Active since the 1960s, Milan-based artist and designer Ugo La Pietra’s practice encompasses intermedia installations, speculative design projects, performances, films, and publications. The paper presents La Pietra’s practice from the 1960s–1970s, a time during which he was associated with the Italian Radical Architecture movement along with fellows such as Superstudio, Archizoom, and Gianni Pettena. According to Germano Celant: ”This is an architecture that has no intention of being subservient to the client or becoming his tool; it offers nothing but its ideological and behavioral attitudes.” Celant wrote this essay for the exhibition catalog of Italy: The New Domestic Landscape (1972) at MoMA, New York. La Pietra’s contribution to the exhibition consisted in a living cell-like installation, and photocollages and drawings displaying the functioning of futuristic technologic devices such as the Ciceronelettronico and the Videocomunicatore that prefigured networked communication systems such as the Internet. La Pietra’s theory of ”Unbalancing System,” which the MoMA project tried to offer a glimpse into, is at the core of various other projects from the late 1960s and 1970s, all based on speculations on ways of living, with a recurring focus on the definition of public space and the alienating impact of media technology. Examples range from the interactive devices of the series Immersions (1967–1969)-such as life-size spheres or wearable helmets that isolated the user from the surrounding space-to public interventions and urban structures such as the Commutatore (1970)-a wood platform, tiltable at various angles, that allows the user to observe the cityscape from unusual viewpoints. Still overlooked, La Pietra’s hybrid media production of the 1960s–1970s anticipated issues of domestication, alienation, and social distancing, in reference to media technology, heavily discussed today in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictive measures.
Spampinato, F. (2024). Ugo La Pietra’s Unbalancing System: From Interactivity to Alienation. Venezia : Resource Press.
Ugo La Pietra’s Unbalancing System: From Interactivity to Alienation
Francesco Spampinato
2024
Abstract
Active since the 1960s, Milan-based artist and designer Ugo La Pietra’s practice encompasses intermedia installations, speculative design projects, performances, films, and publications. The paper presents La Pietra’s practice from the 1960s–1970s, a time during which he was associated with the Italian Radical Architecture movement along with fellows such as Superstudio, Archizoom, and Gianni Pettena. According to Germano Celant: ”This is an architecture that has no intention of being subservient to the client or becoming his tool; it offers nothing but its ideological and behavioral attitudes.” Celant wrote this essay for the exhibition catalog of Italy: The New Domestic Landscape (1972) at MoMA, New York. La Pietra’s contribution to the exhibition consisted in a living cell-like installation, and photocollages and drawings displaying the functioning of futuristic technologic devices such as the Ciceronelettronico and the Videocomunicatore that prefigured networked communication systems such as the Internet. La Pietra’s theory of ”Unbalancing System,” which the MoMA project tried to offer a glimpse into, is at the core of various other projects from the late 1960s and 1970s, all based on speculations on ways of living, with a recurring focus on the definition of public space and the alienating impact of media technology. Examples range from the interactive devices of the series Immersions (1967–1969)-such as life-size spheres or wearable helmets that isolated the user from the surrounding space-to public interventions and urban structures such as the Commutatore (1970)-a wood platform, tiltable at various angles, that allows the user to observe the cityscape from unusual viewpoints. Still overlooked, La Pietra’s hybrid media production of the 1960s–1970s anticipated issues of domestication, alienation, and social distancing, in reference to media technology, heavily discussed today in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictive measures.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
