Nostradamus 0, Nostalgia 1 Flashcards
1
Q
Tomorrowland
What is Tomorrowland?
What is it, what is it based on, who first created it, things featured
A
- One of the many themed lands found at Disney theme parks
- This is the culmination of Walt Disney’s futurist views
- It is frequently updated as to not become “Yesterdayland”
- When it first opened, it reprsented the future 30 years in advance, almost becoming a corporate showcase for new brands
- Things like tv remotes, microwave ovens and other brands were showcased in the original Tomorrowland
- For a while, Tomorrowland was in decline, but then more attractions were added to it
- There is now a Tomorrowland in every magic-kindgom-style Disney land
- Recently there was a Star-Wars themed attraction added as well
2
Q
Museum of the Future
What is the Museum of the Future?
Location, what is it, what is located on each of its floors
A
- Torus-shaped building with windows in the form of a poem about the future
- In the financial district of Dubai, UAE
- Meant to be an incubator for ideas and innovation
- Starting from the top down, the fifth floor starts with a floor dedicated to space travel
- The fourth floor is shedding light on ecology and biodiversity in the future
- The third floor focuses on providing different therapies to engage all of the visitor’s senses
- The second floor looks at cutting edge technology and solutions to current urgent challenges
- Finally, the first floor is dedicated to children under the age of 10, to develop, design their own avatars and engage in hands-on activities
3
Q
World of Tomorrow
What is World of Tomorrow?
People involved, location and time, opening, exhibits and zones
A
- Was 1939-1940 World’s Fair
- Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, Queens
- In the middle of the Great Depression and right before WWll
- A group of NYC businessmen, who soon after formed the New York World’s Fair Corporation, set it up to bring the country out of it’s economic problems
- Edward Bernays directed public relations
- 206,000 people attended the grand opening, with television displayed in the RCA pavillion, and Albert Einstein even gave a speech on cosmic rays
- The Westinghouse time capsule, Elektro the Moto Man, Superman day and the first science fiction convention all happened here
- Divided into 7 main zones: business systems zone, community interest zone, government zone (with pavillions from different countries), food zone, production zone, transportation zone and amusement area
4
Q
Crystal Palace
What is the Crystal Palace?
What is it made of, what did it host, location
A
- Cast iron and plate glass structure
- Hyde Park, London, later moved to Sydenham Hill before burning down
- Housed the Great Exhibition of 1851 by Queen Victoria
- It was an early World’s fair, with over 100,000 objects by 15,000 contributors
- The largest foreign contributor was France
5
Q
American National Exhibition
What is the American National Exhibition?
Where was it, what was it, some controversies and themes explored
A
- Held in Sokolniki Park in Moscow
- Exhibition of American fashion, cars, techonology and culture
- In the middle of the Cold War
- Famous for the Kitchen debate between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev
- Pepsi coming to Russia was a notable development from this
- This was more organized from the American side, trying to establish American culture in the Soviet Union
- It was made to make America seem more equal than it was, with Black and female guides trained to seem to have more rights than they did
- There was also a large commercial aspect, introducing many big brands into the Soviet Union
- It was also a way to dimplomatically promote America’s anti-communist ideology
6
Q
Mennonite Article
What does Jake Michael’s photography depict?
Who does it show, what is the history of this
A
- Shows the Mennonites in Belize
- Belize is home to around 12,000 of the world’s most conservative Mennonites
- Mennonites are highly conservative Christians who shun most modern technology
- Belize’s mennonites where Canadian mennonites who immigrated from Mexico
- The government provided them land, religious freedom, exemption from some taxes and exemption from military service
- In return, the country benefits from their agriculture
- Jake Michaels went to three different communities, and found them to be surprisingly friendly and hospitable
- Jake Michaels discovered a place frozen in time, but also saw the harsh realities, like the low education level, and the hard labour many of them go through
- Interestingly, some of his photos show some of the Mennonites holding phones and cameras, like the photograph of a girl in a vintage dress holding a small camera
7
Q
Master Plan Article
What is Master Plan?
Artist, depiction and meaning
A
- Chad Wright
- Inspired by his growing up in Orange County in a tract house, and sandcastles he made with his big brother by the beach bungalow his grandmother owned in Breezy Point
- The series Master Plan shows a sand city of mass-produced post-war tract houses, a symbol of the American dream
- They are built on the beach all together, and the last photograph shows the houses all destroyed by the motion of the waves
8
Q
Lonely as a Cloud Article
What is I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
Author, background and idea
A
- William Worsdworth
- English author concerned with the human connection to nature
- Describes a discovery of daffodils on a cliff overlooking the sea
- Ten thousand beautiful daffodils that forever lived in the subject’s mind
9
Q
To Autumn Article
What is To Autumn?
Author, background and idea
A
- John Keats
- Remarkable English poet with a very short life
- A poem praising autumn
- First reflects on the bounty provided by autumn, with the crops and flowers that it brings
- The next paragraph reflects on how autumn is found everywhere, along streams, in barns, amongst poppies and in and around homes
- Finally, it asks to not always just wish for spring, to recognize the beauty, and shows all of the different animals going about their lives in a bittersweet way
10
Q
Main Street Article
What is Main Street?
Author, background and idea
A
- Joyce Kilmer
- He died young in WWi
- Talks about how Main Street used to be so pretty
- It was a very human street, how it seemed cozy how it remembered everything
- Not as busy as other streets, felt more like home, even Heaven
11
Q
Poem Article
What is Writing a Poem is All I Can Do For You?
Author, background and idea
A
- Wu Sheng, Taiwanese poet with close connection to his homeland
- Translated by John Balcom
- First talks about the beauty of the wetlands and the creatures that reside here amongst the farmers
- Then looks at how development is harming the development
- Finally, explores how the speaker feel useless in doing anything, how as a poet he can not do anything about the crisis
12
Q
One Line Article
What is Nostalgia?
Author, background and idea
A
- Nostalgia is a fruit with the pain of distance in its seed
- Giannina Braschi
- Puerto Rican poet and novelist
13
Q
Elegy Article
What is Elegy?
Author, background and idea
A
- Shows the possibility of hope entering life
- Could it just be fleeting and seperate?
- A sort of mourning and lament
- Mong Lan
- Poet, visual artist and dancer that left Vietnam on the last evacuation day in 1975
14
Q
Chicago Article
What is Chicago Zen?
Author, background and idea
A
- A. K. Ramanujan
- About the experience of an Indian immigrant in Chicago
- About everything being new and unexpected in Chicago
- Gets confused between American and Indian culture
- Reflects on homesickness and the difficulty of travel, trying to get home and having a hard time doing this
15
Q
Dreamy Article
What is The Dreamy Age?
Author, background and idea
A
- Muhammad Shanazar
- Pakistani poet with very humble beginnings who worked very hard
- Describes the many joys of a rural childhood, though it also seemed harder
- Even things like swimming in muddy water and being stung by bees is looked at fondly
- Is all connected to exploring nature, mostly with friends
16
Q
Iron Article
What is Iron Bird?
Author, background and idea
A
- Zheng Xiaoqiong
- Wrote in Chinese originally
- Chinese poet who was a nurse
- Poem describes nostalgia being like a fond memory from afar
17
Q
Postcard Article
What were the futuristic French postcards?
Background, general depictions, ideas
A
- Jules Verne was one of the most influential science fiction writers ever
- This captured the imaginations of French readers
- Jean-Marc Côté and other artists were hired by toy or cigarette manufacturer to create picture cards to insert showing France in a century’s time
- They were never distributed, but Isaac Asimov wrote a book called Futuredays in which de presented the illustrations along with commentary
- Technological advances were depicted, so was automatation brought with the industrial age
- There are depictions showing technologies that change every fabric of our lives
- Some technologies were correctly envisioned, but Côté, Villemard and the others still had many misses, since it was a rather fantastical idea
- Ray Kurzweil was known for predicting accurately (?)
18
Q
Postcard Article/Article II
What are some of the futuristic French postcards?
Examples and what they depict
A
- A technology that could transcript voice into printing
- A projector doing the same things as FaceTime, Zoom or any other video call software
- A technology allowing microscope images to be more visible
- Robots cutting hair at a barber
- A robot dressing and doing the hair and makeup of a woman
- A robot making clothing
- A conductor controlling all the instruments in an orchestra
- A single man building a building through robots
- A man operating machines to harvest wheat on a field
- A teacher grinding up books and feading them into the ears of children (like audiobooks kind of!)
- Showing a modern kitchen as place of food science (synthetic food is on the rise)
- A man on a small flying machine delivering mail
- A large ship being carried by blimps
- Men riding seahorses
- A machine rapidly turning eggs into chicks
- Radium in the fireplace being used to warm a house
- A precursor to the motor home
- A basket being carried by a single propellar, like a helicopter
- An airship
- Small airplanes carrying people of different professions
- Aviation police
- Arial firemen
- War plane
- War cars
- People with wings strapped onto them stealing from an eagle nest
- People fishing for seagles
- People racing on fish
- People playing croquet under the sea
- A bus being carried by a whale
19
Q
Pessimism Article
How can we fight against modern pessimism?
Ways, things we need to change, ideas
A
- According to a major international poll, most youth think that humanity is doomed
- This doomerism comes from the way the world is portrayed, especially in media
- There are some things to change the opinion
- There is a necessity in progress, and we have now achieved a greater life span, more political stability in some ways, less starvation and greater literacy
- Slowing down AI could be one of the best things we do for humanity
- We need a right kind of climate positivity, one that makes us act for a better future, instead of saying we are doomed and there is nothing to do about, but also instead of saying it will be fine and doing nothing
- We need to break the cycle of negativity in the news and have a more balanced viewpoint
- The Dutch are growing the food industry through innovation, finding seeds that more reliably grow in a smaller amount of space
- The Anishinabe wheel of time is a model for regrowth, showing how even after disaster we can regrow, showing that we do not need to march to an end, but that we can regrow after disaster
20
Q
Psychohistory
What is psychohistory?
Basics
A
- Psychohistory is a fictional science in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation universe
- Combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people
- Psychohistory depends on the idea that, while one cannot foresee the actions of a particular individual, the laws of statistics as applied to large groups of people could predict the general flow of future events
- Asimov used the analogy of a gas
- An observer has great difficulty in predicting the motion of a single molecule in a gas, but with the kinetic theory can predict the mass action of the gas to a high level of accuracy
21
Q
What is steampunk?
What it is, ealry origins and some common settings
A
- Subgenre of science fiction
- Inspired by steam-powered machinery
- Features anachronistic and often futuristic technologies
- May also include fantasy, horror or historical fiction making it a mixed genre
- Also includes styles of music, clothing and architecture of the same idea
- Influenced by works of those such as Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley and Edward Ellis’s The Steam Man of the Prairies
- The term was coined by science fiction writer K.W. Jeter
- Steampunk setting include alternative worlds, American West, fantasy or horror settings, post-apocalyptic, Victorian and east Asia (also known as “silkpunk”)
22
Q
Cyperpunk
What is cyberpunk?
Basics
A
- Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a “combination of lowlife and high tech”
- Featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberware, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia or decay
- Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s
- When writers examined the impact of drug culture, technology, and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian tendencies of earlier science fiction
- Comics exploring cyberpunk themes began appearing as early as Judge Dredd
- Novel Neuromancer helped solidify cyberpunk as a genre, drawing influence from punk subculture and early hacker culture
