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Friday, January 18, 2013

Transportation Time Unkind to Electric Lascaux

Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 8:22 AM

Back in 1990, this was something to talk about...

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When ever time becomes too present in an art work, we know that something other than art dominates its content. In Robert Teeple's Electric Lascaux, which is the University Street Station, this other is technology. Indeed, the work has almost no art content and instead fills us with the exact same feeling we get when watching an old science fiction film that has lots of bright buttons (press this one for warp drive, this one for lasers, this one to speak to ground control). We feel a kind of embarrassment for the people of that time, for those who stopped and thought: This is it, this is so wonderful, this is the cutting edge.

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I don't think this was exactly cutting edge in 1990 either - I had toy (the etch-a-sketch animator) that could do slightly more complex animations than this in 1986.

I would assume the animations are intentionally minimalistic. They also mimic the LED information displays you tend to find in places like train stations (times, stops, etc. - some of our buses still have them), making them a bit of a riddle to passengers - why is this display showing an animated face rather than the time?

This is not to say I'm crazy about them - I think they needed to go further (particularly in size); but I wouldn't be opposed to giving them some time to mature - sometimes outdated technology becomes more interesting as it gets older.

Posted by fad on January 18, 2013 at 9:27 AM

I agree with #1 on this, actually. A piece like that was about the time and place in which it was hung, and as decades pass, as individual LEDs break and dim and the visage decays – should we have the patience as a city to let it age – we will see it smoke-cure into an icon.

It will be that process, not what it was when it was hung, that will define it.

Posted by Apocynum on January 18, 2013 at 10:24 AM

You're right about watching old shows and technology vs treknology. Their computers are so huge yet they are suppose to be in the distant future. But rather than feeling embarrassment, I watch with a bit of admiration for some of their innovations. Transporters and flip up communicators, all very cool, still.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on January 18, 2013 at 10:57 AM

It's worthwhile examining the emotion of embarrassment that this piece evokes now. Why does clunky technology diminish our self-esteem just by standing near it? Why does having the latest iPhone make us think we're better than people with a crappy phone?

Why is it embarrassing now to remember that being friends with a guy who used to have one of those hideous Apple Newtons used to make you feel like you were cool?

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn