I’ve been meaning to post about one of my favourite Hitchcock films since I began posting on here. You will recall that I began this blog with a post about trains, Alfred Hitchcock and psychoanalysis. You can remind yourself, here
Obviously, The Lady Vanishes (1938) scores. It is by Alfred Hitchcock and is set on a train. So, that is two out of three for starters. You can watch the film, here
http://www.soku.com/detail/show/XOTYyNDA=
NB – the Chinese video streaming websites are terrific for these old films. But their files are not listed on Google!
The LV comes from the end of Hichcock’s “English” period. These black and white films were made in the 1930s and explore some of the psychological themes that Hitchcock had discovered in Berlin during the 1920s. The English films describe these psychological themes within the context of a more structured, not to say repressed, society.
Anyway, the plot and main themes of LV are described, here
The story is a modern (20C) reworking of the classic “vanishing hotel room” trick. The original version is a late 19C story about what happens when the usual reference points of civilised society are turned on their heads. Circumstances, paranoia (anxiety) and feeling combine to uncover the social construction of reality and the dark consensus of social conformity.
The point is that, by placing the action of the film on the train, the story is given an extra dimension of suspense. We know that speed and time are conspiring to bring the story to a climax… it’s literally inevitable. Also, the train (especially the luxury trans-Eurpean express) is a place where social conventions are observed in their most minute detail. The transfer of the original story, from hotel to train, is entirely consistent.
There’s also a lovely gag about the two “little Englanders” travelling through Europe whose main interest is the test match score. The whole world is about to go up in flames and they are worrying about cricket!
This is a post about cutaway drawings. These will be familiar to boys of all ages. They are compelling images for their technical detail and the abundance of information. They show how things work. There’s nothing better for explaining big machines.
Obviously, these kinds of drawings are not so good the solid-state gadgets of modern life.
Here are a couple of information posters that show how power is generated…
You can find out about the masters of this kind of illustration, here
I’ve posted recently about the Droz railway layout that has just been sold in Germany. Not all railway toys are as complex and sophisticated as that. Here is another kind of railway toy, designed by Ladislav Sutnar.
Sutnar is a key figure in the mythology of modernism. This presents modernism as a cultural phenomenon that links Moscow, Berlin, Paris and New York. During the heroic period of Modernism (after 1918 and before 1939), the only way to connect these great cities was by train and ship.
Sutnar made this journey himself; moving between Prague and New York.
In the 1930s Sutnar designed these simple painted wooden toys. These painted wooden toys were a staple of Bauhaus designers. In the 1960s, in London, Galt Toys worked the same theme.
Even nowadays, wooden toys are understood as from a different ontological entity to plastic toys. Not just playing; but learning!
Yesterday, we went to Paris for lunch with the French family. We travelled by Eurostar and took the RER and Paris Metro. So, a lovely day.
I noticed that the French are busy transforming their Metro. The new platforms have security gates all along the platform. That means that the train slows and stops in an exact alignment with the sliding doors of the gates. This means that people will find it much harder to throw themselves under the train.
Also, people position themselves in readyness for the train with much more precision. I’m not saying that the French are queueing; but it is a big improvement.
If you look carefully, the trains don’t have drivers either! The machine is in control and we are behaving better (more consistently).
Inside the trains, there is much more space too. The carriages are open-ended and you can walk right though the whole length of the train.
Completely made by hand: An absolutely unique masterpiece of Swiss precision engineering. and a spectacular work of a lifetime!
For centuries, La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss Neuchâtel Jura has been regarded as an instrument-making center of excellence, producing precision engineering, clocks, toys and musical boxes of the highest quality, some of which are now exhibited in the famous horology museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
The La Chaux-de-Fonds district is also the birthplace of the renowned horologist Pierre Jaquet-Droz, whose three ‘androids’ can be seen in nearby Neuchâtel. It is not by chance, then, that the name of the maker of this unique model railway system now offered for sale, is Josué Droz, a citizen of La Chaux-de-Fonds. Although we do not know the precise family connection between the two Droz engineers, the spirit of the master is evident in this remarkable model railway!
Born in 1895, Josué Droz began work on the construction of his scale model railway station installation modeled on the SBB – Schweizer Bundesbahn (Swiss Federal Railways) – when he was thirty. As a trained cabinet maker, he was familiar with precision modeling and devoted every free minute of his time to his meticulously-planned master work. It was not completed until 1936, eleven years and an unbelievable 18,000 man hours later. His complete railway station system, faithful to the original in even the smallest detail, remains absolutely unique throughout the world, surpassing the finest commercial brands in its precision and quality.
Droz designed and built the system himself, sometimes in consultation with well-known Swiss engineers and specialists. The system is designed to a scale of 1:30 (48 mm gauge), thoroughly thought out and executed with outstanding skill and care, and lacks absolutely nothing when it comes to originality and accuracy of detail. Its overall size is an impressive 6 x 16 meters (96 sq. meters/approx. 1,000 sq feet)!
In November 1936, whilst the effects of the world recession were still being felt, the complete system was exhibited for fourteen days by the municipal Documentation Office for Trade and Engineering, the first and only time that it has been seen by the public, in the old Apollo Cinema Theatre in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Since that time, the complete system has rested in sturdy custom-built upholstered wooden boxes, protected from humidity and cold, in the attic of its creator in No. 17 Rue de la Réformation, La Chaux-de-Fonds, until it was discovered by ATB and made known to the public.
This important model railway represents the golden age ideal of a truly public transportation system which transformed the world during the first part of the 20th century. Words are not enough to describe the precision, accuracy, perseverance and patience, the great talent, which Josué Droz devoted to creating his masterpiece.
TECHNICAL DATA: 3 Complete Train Sets 236 x 630 in. = 1,033 sq feet/16 x 6 m System. ROLLING STOCK: 1) 3 Electric Locomotives, comprising: a) “Type CFF Series 10901” Locomotive, weight: 15 lbs (7 kg.), Length: 20 in. (50 cm), Tractive power: 55 lbs (25 kg). b) “Type P.O. Series 14304” Locomotive, weight: 17.6 lbs (8 kg), Length: 20.5 in. (52 cm), Tractive power: 55 lbs (25 kg). c) “Type Pacific Series 6106” Steam Locomotive, electrified. Weight: 16.5 lbs (7.5 kg), Length: 30 in. (75 cm), Tractive power: 44 lbs (20 kg). – 2) 8 Express Train Carriages, comprising the following: a) Pullman Carriage “Mitropa”, length: 25.6 in. (65 cm), Weight: 8.4 lbs (3.8 kg!). Mahogany interior fittings, 24 lamps, 16 mirrors, 12 glass-topped tables and small electric lamps, 24 upholstered seats, 2 clocks, ceiling lighting, toilets, curtains, luggage racks, linoleum floor and inlaid maple ceiling. b) Saloon Carriage, length: 20.5 in. (52 cm), weight: 7 lbs (3.15 kg). Rosewood interior, 2 four-branch chandeliers, upholstered leather seats and sofas, table, mirrors, toilets and 12 lamps. c) Restaurant Carriage, length: 20.5 in. (52 cm), weight: 6.6 lbs (3 kg). Pink cedarwood interior, leather folding seats, tables, mirrors, kitchen. d) Sleeping Carriage, length: 20.5 in. (52 cm), weight: 6.6 lbs (3 kg), Oak interior with mirrors, toilets, 12 lamps. e) Coach: First and Second class, upholstered folding seats (blue and copper colors), 9 lamps, gangway, mirrors, toilets, etc. f) 2 Coaches: 3rd class, length: 18 in./46 cm, weight: 4.4 lbs/2 kg each. With 8 lamps and folding tables at the windows. g) 1 Luggage Wagon, length: 15.4 in./39 cm, weight: 3.9 lbs/1.75 kg each. With 8 lamps. – All the carriages are faithful scale models of the originals; the windows and doors can be opened and the interior furnishings have been recreated down to the smallest detail and peopled with miniature passengers to give greater realism. The electric lighting is controlled separately, with a dynamo for the individual carriages. – 3) 6 Passenger Carriages, comprising: a) Mail Car, length: 14 in./35.5 cm, weight: 3.6 lbs/1.65 kg. With 8 lamps. b) Baggage Car, length: 12.6 in./32 cm, weight: 3 lbs/1.35 kg. With 8 lamps. c) 4 Coaches: 3rd class, one has 3 moving axles which automatically take bends, fitted with buffers, each with 8 lamps, moveable windows and doors. Weight: 3.3 lbs/1.5 kg each. – 4) 15 Various Freight Wagons. These are mainly open timber wagons of various lengths. Weight: 1.8-4.4 lbs/0.8-2 kg each. All fitted with loads!!! RAILWAY INSTALLATION: 1) Main Railway Station. Of modern construction with pavements and 2 ancillary buildings, all with interior fittings and lighting reproduced down to the finest detail. Dimensions: 56 in./1.43 m long, 27 in./69 cm deep, 19 in./49 cm high. Three illuminated buildings with a total of 40 lamps!! a) Left-hand Building: With luggage hall, stationmaster’s office, materials store, entrance hall, furnished dwelling: 3 rooms and kitchen, bath, WC, mirrors, pictures, hand basin etc. b) Main Building (Center): Large hall with chrome chandelier, flower and newspaper kiosks, hairdresser, ticket office, pedestrian underpass to the platform, automatic vending machines, illuminated electric clock (!), passengers and personnel. c) Right-hand Building: Furnished restaurant, marble-topped tables, counter, 30 chairs, cloakroom, fittings and 3-branch chandelier, passengers and personnel, first and second class waiting rooms, W.C., a furnished dwelling as in the left hand ancillary building. – 2) Freight Depot. Dimensions: 78 in./2 m long (!), 27 in./ 69 cm deep and 10 in./26 cm high. Roofed and closed with open platform, office, W.C., lighting with 8 lamps, space for unloading 4 wagons and 1 revolving crane. 3) 2 Platforms, a) With bench, letterbox, ticket machines, small central area, 8 switches for controlling the lighting and functioning electrical platform clock. b) With 7 lamps, a lighted electrical platform clock, 2 benches, pedestrian underpass to the railway station. Dimensions: 78 in./2 m long (!), 8 in./20.5 cm deep, 7.5 in./19 cm high. – 4) Signal Box. Faithful model of original. With 26 switches and 44 contact plugs. Dimensions: 23 in./60 cm long, 7 in./18 cm deep and 16.7 in./ 42.5 cm high. – 5) Engine Shed. For locomotives and waggons, with 3 entrances, 6 doors and 8 lamps. Dimensions: 44.5 in./1.13 m long (!), 27.6 in./70 cm deep and 19 in./48 cm high. – 6) Distribution Substation. Distributor for 10 different surface and underground cables with switches and isolators. Dimensions: 15 in./ 39 cm long, 3.4 in./8.5 cm deep, 13.8 in./35 cm high. – 7) Lineman’s Cabin. Furnished as a waiting room, lighting with 8 lamps. Dimensions: 18 in./46 cm long, 10.3 in./26 cm deep, 11 in./28 cm high. – 8) Overpass. With 2 stairs. Dimensions: 57 in./1.45 m long (!), 4.3 in./ 11 cm deep, 13.8 in/35 cm high. – 9) Bridge. With strengthened arch. Dimensions: 78.7 in./2 m long (!) 14.4 in./36.5 cm wide, 15.8 in./40 cm high. – 10) Turntable. Diameter: 29.5 in./75 cm. Motor and remote control, micro adjustment by means of worm drive, limit contacts. – 11) Roller Ladder. For installation of electric overhead wires. TRACKS MATERIALS: 1) Approx. 131 ft. (400 m) of Railway Tracks 132 lbs (60 kg) profile iron, secured in accordance with the original, using approx. 25,000 bolts. – 2) 3,300 Wooden Sleepers. – 3) Approx. 1,500 Fishplates, scured to rails by 3,000 track bolts. – 4) 22 Intersections (of which 21 are single points) with electrodynamic lanterns, 21.6 in./55 cm long, and 1 angle intersection. – 5) 8 Signals: disk, 3 pallets (of which 2 are automatic), 2 signal bells with 2 bells, 2 signal bells with 1 bell, all with electrodynamic remote control. FURTHER MATERIALS: 1) Approx. 320 Wheel Brakes on wagons and locomotives. – 2) Approx. 106 Overhead Line Towers with approx. 157,5 in./400 m of cable. – 3) 322 Porcelain Isolators and 250 Compound Isolators. – 4) 2 Cranes, one for double-track use on spoil car and one slewing crane. – 5) Approx. 120 Different Figures. ELECTRICAL OPERATING EQUIPMENT: 1) Specially Constructed Transformer: By “Ecole d’Electrotechnique du Technicum du Locle”. For 110, 125, 150, 220 and 250 V/3 A/per 50. – 2) Signal Box with photoelectric barrier remote control!
That’s quite a good description – excepting the hyperbole…
My question is, has anyone got a plan of the original layout?
I entirely agree that this is a unique example of precision and miniature mechanical engineering. I also think that Droz conceptualised his lay-out as a complex interactive system. I guess it will take whoever buys this model about five years to assemble the layout. Even then, it might not be the original!
This is a post about model railways… I’ve been there before, but what the heck.
The history of model railways is almost as old as the railway itself.
At first, the model railway was a miniature engineered model. This was amazingly exensive. Also, the models tended to be quite big – in general making something smaller is expensive. Towards the beginning of the 20C, various toy makers began to make model railways out of printed and folded tinplate. The big names are Bing Brothers and Marklin.
In Britain, Bassett-Lowke made lovely engineered models during the 1920s and 1930s.
Hornby, is the name most people recognise in relation to model railways. They make OO gauge models. These allowed ordinary people to construct relatively detailed and complex layouts within the context of suburban houses.
The engines shown here are part of a collection of engineered models recently sold at auction. They are hand-built to scale and are powered by live steam.
These are working works of art!
Only a handful of people are qualified to make these kinds of models. It takes several years to make them too. Harry Powell, of Crewe, made the model and it measures over 100 inches long.
The catalogue entry for this model follows…
The finest exhibition quality 7 ¼ inch gauge model of the Sir William Stanier London Midland and Scottish Railway ‘Pacific’ 4-6-2 LMS Locomotive and Tender No 6230 ‘Duchess of Buccleuch’, an accurate replication of the original engine in every detail and was built according to the drawings of Crewe and took ten years and over 18,000 hours to build the model, it was built by the famous model engineer Mr Harry Powell of Crewe and his brother Norman,the paintwork and lettering by Louis Raper, this magnificent model is fitted with a fully brazed and riveted superheated copper boiler with Belpaire firebox and all normal fittings including safety valves, regulator, blower, whistle, brake, injector and blowdown valves, incorporating full external detailing and smoke deflectors, fine scale cab fittings include wheel reverse gear, lever operated sliding firedoors, draincocks and ejector levers, three pressure gauges, twin water sight gauges, mahogany planked floor with steel panel and scale checker-plate, a wealth of classic fittings.
Chassis with twin outside cylinders fitted with Walschearts valve gear and two inside cylinders, scale twin ratchet lubricators, brass lubrication boxes, draincocks, sanding gear, working steam brakes, leaf springs and beautifully finished wheels, fluted motion, exceptional external detailing, smoke deflector plates,these were later fitted to all of the class. Tender details includes 4000 gallon Type II plaque,handbrake, water pick-up control, steam-driven mechanical coal pusher with cylinder guides and lifting eyes. The model finished in LMS maroon with yellow and black lining.
Length 113″ Cab Width 13 ½’
The Stanier ‘Duchess Class’ designated 7P operated throughout Great Britain and were ostensibly Princess Cornation Class Locomotives which were nicknamed “Duchesses” and many of both of the combined classes carried streamlining in the pre-and-immediately post-war period. They hauled the heaviest express trains from Euston through to Scotland including ‘The Royal Scot’ and earlier ‘Coronation’ services. One of the class was sent to the USA for the World Fair of 1939 in its streamlined form. All the class were withdrawn in 1965 and three remain in preservation.
* Sir William Stanier FRS. Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LMS at the company Crewe works.
* Harry Powell worked all his life at Crewe locomotive works, he was a Master Coppersmith and chief of the copper-shop at Crewe.
This locomotive was delivered to Jack Salem in Switzerland by Harry Powell and Louis Raper. On arrival Harry Powell said to Jack Salem “Well you wanted the finest piece that has ever been built and here it is”.
The big red engine, above, made 140000GBP.
Here are some pictures of the other models in the sale…
I read something interesting about the Greek crisis this week. You can read it, here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18032721
Someone has said that it would be cheaper if everyone in Greece used taxis! That’s really a comment about the huge costs, to the Greek taxpayer, of building and running the railway in Greece. Can this really be true?
Actually, and if you make sure that there are always two passengers in the cab, it is a bit cheaper to use cabs in Greece. This is because the Greek government has spent billions on a brand new train set. They borrowed the money for this from German banks and, coincidentally, the new train set was made in Germany – so the money went back to where it came from.
Having built the train set, they want to use it. Otherwise, it would be like the Olympic sites in Athens. So, the trains go around and around with hardly anyone on them. That means they lose money everyday.
There are a number of issues with Greece that help explain this problem. The landscape and geography are complex – too many islands. The population is too small (12 million and falling) and the economy remains largely limited to agriculture and tourism – both seasonal activities. Bringing Greece into the 21C was always going to be expensive – that’s before you factor-in its corrupt political class and the legacies of military dictatorship. In the circumstances, I don’t blame the Greeks for not paying taxes – that would be money down the pan.
The modern high-speed railway needs too many bridges and tunnels. The lines have to be engineered with shallow gradients and curves so as to maintain high speed. The cost of this is enormous. The population of Greece’s major cities are too small, so the traffic volumes don’t make the investment cost-effective…
Still, it makes all the politicians and planners feel they have done something. A bit like the enormous highways that go nowhere in North Korea.
This story highlights the difficulties of economic union. Making everything consistent is complex and, eventually, brutal. The encouraging thing is that ordinary Greeks want to remain in the Euro. What they want are proper institutions that are consistent, transparent and accountable.
It’s a shock for Euro-sceptics, but they will be willing to trade sovereignty for this. The inconclusive elections in Greece are a sign of this.
I was invited to give a lecture to all graphic students at CSM. I showed slides and spoke about the concept of safety in modern society and how this had come about as a consequence of the conjunctions of democracy and industrialisation. We need to be safe, otherwise the system will kill us. We didn’t mean it to; it’s just the way of the machine. The machine is big and implacable. It stops for no-one.
I began with some stills from Jean Luc Godard’s Weekend (1967). This film shows how quickly the system can become deranged when we go off-the-rails. This led neatly to the student riots of May 1968 and the counter culture. I then described why the state of flux, epitomised by the 1960s, is so unsettling for the ruling class.
I tried to explain how the contemporary idea of safety has come about. Here are my notes…
The concept of safety is quite straightforward. At a basic level we understand it as safety from predatory violence. We are animals; and animals are involved in a relentless struggle to eat; and to avoid being eaten. Think of all those BBCTV wildlife documentaries…
It’s a long time since we, in the developed economies of the West, have been there. We, thankfully, have moved beyond this red-in-tooth-and-claw subsistence. That’s not to say that life isn’t a struggle. But nowadays, we struggle against something different – It’s OK, as long as we are safe as we struggle.
In practical terms, the idea of safety is understood in a relatively abstract way. We take it to refer to the provision of a consistent, and therefore safe, physical environment for our engagement with the machine-ensemble of contemporary society. These meanings devolve specifically from the conjunction of democracy and industrial capital.
The 18C Philosophical Enlightenment rejected the arbitrary rule of autocracy in favour of a system and structure of reason. The age of reason was predicated on the application of scientific methodology. This was a process of empirical observation, measurement and classification, derived from the scientific revolution, and subsequently applied to issues of political economy and society. This, in turn, led to the founding of institutions based on a balance of rights and responsibilities. Enlightenment values came to be expressed through institutions whose processes were universally applicable, and transparent, and accountable.
Of course, this wasn’t as easy as it sounds; reason always ends in despotism. It was very frustrating for the well-intentioned Enlightenment philosophers to discover that people would not do as they were told. The imposition of reason; through conditioning and training has to be achieved through an increasingly brutal process of social formation. This conditioning effectively standardised the social body, so that its parts engaged evermore consistently with the political and economic and industrial institutions of the machine-ensemble.
Implicit in this notion of consistency has been the idea of a good, or model, citizen. As the machine-ensemble developed and quickened pace, the worker citizen was obliged to keep-up. Throughout the 19C, the complexity of the machine system grew through developments in automation and integration. It’s not surprising that, in these circumstances, the machine seemed to develop something that looked like intelligence!
The 18C Philosophical Enlightenment rejected the arbitrary rule of autocracy in favour of a system and structure of reason. The age of reason was predicated on the application of scientific methodology. This was a process of empirical observation, measurement and classification, derived from the scientific revolution, and subsequently applied to issues of political economy and society. This, in turn, led to the founding of institutions based on a balance of rights and responsibilities. Enlightenment values came to be expressed through institutions whose processes were universally applicable, and transparent, and accountable.
Of course, this wasn’t as easy as it sounds; reason always ends in despotism. It was very frustrating for the well-intentioned Enlightenment philosophers to discover that people would not do as they were told. The imposition of reason; through conditioning and training has to be achieved through an increasingly brutal process of social formation. This conditioning effectively standardised the social body, so that its parts engaged evermore consistently with the political and economic and industrial institutions of the machine-ensemble.
Implicit in this notion of consistency has been the idea of a good, or model, citizen. As the machine-ensemble developed and quickened pace, the worker citizen was obliged to keep-up. Throughout the 19C, the complexity of the machine system grew through developments in automation and integration. It’s not surprising that, in these circumstances, the machine seemed to develop something that looked like intelligence!
Eventually, all of these various systems and structures became progressively more-and-more-integrated. The result is that, nowadays and at an individual level, we understand environments, experience and performance, as a single undifferentiated matrix. Weirdly, in the fast-moving urban environments of the world’s great cities, this seems to make us more intelligent. That called the Flynn Effect.
There are various books that describe the historical development of this ensemble. Nearly all the books are quite specialised. My work has been about trying to join these parts together…
These are the books that I mentioned in my lecture
Darley G(2003)Factory London, Reaktion
This book describes the historical development of industrial architecture. The structural form is explicitly connected to the command-and-control mechanism suggested by Jeremy Bentham’s Panoptic (1791). This form and function of this organisation is applied specifically to prisons, factories and schools.
The evolution of the bureaucratic structures and institutions of control – the prison and the clinic – have been described by Michel Foucault. The administrative implacability of these systems has been satirised by Franz Kafka and George Orwell, amongst others.
In factory organisation, the Portsmouth Block Mill (1795) provided the first systematic integration of environment, activity and resources. Charles Babbage described the efficient deployment of resources in terms of mathematical logic in the 1820s. (Simon Schaffer has written about Babbage and the logical basis of economic and technical standardisation). You can read his paper, here
These ideas were rolled out across the whole nation, as a consequence of the Great Reform Act (1833). The 1840s provided for a period of political, economic, technical and moral standardisations.
Joyce P(2003)The Rule of Freedom London, Verso
Describes the emergence of a new sociology of civil society in relation to these standardisations. He describes this in terms of Manchester in the mid 19C.
David Harvey’s new book Rebel Cities describes how the design of cities is a specific expression of the system. You can read his book, here
Actually, I make a similar point about visual culture and the modern city in my Modern British Posters. The poster is, by virtue of its display environments something that is associated with wide streets and vistas. These provide for a form of urban panoptic.
The modern poster would not have existed without the specific environments of outdoor display advertising. Without opportunity, the technological possibility of the poster would have remained theoretical.
It is widely acknowledged that city planning, and Haussmann’s schemes in particular, formed part of a plan to rationalise, or control, the increasingly chaotic politics of post 1848 France. The wide boulevards of Haussmann’s redevelopment were conceptualised to replace the warren of narrow streets that were a reminder of medieval Paris.
The narrow streets were understood, by the bureaucratic powers of the administration, as an uncontrollable environment. The medieval street scene was interpreted, in these circumstances, as insecure and unsafe. In times of political hiatus, the narrow streets could easily be commandeered through the spontaneous erection of barricades. The forces of law and order were excluded from the chaotic environments of narrow streets and their tenements. This was clearly unacceptable. So, one of Haussmann’s objectives was to make the city, as the expression of the system, unstoppable!
The rational ordering of society, implicit in Enlightenment republicanism, required a new kind of civic environment that spoke of liberal democracy. The balancing of rights and responsibilities around issues of individual freedom and social control became the distinguishing characteristics of the new civic environments. (See Benjamin and Joyce).
Interestingly, the new visual technology of photography was appropriated by the administration, at precisely this time, so as to provide evidential support for the new regimen of social order. So, the poster and the photograph may be understood as visual expressions of two, opposing, systems of representation in modern society – the regulatory regime and metropolitan spectacular (footnote).
In contrast to the technical precision of photographic processes and imagery, the lithographic poster offered an exciting and explosive visual expression of the Babylonian metropolis.
The city can never be stopped or be allowed to stop. The modern city is, by definition, the city that never sleeps. It is this implacable relentlessness, expressed as idea, machine or environment, from which we need to be safe!
Pick D(1993)War Machine London, YUP
Daniel Pick describes the emergent brutality of 19C industrialisation in terms of the abattoir and WW1 (1914-1918). Zygmunt Baumann has described the Holocaust as the inevitable end-point of this kind of modernity.
Notice where the railway leads…
The principle expression of the machine-ensemble is the development of the railway system. This is something that we can all relate to and is why I write this blog. Beaumont & Freeman describe this in relation to ideas of psychoanalysis and cultural geography. The railway is understood to imply the annihilation of time and space…
The machine can’t be stopped. Everything facilitates its progress.
Beaumont M & Freeman M (2011)
Railway and Modernity Bern CH, Peter Lang
Paul Verilio describes how the acceleration of modern life has significant implications for our political institutions, the social body and democracy
Virilio P(1977)Speed and Politics NYC, Semiotext(e)
The general acceleration of modern life is experienced as a speeding up of the machine-ensemble. The survival of the fittest requires, in these circumstances, a heightened level of visual acuity. The impact of visual technologies and control mechanisms on our cognitive development and our sense of personal identity is described, here
Crary J(2001)Suspensions of Perception Cambridge MA, MITP
Virilio P(1984)War and Cinema London, Verso
Of course, the machine-ensemble being described here is based on Newtonian mechanics – it’s made up of cogs, wheels, levers and pulleys (just like the Portsmouth Block Mill). Nowadays, the command-and-control systems of the global economy are integrated into the data-flows of digital networks. The Internet is a machine and the iphone is the panoptic…
Lyon D(2007)Theorizing Surveillance Devon, Willan
During the 1940s and 1950s, the computer pioneers Alan Turing and John von Neumann conceptualised the possibility of self-replicating machine intelligence. The subsequent lessons of cognitive psychology suggest that, actually, we are those self-replicating machines!
No wonder we need to feel safe. We need it to survive.
I’ve posted about these themes on my various blog sites. These are
Pamphleteer
http://areopagitica.blog.co.uk/
superseded by
the New Pamphleteer
http://paulrennie.rennart.co.uk/
Just search the posts for “standardisation” or “machine.”
The back-catalogue on the old site is more extensive.
This new blog explores all the stuff I’m interested in – systems, architecture, technology, design and communication (and restaurants) through the prism of trains…
Obviously, all this provides a distant historical context to what is happening now. I firmly believe that we are stuck in the long shadow of the 18C. If you want a more up-to-date perspective, check out the films of Adam Curtis
http://thoughtmaybe.com/browse/video/adam-curtis
especially, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
The Enlightenment conceptualised the application of reason, and contrasted this with emotion and feeling. This is understood as a conflict between reason and romance. Either way, we are stuffed.
Reason always ends in the despotic imposition of systems and structures. Conversely, the world of feelings is inconsistent and chaotic…
This is a post about graphic communication. The poster image, Transport, above, is by Gustav Klutsis (1895-1938) and dates from 1929. There are a number of things to say about it…
You can tell from the red star that the poster is associated with the revolutionary politics of the Soviet Union.
The Russian revolution (1918) was one of the big political consequences of WW1. The Russian autocracy failed miserably in its prosecution of the war. The Russian army was left starving and ill-equiped. The misery provided the perfect conditions for a revolutionary coup, led by Lenin and Trotsky. The immediate objectives of the revolution were to modernise the Russian economy and to provide a more egalitarian society for their people.
Remember, the Russian autocracy had maintained a feudal system until the beginning of the 20C. Military force and religious superstition combined to oppress the great majority.
The new politics attempted to fast-track Russia into the 20C. This involved a number of dramatic policies that extended the railway network, industrialised the Russian interior, collectivised the agricultural production and so on. It was heroic stuff; but mostly misguided.
The accelerated process of modernisation, required to shore up the new regime against counter-revolution, undermined quality-control and administration. You can read all about this in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1929-1930). The result was a descent into the chaos and recrimination of show-trials, purges, enforced poverty and mass-displacements. That’s not was intended. David Lean’s great film, Doctor Zhivago (1965) is a romance played out against the vast Russian landscape and the backdrop of this political upheaval.
Anyway, back to the poster… Klutsis is providing an information graphic that illustrates the great progress in transport infrastructure under the new leadership.
The Rusian artistic avant-garde understood that the new politics would require a new visual language. The signs and symbols of the past were obviously freighted with meanings associated with traditional forms of command-and-control.
Accordingly, the artists of the Suprematist movement conceptualised a new visual language around the idea of pure geometric forms – the square, the triangle, the circle etc. The most famous image associated with this is the famous Black Square (1915) by Malevitch.
The pioneer graphic designer, El Lissitzky, applied this new language to the modernist discourse of revolution. Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919) shows the Red Army as a dynamic triangle attacking the defensive position of counter-revolutionary forces.
Lissitzky, Malevitch and Klutisis each understood that the triangle is always a dynamic shape. It adds focus and precision to the implied percussive force of momentum. The obvious visual association with arrows and daggers further re-inforce this idea. These qualities are intrinsic to the form.
Malevitch defined the basic elements of the new graphic language. Lissitzky experimented with position, orientation and scale to make meaning. Klutsis applied this theory to practical issues of communication. Lissitzky and Klutsis are Constructivists.
In the Klutsis poster, the Red Wedge is re-cast as a quantitative symbol. The triangle implies a soaring, upward-only, trajectory of industrial production and modernisation. The poster is visual communication, propaganda and information graphic combined. The camel and the out-of-date steam train probably undermine this vision slightly.
The graphic avant-garde in Soviet Russia were amongst the first to make widespread use of photographic elements in mass-produced visual communication. Printing these images in large numbers and in large poster formats required a particular form of assembly, or montage. You can see that the Klutsis poster is made up of parts; some photographic and some typographic. The trick is that the the whole thing appears coherent and meaningful, even from a distance.
Of course, it wasn’t quite as straightforward as this. The technological base of the Russian print industry was 19C and it wasn’t possible to print from high quality half-tones. So, they used lithographic draughtsmen to draw photographically. Mechanical reproduction, as promoted by modernist design philosophers, took a long time to arrive.
Not surprisingly, the political benefits of mass production and mechanical reproduction were contested by the vested, and reactionary, interests of print and media control.
Even worse, the Soviet leadership after Lenin became increasingly paranoid. Klutsis was arrested and executed in 193
