Conference Presentations and Talks by Simona Casonato
Embedded social thought and Italian computer technology. The case of Olivetti's ELEA 9003
Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting, 2017
Paper presented at the SHOT Annual Meeting, 28 October 2017 in Philadelphia, US
One of the most ... more Paper presented at the SHOT Annual Meeting, 28 October 2017 in Philadelphia, US
One of the most relevant objects in the collections of the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan is an “ELEA 9003” commanding console. The Elea was the first mainframe transistor computer produced and marketed by Olivetti since the mid-1950s. Only three of them are preserved in Italy.
Science and technology museums are often seen as a material testimony of technical advancements. Yet, heritage can be used also to elicit the different instances of thought embodied in the collections. Are there political issues embodied in the ELEA history? And if so, of what nature? Which was the social vision behind the work of the Elea engineers and designers?
Exploration of those topics can be carried out as a result of a new interpretation of existing documents. But many Elea engineers are still alive, the console preserved at the Museum draws their attention and creates a fertile focus for discussion. The aim of this essay is to present and discuss the result of interviews with some of those protagonists of the “golden age” of Italian electronics.
From a museum perspective, we think that broadening the study of science and technology artifacts to include the forms of intangible heritage “surrounding” those artifacts can provide a useful contribution to the historians’ community. Moreover, this form of inquiry can reveal some of the ambiguities in the current narrative about technological artifacts in museums, and about ”who” is telling the story. Working on the intangible heritage often questions the tangibility of the Western science and technology culture as a value in itself, and this opens interesting implications in historiography (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 2004, Boudia & Soubiran 2013).
Paper presentation, Artefacts XXII Conference at Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris, October 2017
Intervento alla 1a Conferenza dell'Associazione Italiana di Public History - Ravenna, 9 giugno 2017
Paper presentation during Artefacts XXI Conference at the Science Museum in London, October 2016.... more Paper presentation during Artefacts XXI Conference at the Science Museum in London, October 2016.
The restoration of a 1950s Cockcroft-Walton accelerator, coming from the CISE laboratory and owned by the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, involves a reflection about the intangible heritage of science and technology culture, and the methods of its preservation and documentation.
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Conference Presentations and Talks by Simona Casonato
One of the most relevant objects in the collections of the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan is an “ELEA 9003” commanding console. The Elea was the first mainframe transistor computer produced and marketed by Olivetti since the mid-1950s. Only three of them are preserved in Italy.
Science and technology museums are often seen as a material testimony of technical advancements. Yet, heritage can be used also to elicit the different instances of thought embodied in the collections. Are there political issues embodied in the ELEA history? And if so, of what nature? Which was the social vision behind the work of the Elea engineers and designers?
Exploration of those topics can be carried out as a result of a new interpretation of existing documents. But many Elea engineers are still alive, the console preserved at the Museum draws their attention and creates a fertile focus for discussion. The aim of this essay is to present and discuss the result of interviews with some of those protagonists of the “golden age” of Italian electronics.
From a museum perspective, we think that broadening the study of science and technology artifacts to include the forms of intangible heritage “surrounding” those artifacts can provide a useful contribution to the historians’ community. Moreover, this form of inquiry can reveal some of the ambiguities in the current narrative about technological artifacts in museums, and about ”who” is telling the story. Working on the intangible heritage often questions the tangibility of the Western science and technology culture as a value in itself, and this opens interesting implications in historiography (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 2004, Boudia & Soubiran 2013).
The restoration of a 1950s Cockcroft-Walton accelerator, coming from the CISE laboratory and owned by the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, involves a reflection about the intangible heritage of science and technology culture, and the methods of its preservation and documentation.