The Art of Objects : : The Birth of Italian Industrial Culture, 1878-1928 / / Luca Cottini.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press Pilot 2018
• VerfasserIn: Cottini, Luca,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2018]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Toronto Italian Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (328 p.)

The Art of Objects is a cultural history of early Italian industrialism, set against the political, social, and intellectual background of post-unification Italy, and a cutting-edge investigation of the formation of Italy's industrial culture at the turn of the 20th century. By adopting the unusual perspective of several objects of mass consumption, such as watches, photographs, bicycles, gramophones, cigarettes, and toys, author Luca Cottini examines their transformation from commercial items into aesthetic and philosophical icons. By focusing on the cultural significance of these objects, as they enter the market and appear in contemporary works of art and literature, The Art of Objects outlines a more comprehensive view of the age between the unification of Italy and Fascism, encompassing production and consumption, aesthetics and entrepreneurship, industry and the humanistic tradition. The observation of the slow formation of new languages, forms, practices, and experiences around these objects also provides an early documentation of the creative laboratory of Italy's industrial culture. By reconstructing the origins of the Italian culture of design, the book ultimately investigates Italy's critical reception of industrialism, the nation's so-called "imperfect" modernization, and its ongoing quest for an original way to modernity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. At the Origin of Italian Industrialism -- 2. Timepieces and Italian Modern Times -- 3. Industrial Photographs and the Fictional Vision -- 4. Bicycles and the Moving Body of the Nation -- 5. Gramophones, Radio, and the New Languages of Sound -- 6. Cigarettes and Smoke: The Modern Lightness of Being -- 7. Toys, Clothes, Furniture, and the Aesthetic Power of Play -- 8. The Industrial Laboratory of Italian Modernity -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index