Questions Database Flashcards
Which medium is which period?
Before 19th century
Late 18th century
Early 19th century
Late 19th century
After 19 century
Wireless telegraphy, Printing press, Railroad, Steam engine and Telephone becomes domestic medium.
Before 19th century → Printing press
Late 18th century → Steam engine
Early 19th century → Railroad
Late 19th century → Wireless telegraphy
After 19 century → Telephone becomes domestic medium
At the end of the 18th century the steam engine was invented. What was the direct consequences in the late 18th century?
In many different social areas natural energy resources were replaced by the steam engine.
What are 3 key characteristics of industrialization?
Decreasing relevance of agrarian labor
Steam replaces wind and water as energy source
Division of labor
Match the different media with their respective qualities / functions:
Telegraph
Steam ships
Railroad
Pocket watch
Telephone
Wireless telegraphy
Safety of railroad travel
Informal communication
Punctuality
Schedules/independent of wind
Safety of shipping travel
Synchronised time between cities
Telegraph → Safety of railroad travel
Steam ships → Schedules/Independent of wind
Railroad → Synchronized time between cities
Pocket watch → Punctuality
Telephone → Informal communication
Wireless telegraphy → Safety of shipping travel
What is the relation between media and modernity in the 19th century?
Media became key symbols for European’s self conception as being rational and progressive.
In the 19th century, many countries adapted to the same size (gauge) of train rails and adapted the Morse code for telegraphic communication. This development is called:
Standardization
According to the text of Jürgen Osterhammel on the 19th century, what is the role of nation states in the emergence of networks?
At times, nation states develop their own networks but often they follow international standards.
According to the text of Jürgen Osterhammel, at the end of the 19th century everybody’s experience is structured by the same modern, quantified conception of time. True or false?
False
When every worker gets a pocket watch, this makes time more concrete or abstract?
Abstract → You can suddenly compare things that were not comparable before.
→ Relevance of time becomes more important. 10 minutes is abstract because you cannot sense it.
→ Concrete is linked to emotion or specific experience.
According to Schivelbush’s text on railroad travel, what is the new experience of riding a train often compared to in the 19th century?
Projectile
Fill in the blanks.
Looking out the window created a view. The landscape becomes transformed into space.
Looking out the window created a PANORAMIC view. The landscape becomes transformed into GEOGRAPHICAL space.
In Wolfgang Schivelbush’s “The Railway journey”, he discusses how train travelling impacted different groups of society. What is his key argument?
While middle class travellers often read literature, lower class travellers chatted with each other.
What characterises this “modern consciousness” and how does the railroad contribute to that?
Modern consciousness implies a new form of perception in which evanescence becomes the new reality and the experience of distance and proximity becomes blurry (looses specificity). Railroad travel velocity caused the distortion of surroundings, creating a panoramic view in which people are not part of the landscape.
People got worried about loss of sense but praised some new advantages of perception.
Photography as it was used from the 1830s on is characterized by?
Chemical processes
Perspectival processes
Use of lenses
When human work (e.g the drawing of an image) is replaced by a technology, this is called:
Automation
Which important features were added to photography in the course of the 19th century?
Reduction of exposure time
Reproduction
At the end of the 19th century, cinema was the first visual entertainment for the masses. True or false?
False
What do optical toys like the “Phenakistoscope” and the “Zoetrope” have in common?
Illusion of movement
What are three key innovations that made cinema possible?
Short exposure time
Intermittent mechanism for film
Flexible material to record images on
