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This article has been published in: Ocula 22, Be cool. How a Cultural Icon is Born

authors: Anna Riboldi (Politecnico di Milano (IT)) and Salvatore Zingale (Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano (IT))

Persistent Objects. The a Posteriori Likeness in Design Icons

language: italian

abstract: Design has made everyday artifacts less and less anonymous, first recognizing their authorship and then providing them with a title and a name. Some of these artifacts have started to live a “cultural life” of their own, so much so that they are considered far beyond their use performance and regardless of material and technological qualities. They have become icons of their time, similar to the icons of popular culture, to the stars and other celebrities of the cultural industry. Or are they perhaps still similar to the sacred icons of Byzantine art?
This paper first questions why these “everyday objects” are recognized as iconic, and whether there are reasons to consider them “icons” even starting from the semiotic notion introduced by Charles Peirce. Secondly, some industrial products and communicative artifacts of the twentieth century are reviewed, either chosen because they are already recognized as icons, or because they help us better understand this destiny of celebrity that binds them to the values of the era that they have the good fortune to represent.

citation information: Anna Riboldi and Salvatore Zingale, Oggetti persistenti. La somiglianza a posteriori nelle icone del design, "Ocula", vol.21, n.22, pp.313-340, April 2020. DOI: 10.12977/ocula2020-21

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