Technology in America 1914-1945

TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA, AND CULTURE IN THE SPACE BETWEEN,1914-1945.
Books:
*Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy
to Television* (Duke University Press, 2000).
author:Dr. Jeffrey Sconce, Associate Professor of
Radio/Television/Film at the School of Communication at Northwestern University
Thoughts stolen from CFP:
Beginning with the mass mechanization of the Great War, the period
through World War II catapulted people into a new kind of
modernity. New technologies and media conjured up both awesome and
frightful fantasies and realities in the creative and critical
imaginations of artists, scientists, producers, consumers, and
critics. Technology and media excited and threatened domestic and
international politics and challenged members of popular and elite
cultures to reconfigure relationships between selfhood, society, and the
object world.
This interdisciplinary conference will explore the manifestations,
effects, and representations of the new technologies of the 1914-1945
period. Considering this distinct period in twentieth century history
will offer crucial perspectives and insights on the significance of
visual and auditory technologies, designed and built technologies,
technologies of the body, technologies of flight, speed and
simultaneity, technologies of production, technologies of social
engineering. We are particularly interested in exploring the cultural
relationships that emerge as the roles of the media and technology shape each other in our Space Between.
Possible topics:
–Technologies of media
–Textuality and technology
–Cultural responses to mass media
–Extensions and mediations of the body
–Medical and reproductive technologies
–Technology and economies
–Technology/media and psychology
–Propaganda and design
–Designs for living
–War, weaponry, and art
–The machine aesthetic
–Technology/media and constructions of nation, gender and class
–Technology/media and democracy, fascism, and communism
–Resistance through and/or to media and technology