Animating Matter: Italian Puppetry as a Technology of Wonder

Sponsored by the IHC Global Media and Childhood Studies working group and the Departments of Comparative Literature, French and Italian, and Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara, Federico Pacchioni delivered a talk titled "Animating Matter: Italian Puppetry as a Technology of Wonder," presented on May 28, 2026. The event explored Italian puppetry as a set of material practices through which inanimate matter is brought to life, tracing its profound impact on the imagination across the arts. Pacchioni introduced the major traditions of Italian puppetry—burattini, Pulcinella, opera dei pupi, and marionettes—examining their material character and their migration into literature and cinema. At the center of the talk stood Pinocchio as a conceptual hinge: a figure born from Italian puppetry culture that achieved transnational circulation across media, illuminating how crafted animation operates not as mere illusion but as a enduring technology of wonder with far-reaching cultural resonance.