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A Historiography of Italian Design
No full textBy 2011, the year marking the 150th anniversary of Italy’s Unification, Italian design has seen more than its fair share of rhetoric. Certain exhibitions and publications have portrayed its history as a key to understanding Italian society and identity, as well as a stimulus for the future. According to this reading, after World War II, and in the wake of the economic miracle, a design phenomenon occurred, thanks to a relatively small group of passionate men and thanks, too, to enlightened (Milanese/Lombard) leaders of small and medium-sized companies, all of whom were motivated by a deep sense of beauty rather than by strictly commercial agendas. Although this process was chronologically behind that of other modern nations, Italian design maintained an avant-garde position. A group of products associated with the idea that Italian design and manufacture was superior, encapsulated in the slogan Made in Italy, was established, ranging from domestic goods to the automotive industry. These products blended perceived artistic genius with excess, and rigorous design with traditional craftsmanship. A special approach to design developed which has contributed to reshaping daily life in Italy, while also becoming an internationally-recognized model of high-culture. Held together by a presumed unity, this reading of Italian design reflects a historical and critical construction developed over a long period of time, and one which requires revising so that a wider range of views may be taken into account.
The aim of this bibliographical essay is twofold: to outline the main features of historical writing on ‘Italian design’ up to the present century; and, secondly, to examine the more diversified readings and lines of research which, over the past three decades, have dealt with the history of ‘design in Italy,’ and which may help in re-examining the very idea of Italian design
Grafica, Storia, Italia: estendere il campo / Graphic Design, History, Italy: Expanding the Field
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Italy 1945-2000
No full textPart of the Volume 3 of the “World History of Design”, this chapter recounts the developments in the practice and culture of design in Italy during the period from the end of World War II to the end of the 20th century, primarily focusing on product design, industrial design, and graphic design
La communication d’entreprise entre histoire, patrimoine et mémoire. Quelques études de cas en Italie
No full textCom base em três projetos de investigaçao sobre a história de três marcas italianas de bebidas alcoólicas, esta comuniçao aborda a relação complexa entre a perspectiva da pesquisa histórica e os interesses dos atores das empresas, e explora a maneira pela qual as empresas hoje usam a sua própria tradiçao no dominio do design grafico e da publicidade para definir a sua imagem no presente. Na seção conclusiva, o texto examina os artefatos de comunicação corporativa considerando-os como «patrimônio» e como parte integrante da memória coletiva da sociedade, na intersecção dos interesses de diferentes atores.Building on three research projects that I carried out on the history of three Italian alcoholic beverage brands, this paper addresses the complex relationship between the concerns of historical research in design and the interests of business actors. The contribution also explores the way in which companies today use their own graphic design and advertising tradition to define their image in the present and, in its last section, analyse corporate communication artifacts by considering them as [a] «heritage» and as an integral part of society's collective memory, at the intersection of interests held by different actors.En s’appuyant sur des projets de recherche menés sur l’histoire de trois marques italiennes de boissons alcooliques, cette communication analyse la relation entre les enjeux de la recherche historique et les démarches des acteurs économiques, et explore la façon dont les entreprises aujourd’hui se servent de leur propre tradition dans le design graphique et la publicité afin de définir leur image dans le présent. Enfin, le texte examine les artefacts communicationnels d’entreprise en tant que «patrimoine» et comme partie intégrante de la mémoire collective de la société, au carrefour d'intérêts portés par des acteurs différents
Bachelard e la razionalità
No full textBachelard è forse concepibile solo nella cultura francese del secolo ventesimo ed in particolare in relazione all’assenza in tale cultura dell’equivalente del ruolo giocato in Italia dal neoidealismo di Croce e di Gentile. Il panorama nella filosofia francese novecentesca è stato piuttosto polarizzato dai due opposti orientamenti del positivismo e dello spiritualismo. L’opera di Gaston Bachelard è adeguatamente coglibile se viene vista dentro l’instabilità essenziale di questa opposizione. In relazione allo spiritualismo francese Bachelard, rivolgendosi a questioni relative all’epistemologia e alla cosmologia, ha innescato un peculiare questionamento del significato dei dati della ricerca scientifica che è stato in grado di collegarli in modo genetico e dinamico al problema del soggetto dell’attività conoscitiva
Ricominciare da Bachelard
No full textIl contributo si inserisce in un dibattito teorico riguardante l’epistemologia contemporanea e individua nella filosofia di Bachelard uno snodo particolarmente interessante per ripensare la genesi e la struttura della scienza affrontandone i problemi all’interno di una concezione della ragione non riduttivistica, capace di interrogarsi sui suoi moventi e sul suo destino. La razionalità messa in campo da Bachelard fortemente impegnata sul fronte della scienza si misura in questo contributo anche nella sua capacità di collocare nel vivo dell’esperienza umana l’immaginazione, la rêverie, con la sua libertà e creatività ontologica e linguistica. Il contributo sottolinea la peculiarità dell’apporto dell’epistemologia bachelardiana nel ripensare il soggetto della scienza fuori dagli schemi del cogito cartesiano, nella sua dimensione globale di persona
The Island of ItalianDesign? Some Notes for Questioning a Long-Lived Myth
No full text«... one is constantly surprised to note how frequently the Italians compare conditions in their own country with those in “Europe”, as though they inhabited, not a peninsula, but an island quite separate from the continent.» These are the words used in the catalogue of the renown exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, held at MoMA in 1972, to introduce the international public to Italian design. Indeed, within the historical and critical discourse on Italian design, developed in Italy, a strong interpretive strand can be detected that has tended to read Italian design as a singular phenomenon, isolated from the space and time of the mainstream international developments of modern design.
The idea of Italian design being off-axis compared to other countries crosses a range of diverse authors, historians and critics. Its roots, for instance, can be found in the inter-war period, in the advocates of the intrinsic “Italian-ness” of design and arts, and of a Mediterranean, classical, tradition that had to be renewed. Signs of the idea of the singularity of Italian design are also to be found in the claims of commentators who, after World War II, engaged in gaining Italian industrial design recognition within the international arena, and who lamented the backwardness of Italy with comparison to other European industrial countries. And yet the most self-aware contribution to the image of Italian design as an island, has come from the theories and criticism developed in the name of the “Second Modernity,” in a way that was functional to the positioning of post-modern design. By opposing terms such as modernity/tradition, backwardness/advance, industrial/post-industrial, Italian/European, and by mixing loose sociological and anthropological considerations, since the 1970s designers and critics such as Andrea Branzi gradually developed a reading of Italian design’s history and character that has become, since then, rather influential and widespread.
This interpretation, however, has tended to over-emphasize some aspects as inherent to Italian design, such as its non-industrial, anti-institutional, non-professional, craftsmanship-like and domestic quality, while deliberately neglecting the analysis of the places, contexts, stories and episodes that would not align with that picture – for example, the influence and impact of ideas, technology and know-how coming from other countries, or the role played by large industry in sustaining in shaping the identity and ideology of the industrial design’s profession during the post-World War II years.
In this paper we intend, first, to outline the main steps of the historical-critical reading of Italian design’s singularity, also attempting to show its links it to the wider sociological and political discourse concerning Italy’s position in the international arena. Secondly, we aim to highlight the weaknesses of that reading, by considering studies and research developed in the recent decades within the fields of Italian Studies, economics and industrial history which can help questioning the myth of the isolation and anomaly of Italian design
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