Never mind my jet-pack, where’s my four-legged chicken?

Design futurism, technology, and Utopian hubris

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Never mind my jet-pack, where’s my four-legged chicken?

Design futurism, technology, and Utopian hubris

Neil Maycro,

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'Professional' Utopianism vs vernacular Utopianism

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'Professional' Utopianism vs vernacular Utopianism

The hubris of technological Utopianism

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'Professional' Utopianism vs vernacular Utopianism

The hubris of technological Utopianism

Rhetorical representa/ons of Utopia

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Who/what/where and why, etc?

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Rick Guidice’s illustra0ons for NASA

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Tomorrow's World

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Vernacular dreaming

• A pill which removes adolescent spots for good

• An automa6cally erec6ng ‘umbrella’ a;achment for outdoor rotary clothes dryers

• A lawn prepara6on which stops the grass growing beyond a certain height

• A device to li< the lids off jam pots

• A prin6ng ink that stays on the newspaper

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‘I’m amazed that no one has yet come up with a four legged chicken. It would save a lot of argument in our house’.

Mrs M. M., No)ngham

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‘I’m amazed that no one has yet come up with a four legged chicken. It would save a lot of argument in our house’.

Mrs M. M., No)ngham

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Chicken meat, in the early 1970s, was an expensive treat...

...and also an 'investment' food

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Chicken meat, in the early 1970s, was an expensive treat...

...and also an 'investment' food

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So, what happened?

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Or, 'Boy, I say boy, what happened?'

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"We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium"

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"We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium"

Winston Churchill, 1932

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Cross-breeding a four-legged chicken?

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Gene$cally engineering a four-legged chicken?

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Leg 1 Industrialisa+on

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Leg 2 Ra#onalisa#on

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Leg '3' Frozen food retailing

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Leg '4' Domes&c technology

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Technological predic/on is tricky

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But, technological dreaming can be foolhardy

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However

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We s%ll dream of this

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We (can) no longer dream of this

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What else can we no longer dream of?

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