Technical Aesthetics (Техническая эстетика in Russian) was a Soviet monthly magazine published between January 1964 and July 1992 dedicated to questions of design with peak distribution of 30,000 copies.[1] It was edited by the VNIITE, the All-Union Technical Aesthetics Research Institute.[2] Some of the topics it covered were the history, theory and practice of design in Russia and abroad, ergonomics, art and design education, and reviews of design exhibitions and books.[3] The magazine regularly exposed Western design trends and innovations, which were often compared with their Soviet counterparts. It also rehabilitated the memory of movements such as Russian constructivism, which had been condemned by Stalin in favour of Socialist realism, even if they set the foundations of Russian design in the early 1920s.[4]
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According to art historian Alexandra Chiriac, the term technical aesthetics was invented in Russia in the 1960s to speak about the field of design, which wasn't really developed in the country at the time, and which was promoted through the VNIITE research institute and the Technical Aesthetics magazine.[5]
References edit
- ^ Idov, Michael. "Pastime paradise - The story of the Cold War told through the birth of Soviet consumerism". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "RED WEALTH. SOVJET DESIGN 1950-1980". Moscow Design Museum. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
VNIITE worked on industrial, environmental and graphic design projects. It carried out research projects, organized exhibitions and published the Technical Aesthetics magazine that highlighted questions of design theory and practice in the USSR and abroad.
- ^ "МУЗЕЙ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОГО ДИЗАЙНА РОССИИ". ida.org (in Russian). АССОЦИАЦИЯ ПРОМЫШЛЕННЫХ ДИЗАЙНЕРОВ. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ Sudakova, Elena (2014). Work and Play behind the Iron Curtain (PDF).
- ^ Wainwright, Oliver. "How Russia fought the cold war with space-age washing machines". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2017.