Cultural history of industrial society

The study of the Demidoff / Demidov industrial enterprises during the latter half of the XIX Century has been hampered by the reliance on exclusively Russian sources, even though the owners spent most of their time during this period in Finland, France and Italy, and the correspondence with the company was conducted mostly in French.
The present article endeavors to right this distorted perspective to such a degree as is possible at this time through a presentation of the owners of the company during this period, using not only Russian sources, but also archival material kept in archives in Italy, France and Finland. The narrative naturally centers around the matriarch of the family: Aurora Karamzin, formerly Demidoff, born Stjernvall.

Si pone in rilievo il ruolo di una rivista di disegno industriale, oggi design, nella storia dell'italiano contemporaneo. Fondata dall'architetto Alberto Rosselli nel 1954, la pubblicazione trimestrale e poi bimestrale, «Stile industria», accompagnerà per nove anni la crescita della società italiana del "boom" economico, dando una forma testuale e linguistica al dibattito intorno all’estetica della produzione in serie, e toccando nel contempo un insieme di fenomeni e processi riguardanti diversi strati della popolazione coinvolti nella produzione e nel consumo dei beni. La nuova realtà produttiva, che ha profondamente modificato la vita della società italiana condizionando a partire dagli anni Cinquanta gli usi e i costumi della quotidianità, ha trovato nella disciplina del design una delle manifestazioni più evidenti. Alla sua fisionomia di materia e tecnica e artistica corrispondeva appieno l’impostazione del periodico guidato da Rosselli. E così, nella scrittura "del" e "sul" design, le parole antiche, "forma" e "formale", "funzione", acquistano una nuova accezione circoscritta al lavoro del designer. All’epoca poco frequenti nella lingua d’uso, i termini che le affiancano, "funzionale" e "funzionalità", dal linguaggio tecnologico passeranno rapidamente in quello del commercio e della pubblicità, per fissarsi stabilmente nel lessico di settori diversi. A questi si aggiungono "efficienza" ed "estetica", l’antico "creativo" con il valore del tutto nuovo di ‘dotato di fantasia e inventiva’ e la neoformazione "creatività".

This is a Thesis on Industrial Archaeology, the first of its kind to be developed in the University of Cordoba. Its main aim is to analyze the role played by copper mining and metallurgy in the peculiar industrialization process of Cordoba, focusing on the particular case of Cerro Muriano, an area of the cordobesian mountain range located 16 km North from the city and divided into the municipal boundaries of Cordoba and Obejo (Spain). From strict meaning, the chronological range of this research goes from 1897 to 1919, when Cerro Muriano was worked by four different British companies: Cordova Exploration Company, Ltd.; Cerro Muriano Mines, Ltd.; North Cerro Muriano Copper Mines, Ltd.; and Cordoba Copper Company, Ltd. However, the study of the context (from a local to an international scale) and the connection between the case analyzed and its environment attends to a wider period: around 1850-1950, i.e. the time of Cordoba industrialization.
Mining and metallurgy brought far-reaching changes to the territory of Cerro Muriano. This Thesis answers a number of questions by applying archaeological methods to the remains of these industrial activities, combined with the study of any other sources of information. For example, how was the English exploitation of that place, how and why did it start, which one was its model, which was the situation of the Cerro Muriano mine in relation to others, how mining and metallurgy changed the landscape there, which cultural context and industrial society were generated by these activities and how the whole thing influenced on the industrialization of Cordoba.

American Associatio of Italian Studies – Conference 2018
14-17 June 2018 – Sant’Anna Institute, Sorento (I)

panel: ITALIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE(S) ACROSS MEDIA
This session invites contributions on any aspect of industrial culture in modern Italy. The relationship between industry and culture has been heavily theorized, from early cinema to futurism to the economic boom and beyond. On the one hand, industry has been accused of corrupting culture, while on the other hand it has been celebrated as a new material basis for cultural production. Industrial culture remains embedded in contemporary society, while its expulsion, through delocalization and abandonment, amplifies the tensions at the heart of new ideologies like “Make America Great Again”. This session intends to explore Italian industrial culture(s) across media, including fine arts, music, theater, literature, cinema and design.

“DE DRIE GEKROONDE HAMERS” Geschiedenis van een Zaanse smederij 1676-2022 (“THE THREE CROWNED HAMMERS” History of a Zaandam forge 1676-2022)
New book (in Dutch) by Margreet van der Hut, published by Publishing House Uitgeverij Casae, Zaandijk
ISBN 978-90-831031-4-3 (hardcover) | 120 pages
Price: EUR 29.95

In 2022, the “Drie Gekroonde Hamers” smithy will leave the Hogendijk street in Zaandam for a new location. This metalworking company is the last of the countless ship forges that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had sprung up along the Zaan, where once dozens of shipyards were located.
The building’s orginal transom or “deurkalf” in the alley next to the blacksmith's workshop attests to the fact that the building was built here in 1676. This book contains the answer to the question who the owners of this forge were from 1676 onward and offers an impression of the nineteenth-century Hogendijk as a tourist attraction, boosted by the Czar Peter House (“Czaar Peterhuisje”) on the path ’t Krimp behind it.
The history of Zaandam and the surrounding Zaan River region (Zaanstreek) is intimately tied to industry. In the Dutch Golden Age, Zaandam served as a large milling and shipbuilding centre, and it was also historically linked with the whaling industry.
Zaandam became a leading city during the first Industrial Revolution but then a steady decline began. Changing circumstances forced many artisans to earn their living in other ways, and a tourism industry began to flourish. Against this background, a chronicle of the life and work of four generations of the Kaaijk blacksmith family in the period 1890-2018 is presented and a historical overview of the blacksmithing and forging work of the past 345 years is presented.

Karel van Mander Academy – KVMA Series for Visual Heritage in the Netherlands, 6
Order a copy through: [email protected] (mentioning “DE DRIE GEKROONDE HAMERS”) / tinyurl.com/TTT1676 / tinyurl.com/Hogendijk

In 2022 verlaat smederij de “Drie Gekroonde Hamers” de Hogendijk in Zaandam, als laatste van de talloze scheepssmederijen die in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw waren gevestigd langs de Zaan waar tientallen scheepswerven lagen. Het deurkalf boven de steeg naar de smederij getuigt ervan dat het pand hier in 1676 werd gebouwd. Dit boek bevat het antwoord op de vraag wie vanaf 1676 de eigenaren van deze smederij waren en biedt een impressie van de negentiendeeeuwse Hogendijk als toeristische trekpleister, aangejaagd  door het “Czaar Peterhuisje” op het erachter gelegen pad ’t Krimp. Tegen deze achtergrond wordt een kroniek gepresenteerd van het leven en werken van vier generaties van de smedenfamilie Kaaijk in de periode 1890-2018 en een historisch overzicht geboden van het smids- en smeedwerk van de afgelopen 345 jaar.
Author: Margreet van der Hut
“De Drie Gekroonde Hamers”
Geschiedenis van een Zaanse smederij 1676-2022
Uitgeverij CASAE
Karel van Mander Academy – KVMA Reeks voor Visueel Erfgoed in Nederland, 6
Deze publicatie is mede mogelijk gemaakt door financiële steun van het Reint Laan Fonds.
120 pagina’s ISBN 978-90-831031-4-3 (hardcover) EUR 29,95
Verzendkosten (NL): EUR 4,10

TE BESTELLEN VIA: [email protected] / tinyurl.com/TTT1676 / tinyurl.com/Hogendijk

En la historia de la fotografía y el arte en México, diversos autores han señalado que el concurso artístico abierto por Cementos Tolteca en 1931 fue un parte aguas que marcó el inicio de una visualidad vanguardista. Sin duda, para el ámbito de la fotografía en México las imágenes ganadoras fueron inusitadas, sin embargo, en su análisis no se ha formulado la pregunta sobre cuál fue el criterio del jurado para elegir estas obras, ni considerado que la  convocatoria fue emitida por el gremio industrial, no artístico. Por lo tanto, no se ha estudiado cómo se integran a su propio contexto, es decir, la industrialización y producción del cemento en México, durante la primera mitad del siglo XX, como material de construcción para la arquitectura de masas, y sus vínculos con la ingeniería, la globalización arquitectónica y por ende, las publicaciones, la publicidad y la fotografía. Este texto propone un análisis del concurso Tolteca, atendiendo a las bases de la convocatoria, el criterio del jurado y las repercusiones del certamen en  el arte y la publicidad, interpretadas a la luz de los parámetros de difusión del cemento establecidos en el ámbito internacional, mismos que constituyeron un fenómeno mediático de carácter mundial durante las primeras décadas del siglo XX.

Brede Works  is an interactive museum, treating the public as users, not just visitors. Its aim is to give the users an understanding of how industrialization have radically changed the way we live, work, think and interact with each other during the last 150 years.
Brede Works is situated in a former textile mill. It opened in 2009, as part of the National Museum. I was part of the group of curators and other colleagues, who planned the exhibitions.
Read my paper "Bringing the people back in", to get an idea about our intentions and the result.