ABSTRACT
This essay revisits a chapter in the history of the design and production of early computers in Italy. It looks at the creation of the Olivetti Elea 9003 and the company’s manufacturing of numerically-controlled machine tools in order to examine their effect on transforming traditional modes of production. These machines, along with their theorization by writers and artists, brought about a new strategy of design – parametric thinking – to Olivetti designers. With these changes, members of the Workerist movement began to theorize the changing role of the factory worker, and discovered that the design and engineering of Olivetti computers and numerically-controlled (NC) machines generated a new type of worker called “the technician.” This essay illustrates the connection between the Olivetti designers and engineers who created these machines and the design of the new type of labor these new machines conjured. All of these events and characters converged around one of the major industries in Italy at the time: the Olivetti Company.
