary art.

The jury which will select the material is composed of Bina Agarwal, professor of Economics at the University of Manchester and president of the“International Society for Ecological Economics”, Thomas Goetz, writer of scientific tracts and long-time director of the magazine Wired, Steve McCurry, photo-journalist and author of the 2013 edition of the Pirelli Calendar, Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Giuseppe Tornatore, director, producer and screenplay writer and SebastianVettel, Formula One driver and three times world champion.

After the illustrations of Stefan Glerum, the young Dutch designer who collaborated on the 2011 edition along with the texts of H. M. Enzensberger, Guillermo Martinez, W. L. Heat-Moon and Javier Cercas, the Pirelli annual report willpropose a new “story” in parallel with the more typically industrial and financial one. It will be a space of reflection based on the stimuli that are alreadyarriving from the young entrants: “Empathy”, “Loyalty”, “Creativity”, “Diversity”, “Humility”, “Courage”, “Imagination” are a few of the hundreds of proposals so far sent and which offer an original glimpse, in an unexpectedplace like an annual report, of how youth looks to the future.

Many universities are participating in the project: Politecnico di Milano, Università Bocconi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Università degli Studi di Milano, Università di Bologna, LUISS Guido Carli (Italy), ESCP Europe, Groupe ESC Dijon Bourgogne, SKEMA Business School, Reims Management School (France), German University in Cairo (Egypt), Bogazici University, Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), The University of Edinburgh, University of Cambridge (UK), University of Craiova, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (Rumania), Universidad De La Salle Bajío (Mexico), McGill University (Canada).

The project is aimed at undergraduates, recent graduates or students in Masters programs from all faculties between the ages of 18 and 30. To participate in “Imagining The Future With You” please visit Pirelli’s website or the contest Facebook page. In the homepage of the application submit the word that represents your vision of the future and a 140-word description explaining your choice.