Anatomy of Things

Some examples in the  Web:

Todd McLellan Motion / Stills

Things Come Apart

Todd McLellan / Disassemblies

Disassemble Your Game

Todd McLellan - HUH

 The Beauty in Ordinary Objects 

Anatomy of an Electric Power Meter

The lectures 2013

October 3, 2013:   Introduction. Some initial remarks. Why a blog ? (1.30 PM - 6 PM)
October 10, 2013: Taxonomy, at the origin of a new science. Natural Sciences vs Artifact Sciences.
                              How to organize the homework: anatomy of an object. (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
October 17, 2013: Catalogues, the first steps of a comparative study. A primer: ABC.
                              History vs Science. The Hyperblog. How to describe an object.
                              The things in the literature. (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
October 24, 2013: Anatomy of an object: the Case of the Sewing Machine.  (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
October 31, 2013: NO LECTURE
November 7, 2013: Matter and shape: the thing. and its figures. The Craftsman by Richard Sennett.
                              (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
November 14, 2013: The Italian story: from the craftsman society to the technician one.
                              (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
November 21, 2013: The context of the innovation: society, culture and patents.  (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
November 28, 2013: L'Italia non è un paese povero, di Joris Ivens. After WWII the economic miracle.
                               (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
December 5, 2013: Things on the Walls: the material culture in advs. The Baroque Emblems
                               (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
December 12, 2013: Things at Home: The Kitchen & the Living Room. (1.30 PM - 6.30 PM)
December 12, 2013: Pi and the Sewing Machine. Anatomy Lecture on the Pi Number
                                (9 PM - 10.30 PM)
December 19, 2013: Things at Work: Tools & Machines. The Engine History  (1.30 PM - 7.00 PM)
January 9, 2014: Critical review of the Blog activities. Stop to the email correspondence.  (12 AM - 1.30 PM)
January 13, 2014: Critical review of the Blog activities. (1.30 PM - 7.00 PM)
January 16, 2014: Final evaluation. (1.30 PM - 7.30 PM)

Instructions #3

Once the object of the group has been selected (see Instruction #1) a "primer" (an alfabetic list of nouns) has to be prepared. Each noun must be associated to a picture.

E.g. if the selected object is a clock, the primer (in Italian "abbecedario") will be:

Instructions #2

1) The textbook of the course is:

Richard Sennett, L'uomo artigiano, Milano : Feltrinelli, 2004

also available in English:

Look for references and reviews of this book in the Web.

The book has to be read and studied in order to drive the personal research activities in preparing the blog. In addition during the final exam some questions about the matter of the book will be asked. The students that do not prepare a blog shall be examined on the entire argument of the book.

2) In addition each student must read a novel (free choice of the title and of the language) and find all the citations of things (small objects, capable to be handled, discard complex machines, devices and systems) present in the text. Further analysis and organization of the obtained results will later indicated. 

Classes

Le classi merceologiche

Part List

Some links:

RCBS products
Toy Car Engine
Toy Racing Car Differential

A Taxonomy of Office Chairs

A Phaidon Book

a sample chapter

Mapping the Band Names: a new Taxonomy

Visual thesaurus & Concept mapping

ABC...

Bibliographic references

ETH - Zuerich, e-rara

BNF Paris - Gallica

Liber Liber

MuseoTorino

Instructions #1

Each group of students must choose an object to be analized both with hands-on and through the literature (documents, books and electronic sources)

List of the selected objects

1. Describe the object, call the piece and its parts (using several languages)

2. Collect images and data sheet of the chosen object; browse the web

3. Disassemble the object into its parts, and take a picture

Iconographic sources

Comics & Books covers

the Lester Levy Sheet Music collection

Archivio Fotografico Alinari

The British Postal Museum



Catalogo dei francobolli italiani



USC Digital Library

Catalogs / Cataloghi

Il Robinson Crusoe di TullioPericoli

La storia della Marklin nelle copertine dei cataloghi

Raggi di Storia - Cataloghi

Gli oggetti del Catalogo astronomico di Messier

2013 Hyperblog Index

Toninelli M. &  Garcia J. (micrometro)
Meloni L. & Fanni T. (manubrio bicicletta)
Tybor A. & Langier A. (ombrello)
Altuna A. & Egana E. & De Pedro I. (orologio)
Foco M. & Dal Vecchio S. (gameboy)
Giordano G. & Fiume L. (sveglia)
Cuniglio L. & Gabbatore S. (macinacaffè)
Gallo Marchiando M. & Mele A. (attacco sci)
Tampone M. & Allocco C. (cassetta VHS)
Popovici G. & Dichio C. (ventilatore)
Nurri M. & Quarato C. (mouse)
Labaj E. & Dadone A. (carillon)
Simone G. & Fiorenza V. (fornello fonduta)
Cirrito S. & Riolo G. (bilancia)
Daga G. (ruota bicicletta)
Tumbarello V. & Grimaldi P. (mouse)
Salvadori E. & Savina A. (mixer a immersione)
Zilio C. & Inferrera C. (zippo)
Di Blasi C. & Alessio G. (compasso)
Albertin D. & De Martino L. (telefono)
Mastrazzo M. & Salvi J. (walkie-talkie)
Pintus M. & Sesia S. (pinzatrice)
Morini E. & Menotti P. (ventilatore)
Stracuzzi I. & Rolletto C. (mouse)
Raciti K. & Tambalo N. (giradischi)
Bechis A. & Bologna F. (devioguida)
Panetta S.
Faggion R. & Cavagnino V. (torcia elettrica)
Hernandez A. & Fernandez A. & Marcelli C. & Aspillaga F. (cuffia)
Ferrari L. & Queiroz E. (scatola musicale)
Torres M. & Favero C. (pistola a caldo - cola quente)
Torossian J. (microfono)
Lorenzon C. & Bedoya L. (zaino)
Roella C. & Longo M. (walkman)
Hessam S. & Lo Priore A. (telefono "sirio")
Turturro A. & Panetta S. (macchina fotografica)
Collignan L. & D'Agostino N. & Baldi A. (sveglia elettronica)
Duque C. & Valcarcel D. (lampada)
Afiyan T. & Chaanin R. (asciugacapelli - hairdryer)
Canalis S. & Deus B. & Fernandez-Gil M. (lampada)
Moraes P. (blaser)
Ghiotti F. (metronomo)
Accossato F. & Paciullo E. (hard disk)
Rossi E. & Gottardo I. (telefono)
Bronda A. (joystick)
Ferrara F. & Monfermoso G. (walkman)
Girotto R. (joystick)
Lavagna L. (lampadina)
Fusaro D. & Cervino A.M. (calcolatrice)

Inside the object - Starting instructions

Scope of the lectures is to investigate the nature of things starting from a chosen thing (each student one object) that will be examinated both in the physical/material way and in the theoretical one (literature, arts, industry processes, history, etc.) so that at the endo of the couse a sort of taxonomy of the object will be prepared. Each student will follow on the progress of his investigations by addind new posts on a personal blog.

Lectures are done by professor Vittorio Marchis each Thursday in Room 14AM in the Building od Design faculty in corso Settembrini (starting at 1.30 PM and ending at 6 PM).

Tassonomie - Taxonomies

Carl Linné and his Systema Naturae: the birth of taxonomy

Some reference:

Tassonomia (Wikipedia)

Tassonomie (Geode)

Tassonomie (Università di Parma)

La classificazione degli elementi

Sistematica biologica (Enciclopedia del Novecento, Treccani)

Start

Oggi alle ore 13.30 si iniziano le lezioni del Corso.
Today at 1.30 PM the lectures begin.