Subverting Technology -- Golden Era style

[LizzieMaine]

Recently someone told me about "typecasting," which is apparently all the rage among collectors of vintage typewriters -- it's blogging, but instead of entering your words into some blogger-type software you write them out on a typewriter, scan the typed page, and post it as a photo. I found this a fascinating idea, and If I had a scanner, the words you are now reading would be posted in just such a way: not only is it a very clever way of sticking your thumb in the eye of the "typewriters are obsolete, let's cut them up for jewelry" crowd, but it also very neatly subverts the whole marketing-driven rationale of blogging: when your words are typed on a sheet of paper and posted as a photo of that piece of paper, it's going to be a whole lot harder for the Bots From Marketing to figure out what you're talking about and serve you annoying ads.

So this got me wondering about other ways to take technology and force it into doing something Golden Era relevant while at the same time stomping on the feet of the marketing people. I do this myself with I-tunes -- the only purpose of which is to get you to buy music files and music-player devices from Apple. However, I use i-Tunes to play music I've encoded myself from 78s and radio transcriptions -- and instead of buying Apple devices to play those files, I feed the i-Tunes audio into a micropower AM radio transmitter and tune it in on vintage radios around the house. Not at all what it was intended to be used for, but it works extremely well for that purpose: I've got two different transmitters operating, fed by two obsolete computers, all fully legal under Part 15 of the FCC regulations, and can tune in two different stations' worth of programming at any time. AM radio might be the sole province of talk-show clowns and yapping frat-boy sports geeks in your town, but in my house, it's radio as radio should be, all day long.

There must be other ways to subvert technology like these examples, to make it atavistic instead of futuristic. How about feeding a digital phone line into a PBX to create your own rotary telephone exchange? How about a podcast transmitted entirely in Morse code? How about rigging up an old Associated Press teletype machine as your computer's printer? Other ideas?

 

[Pompidou]

Cellphones can be mounted into desktop phones simply by utilizing the headphone/mic jacks - for iPhones, I believe these are even sold commercially.

A sufficient stack of tablet ebook readers could be leather bound with each tablet serving as one page of a book.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

Reminds me a bit of steampunk - dieselpunk?

While the fashion/convention going aspect of steampunk doesn't much appeal to me, what deeply fascinates me is the idea of "hacking" modern technology into victorian era designs, for example by mounting a computer inside an ornate brass and wood box with a keyboard mounted with vintage typewriter keys and a monitor framed in a picture frame. I love technology, but I hate the modern aesthetic that goes with it; everything hideously plastic and ugly. If I had my way, every item of modern technology in my home would be given the vintage retro treatment to appear as though it was made in the age of steam.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think steampunkery is kind of a cousin to what I have in mind, but it's more than cosmetic -- although I'd very much like to replace the Steve-Jobs-fever-dream casings of my G4s with something designed by John Vassos. But going beyond cosmetics, how can you actually force the actual technology to do something that's directly connected to the technology of the Era, even though that isn't what the purveyors of the technology expect you to do with it.

One example of this is actually very common in the United States. When the rapacious spectrum-hogs of the celluar industry hijacked Congress into shutting down analog television a few years ago, there was a tremendous outcry from viewers who saw no good reason to throw away their NTSC television sets. So there was a program to subsidize the purchase of digital-to-analog converters allowing analog sets to remain in use as long as their owners wanted to use them. These converters were built as flimsily as possible so as to force NTSC loyalists to "upgrade" sooner than later, but many of us have come up with systems of our own to provide signal for the old sets -- some use abandoned cable-tv modulators to drive their own miniature NTSC television stations which make it perfectly easy to watch TV the way God and Philo T. Farnsworth intended.

I had pulled the idea of using a Teletype as a printer for your computer out of the air as a possiblity -- but turns out there's people in the steampunk crowd who actually do this. More power to them, and if I stumble across a Teletype Model 15, I know exactly what I'm going to do with it. In your ear, overpriced-printer-ink manufacturers.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

Interesting. I actually had to google what exactly a teletype machine is, as I've never seen one and have only heard of vague references to them in passing before. I gather that it would only be capable of printing text then, yes? Perfectly adequate if all you want to print is plain text I suppose.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, they're lovely things. I worked at the radio station that had the last Model 15 in the state many years ago, and it was loud, clattery, noisy, smelled like Havoline, and was indestructible. When the UPI man came to take it away I tried desperately to get him to let me keep it, but it was destined for the scrap pile, to be replaced by a whizbang dot matrix printer that broke down twice a week. It only printed text, although sometimes the UPI operators would mess around with ASCII art when they had nothing better to do. All I ever print at home is text anyway, so it'd be just the thing.

 

[Undertow]

Lizzie, the lady and I have been discussing finding ways to turn rotary phones, or even crank phones (Stromberg Carlson Model 1248, to be exact) into functional outgoing lines via cellular technology. She knows quite a bit more about it than I do (I still hate cell phones), but we've gone into the planning mode, having acquired one of the crank models. I honestly can't be sure what she has in mind, but evidently it would basically forward calls from the cell phone to the landline - somehow. Not too clear.

I suppose the same typewriter-turned-blog idea would work if you were to scan images of a handwritten letter and emailed it to family and friends. Then the boys in the NSA who enjoy scanning yotabytes worth of information would have to actually read your email as opposed to flagging it outright.

I adore this thread, by the by. I'm a firm believer that there is someone, somewhere who is licking their chops at the thought of controlling every single aspect of human existence. This thread is very Chuck Palahniuk-esque. (wow, try saying that five times fast with marbles in your mouth lol)

 

[Gin&Tonics]

My thing is that I strongly dislike, perhaps even hate, the modern aesthetic. Everything from cars, to kitchen appliances, houses, artwork, furniture, electronics, especially clothing; everything modern is ugly and banal to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the technology of our modern age; I like having a fast, efficient car, a nice house with convenient appliances and computers, cell phones etc, I just wish it all wasn't so horribly ugly and boring. I wish every bit of modern technology I own was crafted of wood, brass, copper, etc and looked like it was constructed in the industrial age. Consider the laptop I'm writing this post on; what if instead of a plastic monstrosity, it was instead constructed of wood, brass, and leather, like this:

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Things had a certain elegance back then that is completely lacking now. The modern design aesthic strikes me as extremely clinical, cold and depressing. I love the warmth, elegance and artistry, even the little elements of eccentricity that marked the Victorian aesthetic. I llike the 20's art deco aesthetic too, just not quite as much.

Keep the ideas coming folks!

 

[Pompidou]

One joke about Steampunk when asked what it is is that it's the art of making modern conveniences inconvenient. I'm a big fan of the look, either way.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The ultimate example would be to print out this thread using a teletype printer to cut a mimeograph stencil, and run off a bunch of pamphlets to distribute among the fed up. The retrolution begins here.

I share your distaste for the modern technological aesthetic -- everyone praises Jobs as such a genius, but I've always thought Apple's stuff looks like it came out of a cliched 70s science fiction movie. A generation that grew up sleeping with Star Wars action figures might find it appealing, but it doesn't do a thing for me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's a guy who's come up with a way to turn old decomissioned payphones back into real payphones -- not novelty coin-banks with a phone in them, but actual pay telephones that collect the coins as when they were in original service. Time to get back at the break-up-the-Bell-System crowd by rebuilding it from scratch.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

The ultimate example would be to print out this thread using a teletype printer to cut a mimeograph stencil, and run off a bunch of pamphlets to distribute among the fed up. The retrolution begins here.

I share your distaste for the modern technological aesthetic -- everyone praises Jobs as such a genius, but I've always thought Apple's stuff looks like it came out of a cliched 70s science fiction movie. A generation that grew up sleeping with Star Wars action figures might find it appealing, but it doesn't do a thing for me.

Funny thing is, I AM that generation. I watched Star Wars like 50 times before i was 5 lol The thing is, I just prefer my modern futuristic aesthetic stuff to remain within the realm of movies - I don't like living with it. You're bang on with the description of apple stuff as cliched 70's sci-fi - it's like the took it right out of 2001 a Space Oddysey (sp?). lol

 

[Pompidou]

Funny thing is, I AM that generation. I watched Star Wars like 50 times before i was 5 lol The thing is, I just prefer my modern futuristic aesthetic stuff to remain within the realm of movies - I don't like living with it. You're bang on with the description of apple stuff as cliched 70's sci-fi - it's like the took it right out of 2001 a Space Oddysey (sp?). lol

I think Apple got the iPhone right, but as far as cell phones go, I'm otherwise generally not a fan. I don't like plastic, generally. I like things made out of metal and glass. There aren't many things polished aluminum can't improve, in my opinion. Not a fan of plastic, cheap feeling clamshell phones and the like. One thing that sold me on my music keyboard is that it weighs a metric ton and is built out of metal. Plastic is for toys.

 

[rocketeer]

When I had a 1960 Chevrolet Corvair, I built a cassette tape player made from excess dash parts and knobs to look like it was made for the car. Perfect for playing those old 1960s Cruising tapes that featured radio shows.
I believe this sort of thing is quite common now.

 

[rocketeer]

When I had a 1960 Chevrolet Corvair, I built a cassette tape player made from excess dash parts and knobs to look like it was made for the car. Perfect for playing those old 1960s Cruising tapes that featured radio shows.
I believe this sort of thing is quite common now.

 

[Stanley Doble]

When they had teletype machines in newspaper offices they also had wire photo machines. They printed pictures sent by telegraph or telephone wires line by line. Your face looked like it was printed on corduroy

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Crosley Reado was a home version of that technology, sold in 1939 for experimental radiofacsimile broadcasting. There must be a way to use one of these in a technological subversion -- I don't imagine it would be too hard to hook it up to receive modern faxes.

 

[randooch]

Anything that has an "OZ4 Gaseous Rectifier Tube," I must admit, intimidates me not a little.

 

[Chasseur]

I share your distaste for the modern technological aesthetic -- everyone praises Jobs as such a genius, but I've always thought Apple's stuff looks like it came out of a cliched 70s science fiction movie. A generation that grew up sleeping with Star Wars action figures might find it appealing, but it doesn't do a thing for me.

Lizzie that is brillant and I think I might have to share that with several Mac-militants I work with

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

"Spirit of St. Louis" boom box, anyone?