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Arte Programmata

Freedom, Control, and the Computer in 1960s Italy
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Arte Programmata traces the pioneering Italian avant-garde's postwar experiments with art and emergent computer technologies, exploring how these artists intertwined individual freedom with collectivism through innovative media. Against the backdrop of the Cold War and Italy's political turmoil, figures like Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari used cybernetics and information theory to challenge ideological impasses, creating immersive environments, kinetic sculptures, and multimedia works. This study highlights Italy's early computer-based art and its global context, offering a vital perspective on the convergence of art, technology, and politics preceding the digital age.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Arte Programmata is ideal for readers interested in avant-garde art, the history of technology in creative practice, and the political dimensions of art during the Cold War era. Scholars, students, and enthusiasts of digital art history and Italian culture will find this insightful and thought-provoking.

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Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--City University of New York, 2017, under the title: Open works: between the programmed and the free, art in Italy 1962 to 1972.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Tracing the evolution of the Italian avant-garde's pioneering experiments with art and technology and their subversion of freedom and control

In postwar Italy, a group of visionary artists used emergent computer technologies as both tools of artistic production and a means to reconceptualise the dynamic interrelation between individual freedom and collectivity. Working contrary to assumptions that the rigid, structural nature of programming limits subjectivity, this book traces the multifaceted practices of these groundbreaking artists and their conviction that technology could provide the conditions for a liberated social life.

Situating their developments within the context of the Cold War and the ensuing crisis among the Italian left, Arte Programmata describes how Italy's distinctive political climate fuelled the group's engagement with computers, cybernetics, and information theory. Creating a broad range of immersive environments, kinetic sculptures, domestic home goods, and other multimedia art and design works, artists such as Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, and others looked to the conceptual frameworks provided by this new technology to envision a way out of the ideological impasses of the age.

Showcasing the ingenuity of Italy's earliest computer-based art, this study highlights its distinguishing characteristics while also exploring concurrent developments across the globe. Centred on the relationships between art, technology, and politics, Arte Programmata considers an important antecedent to the digital age.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Janet Kraynak praises Lindsay Caplan's work as a "compelling account" that's "beautifully written, sharply analytic, and free of jargon." Arte Programmata illuminates the political engagement of early computerised art, making it essential reading for those interested in technological change's artistic roots. The book challenges traditional views of politics and aesthetics by blending art, design, theory, and politics, thus expanding the frameworks of art history.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781517909956

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 25 October 2022

Country: United States

Imprint: University of Minnesota Press

Illustration: 47 black and white illustrations and 8 color plates

Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 203.0mm

Weight: 454g

Pages: 312

About the Author

Lindsay Caplan is assistant professor in the History of Art and Architecture Department at Brown University.

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