Towards a responsible perspective in design for Human Body Interaction. Reviewing the Italian debate of the early 1970s through the designers’ words

In their investigation of interaction design as a frontier for experimenting the relationship between the human body and the machine through the perspective of Digital Technologies and Key Enabling Technologies, Michele Zannoni et al. (2021) identified three areas encompassing present and future trajectories in the Human Body Design research field: Homo Faber, “the creation and construction of tools;” Homo Saluber, “the incessant search for well-being;” and Homo Cogitans, “the environment based on the use of data and information systems.” Such concepts, the outlined pathways, and the questions they instigate have inspired a research itinerary that generates further food for thought. What are the theoretical implications behind the identified categories? Is the concept of homo and human still the only cornerstone for the construction and reconstruction of an interpretation of the body-machine relationship? How have the design actors performed within a historical scenario characterized by the advent of digital technologies? These questions give rise to the need to document, although in a just sketched form, how the Italian design cultures have witnessed, reacted, and at times contributed to define the interpretative models of that which Vittorio Marchis (2005) defined “a century of future,” namely a century (the Twentieth) marked by the accumulation of innovations and inventions. Can we identify an autonomous space for action for design and productive thinking (Celaschi et al., 2020) within the alchemy of knowledge, processes, and learning models to systematically investigate in order to understand the complex interactions between the body, machines, humans, technology, and the digital world?