Olivetti: A Work of Art in the Age of Immaterial Labour

Contemporary discourse on the changing modes of production by Autonomist Marxist theorists such as Paolo Virno, Franco Berardi, Antonio Negri, Michael Hardt and Maurizio Lazzarato provides insights into the ongoing shift from an economy based on the material labour of producing physical goods, to one served increasingly by immaterial labour. In light of these texts, this paper revisits a point of origin of Autonomist political thought at the Olivetti factory in Italy during the 1960s, where the problems of a programmed, cybernetic human/machine assembly line were first observed. It endeavours to examine both the objects that were created as a result of immaterial labour practices as well as the machines which may have actually played a key role in forming contemporary modes of immaterial labour. This is accomplished by examining case studies that demonstrate the various iterations of an idea essential to the concept of immaterial labour-the practice of programming. Featuring a unique constellation of Olivetti products from the 1960s, the purpose of this text is to add historical relevance and theoretical rigour to these seemingly disparate series of objects, and to present a potential genealogy of immaterial labour brought about by the design and making of Olivetti machines.