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This article has been published in: Ocula 24, Quando è design / When is design / Quand c'est du design

author: Imma Forino (Politecnico di Milano (IT))

The government of the desk: Design as “dispositif”

language: italian

abstract: The desk has been a controversial symbol of the office work, a piece of furniture to manage the confusion of papers and to settle all the employees. Over the centuries its design was often instrumental in identifying the personal habitat and the time of work. In the Ford era, the desk is the first element to order the office environment – a strategic “dispositif” for regulating employees and the work flow –, while today its design satisfies the new desires of the organization of work: transparent and thin, the office desk becomes dematerialized into the logic of the “dynamic working” by contemporary Science Management, which involves its use in sharing, in rotation or its elimination.

citation information: Imma Forino, Il governo della scrivania. Design come “dispositif”, "Ocula", vol.21, n.24, pp.73-95, October 2020. DOI: 10.12977/ocula2020-42

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