Modernity Today (original) (raw)
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Modernism and Technology Nicholas Daly, University College Dublin Modernism first emerges during the transformations of time and space wrought by the age of steam, and it comes to dominance against the background of the 'second industrial revolution'. This revolution, which was really more of an intensification of earlier processes, was driven by, inter alia, the exploitation of electricity and the internal combustion engine, use of early plastics (celluloid, and later bakelite), the oneiric power of the cinematograph, the sound-reproduction technology of the phonograph, and the communications technologies of the telephone and later the radio. In theoretical terms one could argue that there is no space, no "and" between modernism and these technological shifts: they are bound together in a common culture. But for practical purposes we can describe a set of relations between the two: Modernism incorporates technological change as historical content; it appropriates new representational means for its own artistic practices; and at times it self--consciously draws on the machine world for aesthetic models. The flurry of innovation in mechanical reproduction brought the materiality of older media into sharp focus. 1 For some, of course, the era of mechanical reproduction appeared to undermine lingering conceptions of the artist as Romantic creator, or as bohemian rebel. Further, Modernism enters its mature phase during the industrialized slaughter of the First World War, and it is imbued with an awareness of the lethal potential of modern technology, and of the fragility of the human body. Keeping such factors in mind, in this chapter I will consider, among other things, the new cultural forms that were directly made possible by technology; the way in which human/machine relations are imagined in these years; and the development of "machine" aesthetics.
Modernity theory and technology studies: Reflections on bridging the gap
Theories of modernity and technology studies have both made great strides in recent years, but remain quite disconnected despite the obvious overlap in their concerns. How can one expect to understand modernity without an adequate account of the technological developments that make it possible, and how can one study specific technologies without a theory of the larger society in which they develop? These questions have not even been posed, much less answered persuasively, by most leading contributors to the fields. The basic issue I would like to address is the why and wherefore of this peculiar mutual ignorance.
Pitfalls in the design of Modernity and how to correct them
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The Compelling Tangle of Modernity and Technology
Modernity and Technology, 2002
I'm checking in, heading home, answering questions. "Please step this way, I have a few things to ask you.. .. Did you pack your own bags this morning? Has a stranger given you anything to carry? Where were you staying in the Netherlands? I do need to see your passport." I decide to give straight answers, even if the smiling young womanofficially, I suppose, with the full power of the Dutch nation-state behind hersoon enough goes way beyond the script of ensuring safe travel. "How many days did you stay? What were you doing here?" Stay calm, I think. This is no concrete-and-barbed-wire interrogation, even if she still has my passport. I'm on friendly and familiar terrain. Schiphol is an unmistakably human-made space, beautiful in its way. Bright painted steel-framed ceilings high overhead, a wall of windows spotless as only the Dutch can make them, the quiet hum of air conditioning, the periodic clunk of baggage conveyors, the pleasant babble of a thousand people on their journeys. Five minutes ago I arrived on a sleek electric train, whose bulb-nosed profile still calls to mind the classic shape of a Boeing 747. So Claire's next question-I've sneaked a peak at her name tag-takes me off-guard. "This workshop you were at, I don't understand, what exactly do you mean by 'modern' and 'technology'?" Well, I say, look around you. Is there anything more assertively modern and more thoroughly technological than an airport? Airports-we might equally think of harbors, subways, skyscrapers, automobiles, telephones, or the Internet-are deeply implicated in the social and cultural formations deemed "modern" by the founding fathers of social theory. Can you imagine an anthropologist of any "traditional" society doing his or her fieldwork on some exotic ritual in which 300 strangers willingly line up to be crowded into a narrow cylinder-shaped space, placed in seats so close their shoulders touch, and strapped down for hours on end? And they pay for this privilege! Yet the airport ritual is a common experience of contemporary life, and more to the point, it embodies and enacts certain key features of