The isolator helmet
The isolator is quite literally the product of formal experimentation, though technical-and not artistic-in nature. Science and Invention not only promoted the final products of such experimentation, but also encouraged formal experimentation among readers as Ettiene Lambert points out, the publication “is best remembered…for encouraging it readers to become amateur electrical experimenters” (Lambert). Still, the image exhibits components of modernism within its context of an invention promotion on the cover of a magazine. The electric fan and desktop telephone-both relatively new artifacts of modernity- complement a mood of the pervasive culture of technology within the illustration.īut this illustration is not a modernist painting, and context indeed affects content. That the device is designed to cover the head, too, implies a stifling of the nuances of the individual mind and intellect’s looming dilution by technology. The isolator helmet completely conceals the man’s face, stripping him of individuality and embodying the modernist preoccupation with the loss of self to commercial technology and industry in an ever modernizing world. For example, the helmet may represent a distortion and reimagining of the human head within the context of the modern world. Without the context of a periodical cover promotion or the invention’s objective, this illustration of the isolator could be interpreted as a modernist image, perhaps embodying elements of early surrealism. This cover illustration embodies elements both modernist and modern the invention’s context and intention, though, shade and complicate the its relationship to and expression of modernism and modernity. “The Isolator,”-an invention designed by Science and Invention editor Hugo Gernsback to improve concentration through total sensory isolation-covers the head of an otherwise normal-looking, seated man working in a normal office environment. Science and Invention, July 1925-“The Isolator”: Explorations of Context, Intent, and Modernity/Modernism.Ī large, bulbous, gas mask-like helmet adorns the golden glossy cover of the July 1925 issue of Science and Invention, a monthly magazine promoting scientific interest and amateur experimentation from 1913 to 1929. It’s about as rational and goofy as Grenville Kleiser’s book “Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases” (see the previous post) in fact, I think The Isolator would provide ideal viewing conditions for perusing that particular text in the manner that Mr. How would he do that? Remove the Isolation Chamber? Obviously, doing away with all distractions in this way could be profoundly counterproductive: how would he know that his house was on fire -or, what if he dropped his pencil? Even if all goes well, reading or writing usually involves going back to re-read a paragraph or cross-check a reference. The “Isolator” is designed to help focus the mind when reading or writing, not only by by eliminating all outside noise, but also by allowing just one line of text to be seen at a time through a horizontal slit. He also invented this contraption which, to my mind, nicely illustrates the folly of taking an excessively narrow approach to solving a problem. These images are from the July, 1925 issue of the long-defunct magazine “Science and Invention”, which was edited by Hugo Gernsback, who later became famous as a pioneer in the field of science fiction.
Queste immagini tratte dalla rivista “Science and Invention” sono datate luglio 1925 curata dallo stesso Hugo Gernsback, membro dell’ “The American Physical Society” nonché conclamato pioniere nel campo della fantascienza. The Isolator–inside Science and Invention, July 1925 Science and Invention, July 1925–”The Isolator”