Sigfried GiedionMechanization takes command, a contribution to anonymous history

This book is fascinating in several aspects.
By its subject, first of all, which intends to make the history of mechanization and its effects on industrial production processes but also, more broadly, on psyche and habits, space and design.
Secondly, from his documentary sources. Sigfried Giedion explores a literature consisting of patents, old supplier catalogues, popular magazines and other business archives. It provides abundant visual material, extremely well highlighted in the book.
Finally, thanks to its reception, which since 1948 has left no one indifferent. Giedion focuses on describing the progressive evolution of objects that may seem trivial at first sight (the sink, the train car, the production line, the articulated chair, the washing machine…) inscribed them in a historical narrative tinged with an assertive modernist vision. While the truly fantastic collection of objects and anecdotes brought enthusiasm, the vision of history proposed by Giedion was also criticized.
The work remains a particularly enlightening sum on the history of objects that we still sometimes find in our built environment … and at many resellers of reusable materials !

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