xv, 213 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
Bibliographic Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 204-209) and index
Contents:
Introduction: Soviet things that talk -- The aesthetic turn after Stalin -- Technical aesthetics against the disorder of things -- Objects of neodecorativism -- From objects to design programmes -- A new production culture and non-commodities
Summary:
The Russian avant-garde of the 1920s is broadly recognised to have been Russia's first truly original contribution to world culture. In contrast, Soviet design of the post-war period is often dismissed as hack-work and plagiarism that resulted in a shabby world of commodities. This book offers a new perspective on the history of Soviet design by focusing on the notion of the comradely object as an agent of progressive social relations that state-sponsored Soviet design inherited from the avant-garde. It introduces a shared history of domestic objects, hand-made as well as machine made, mass-produced as well as unique, utilitarian as well as challenging the conventional notion of utility. This is a study of post-avant-garde Russian productivism at the intersection of intellectual history, social history and material culture studies, an account attentive to the complexities and contradictions of Soviet design