Becoming strangers on a train Technology and the mode of travel HUM 201 Winter 2005 Day 12

Itinerary today Demonstrate how an analysis of the technologies of travel help us understand some of the experiences of travel. Remove ourselves from arriving at a specific place and begin contemplating the journey itself. In what ways do trains help make us feel “strange”

Add technology to the mix Changes how the world “presents itself.” Technologies as extensions of the self. –The wheel as an extension of the foot Technologies as objects in themselves. –Wheels bring new qualities to bear Speed of a train Forces us to concentrate on the mode of travel.

Train as a mode of travel First land-based industrial transportation –No longer under body power Changes the relationship of bodies to landscapes –Tunnels, trestles, and trainbeds –Speed –Panoramic perception Symbolic meaning –Progress –Development of Empire Changes how we relate to each other –Reading –mixing

Alfred Hart, 1865, Trestle at Newcastle

George Innes, The Lackawanna Valley, 1855

Panoramic vision “All view” –Survey of sights or events –A late nineteenth century entertainment On the train –Grasp the whole –Lose track of the details –The inverse of “in passing” –Sense of remove from what is viewed

“Panoramic perception, in contrast to traditional perception, no longer belonged to the same space [place] as the perceived objects: the traveler saw the objects, landscapes, etc. through the apparatus which moved him through the world. That machine and the motion it created became integrated into his visual perception.” [64]

Panorama Immersive entertainment Related to the Diorama

Marquad Worcher, 1814, Thun Switzerland

How would you paint a view from the train? Time-based medium

The space of travel Mixing of classes New leisure entertainments, such as reading novels Relationship to commodities –Being packaged and shipped

Honore Daumier, Third-class carriage,