Commentary Ticker
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May 24, 2013 | 7:10 pmWithout a doubt, the vast majority of people will engage in masturbation over the course of their lifetimes. May, even, is National Masturbation Month. Yet self-pleasure still remains a divisive issue, as it has for some time, and moreover, the question of its role forms the basis for much of the cultural divide in our [...]
- You Think You’re So Pretty: What Dove’s ‘Sketches’ Video Got Wrong
May 23, 2013 | 5:02 pm“I should be more grateful of my natural beauty” one woman concludes after participating in the Dove Beauty Sketches. In fact, the woman, Florence concludes that natural beauty “couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.” Florence came to these undesirable conclusions through participation in a commercial released as part of Dove’s campaign to promote “real [...]
- The Story of the Slurpee
May 21, 2013 | 5:37 pmIt might surprise you to hear that the Slurpee was an accident. Yet the beloved concoction, as a matter of fact, got its start when a Dairy Queen soda machine kept on malfunctioning. Its operator, Omar Knedlik of Kansas City, placed bottles of soda in his freezer as a failsafe. The bottles came out a [...]
- We Are More Germ Than Human
May 16, 2013 | 11:50 pmThe human body is one of the most fascinating and puzzling ecosystems in the universe, a complex community of cells, germs and microbes that is still being mapped and decoded. Recent discoveries in this field have caused scientists to reevaluate the way we look at our internal functions, and perhaps we aren’t as much ourselves [...]
- Daft Punk Streams New Album ‘Random Access Memories’
May 13, 2013 | 1:42 pmThe robots are back. The internet has been abuzz with hype for Daft Punk’s long awaited follow up to 2005′s Human After All, and today we finally get to hear it. While the official release date is still a week away, iTunes is offering fans the chance to stream all 13 tracks early. Simply follow [...]
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“Please Stop by My Underwater Croquet Party,” and Other Visions of the Year 2000 by Early 20th Century French Artists
The year 1900 was a very sexy year to be alive. The world was on the cusp of flying machines,1 was powered by steam and diesel, and had promise of telephony. In the preceding year, the US Patent Commissioner Charles H. Duell said, according to myth, “Everything that can be invented has been invented,” and with certain satisfaction promptly retired his post to spend the rest of his days basking in knowledge that the future had already arrived. Duell was catastrophically wrong, but it serves the point that at the 1900 Exposition Universelle2 in Paris, France people had a very misguided view of the future.
“France in The Year 2000″ is a series of over 87 images made for cigar boxes made directly from that view of a mechanical future. The pieces, made by Jean-Marc Côté and other unnamed artists, were first presented at the 1900 Exposition Universelle and later partially issued as postcards in 1900, 1901 and 1910.
In this future: the maid would use a machine to clean the floor while firemen flew through the air and large machines incubated and hatched chicks; a tailor would fit you with calipers while an iron box made your clothes; people would race fish underwater and take tours on busses strapped to the backs of whales; and most accurately, students would be connected to machines that delivered all the instructional information to their brains.
1 In 1871 the Planophore was developed by Frenchman Alphonse Pénaud. The model, which only had an 18 inch wingspan mostly served as a demonstration of the stability of air flight. The French rejoiced nonetheless.
2 The World’s Fair.
“The New-Fangled Barber”
“An Aerial Battle”
“Aero-Cab Station”
“Aerial Firemen”
“The Rural Postman”
“Divers on Horseback”
“Electric Scrubbing”
“Fishing for Seagulls”
“Aviation Police”
“A Very Busy Farmer”
“Advance Sentinel in a Helicopter”
“Intensive Breeding”
“A Tailor of the Latest Fashion”
“The Little Eagle-Nest Robbers”
“A Race in The Pacific”
“A Well-Trained Orchestra”
“A House Rolling Through the Countryside”
“At School”
“Madame at her Toilette”
“Battle-Cars”
“A Torpedo Plane”
“A Whale-Bus”
Attribution
“France in XXI Century,” Wikimdedia Commons