82 For Lipovetsky, the solution lies in the strengthening of humanistic and artistic teaching, so that the artistic sensitivity of consumers can be refined and can turn them, from tourists of beauty, to real users of it. For an ethical and aesthetical pleasure, and not just a cosmetical one. To viscerally love beauty, like King Midas. To exploit intelligence and fly, like Daedalus. There was a man who, in the heyday of Artistic Capitalism, knew how to be both: King Midas, turning into gold what he touched without being touched by greed, and Daedalus, managing to make his vision fly beyond times and places to become an example on a world scale, without sinning of hubris. A man who has been able to make ethical the aesthetics, improving the quality of life of an entire community availing of beauty. He bore the name of a Roman emperor that history remembers as cultured and righteous. His name was Adriano Olivetti. memoirs of adriano «I met him in Rome on the street, one day, during the German occupation. He was on foot; he went alone, with his stray step; his eyes lost in his perennial dreams, which veiled them with blue mists. He was dressed like everyone else, but he appeared to be a beggar in the crowd; and, at the same time, he also appeared to be a king. A king in exile, he appeared to be» Natalia Ginzburg, Family Sayings, 1963 «According to Adriano, design was not just a powder to put on the product to sell it more, but rather a metaphor for the continuous responsibility towards environment, towards people, towards the destiny of the object in society» Ettore Sottsass - in Lezioni di design: La cultura della forma entra nell’industria. Il caso Olivetti, curated by Ugo Gregoretti, Rai Cultura, 2002 «It's an invention, it is full of unedited and poetic values» Gio Colombo, review of the Olivetti Store in New York - in Domus, September 1954 «I remember that the old Adriano Olivetti, when he was already working on the first big computers, those that occupied a large room and worked with valves and punch cards, certainly hired good engineers, but he had no hesitation in hiring also a graduate who had made an excellent thesis on Homeric dialects» Umberto Eco, Elogio del classico, L’Espresso, 10/10/2013 «I decided to do my degree thesis on Sociology of Work, and I asked my Perugian Professor to deepen the assembly line. I was allowed and, since I had the opportunity to live in Naples with my parents, I chose to do it in Pozzuoli. I was lucky, because I wrote to Adriano Olivetti explaining my thesis and immediately received a reply from his secretariat. I joined the company for fifteen thousand lire a month, for three months, which was a lot of money for that period, making me the richest of my friends. One day a collaborator told me: "The president would like to meet you". Adriano Olivetti asked me about my zodiac sign, and then asked me about my degree. “As soon as you graduate – he said – send me a postcard and I'll hire you”. And so, my interview with Adriano Olivetti ended. I graduated, sent him the postcard, and I was hired within a week. I worked briefly at Olivetti, because soon I won an academic scholarship for my doctorate in Paris, but that period marked an epochal turning point for me. It started with a question about the zodiac sign» Domenico De Masi, excerpt from the speech Un futuro mai visto. Adriano Olivetti, un’altra impresa, Naples, 08/09/2016 «Truth is that these are creations that come from a company called Olivetti, from a man called Adriano Olivetti. For this reason, I respectfully bow to his leadership» Thomas Watson jr., president of IBM, during the prize-giving ceremony of the Kaufmann Award, 1965 - in Antonio Larizza, Da Olivetti a Steve Jobs. L’Apple Store? Nato nel ’54 dal genio di Adriano, Il Sole 24 Ore, 07/10/2018
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