8 November 2011

Objects of science

I'm very pleased with myself. Look at all the vintage chic sciencey stuff I have just bought:

Microscope in battered old box plus scuffed up metal ruler and case (featuring weights of metals) for £15. Bargain! Plus, copies of various science books published 1950-1965 for a fiver. Including one called The Century of Science by F. Sherwood Taylor, which has been entertaining me over carrot cake for the last 20 minutes. In a section entitled 'Science at Home', Taylor envisages his future Science-enhanced living space:
"The windows will be air-tight - no, on second thoughts, I will do without windows, whose only use would be to show me a hideously industrialised town... I will light myself with daylight lamps concealed behind translucent panels; a diet rich in vitamin D will give me vicarious sunshine... All my furniture will be dull-finished plastic material and of stainless steel... Cooking proper will be abolished. Food will be bought from the future firm of Prepared Foods, Ltd., who will sell dishes ready prepared for cooking... The food will be fresh and will taste much better than anything home-made... Washing up will be almost wholly avoided by the use of an improved type of paper-plate, charmingly designed and decorated... Their cost will be negligible and after use they will be thrown away. Only the cutlery will need to be washed... My flat will therefore require no regular housework at all."
Ha! It amuses me that he imagined Science would have us all shrivelling in our artificially lit, plastic-encased apartments, eating off paper plates. And that microwaveable ready meals would be tasty.



Anyway, what's all this in aid of? Well, Saturday is open doors day at my office/studio. Everyone else in the building is a *proper* creative, with paintings and stuff. So I'm accessorising my articles with scientific objects, for visual effect.

Okay, okay, it was an excuse to buy loads of cool stuff.

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