Never mind my jet-pack, where’s my four-legged chicken? Design futurism, technology, and Utopian hubris 1
Never mind my jet-pack, where’s my four-legged chicken?
Design futurism, technology, and Utopian hubris
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Never mind my jet-pack, where’s my four-legged chicken?
Design futurism, technology, and Utopian hubris
Neil Maycro,
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'Professional' Utopianism vs vernacular Utopianism
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'Professional' Utopianism vs vernacular Utopianism
The hubris of technological Utopianism
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'Professional' Utopianism vs vernacular Utopianism
The hubris of technological Utopianism
Rhetorical representa/ons of Utopia
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Who/what/where and why, etc?
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Rick Guidice’s illustra0ons for NASA
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Tomorrow's World
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Vernacular dreaming
• A pill which removes adolescent spots for good
• An automa6cally erec6ng ‘umbrella’ a;achment for outdoor rotary clothes dryers
• A lawn prepara6on which stops the grass growing beyond a certain height
• A device to li< the lids off jam pots
• A prin6ng ink that stays on the newspaper
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‘I’m amazed that no one has yet come up with a four legged chicken. It would save a lot of argument in our house’.
Mrs M. M., No)ngham
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‘I’m amazed that no one has yet come up with a four legged chicken. It would save a lot of argument in our house’.
Mrs M. M., No)ngham
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Chicken meat, in the early 1970s, was an expensive treat...
...and also an 'investment' food
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Chicken meat, in the early 1970s, was an expensive treat...
...and also an 'investment' food
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So, what happened?
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Or, 'Boy, I say boy, what happened?'
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"We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium"
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"We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium"
Winston Churchill, 1932
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Cross-breeding a four-legged chicken?
Or
Gene$cally engineering a four-legged chicken?
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Leg 1 Industrialisa+on
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Leg 2 Ra#onalisa#on
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Leg '3' Frozen food retailing
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Leg '4' Domes&c technology
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Technological predic/on is tricky
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But, technological dreaming can be foolhardy
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However
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We s%ll dream of this
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We (can) no longer dream of this
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What else can we no longer dream of?
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