This slidecast did an excellent job in summarizing the important technological and social context of the time. Despite this, too much focus was on history rather than the technological futuristic elements. In future slidecasts, a more compact and chronological historical background could leave more room for the main topic. I found the analysis of the future city to be very interesting. Talking about each piece in the cluttered photo was very informative and this part was well related to the chosen context pieces. For example, the rooftop orchestra which was chosen as the music of the future was clearly related to the previous picture of the black jazz musicians, whose music was labeled as the “devils music.” This was a great transition into your topic of social values of the future, which are more of a reflection of the current social state. The church next to the school was another great example of this. It was a keen observation that the artist was most likely socially conservative due to his futuristic depictions of religion, class, and music. To summarize, it would be interesting to see more technological futuristic depictions of future cities, but you did a great job making the most out the pictures you included.
This presentation was very good at establishing context. I liked that you made sure to mention that you were talking about the futuristic city before going into the context. I also like your comment about futurism showing the fundamental qualities of the time in which that future was predicted. Your context was good and multifaceted, and your focus on going to the structure of the city, then the prevailing technology of the time, then laying down some of the social context was really important in telling the story of what people might see when they looked into the future.
The image you chose for the future city was really great and you were right, there was plenty to unpack. The image does differ from many in that it does actually have some considerations for social change, in that the change would be a regression to the “good old days” that is often a staple in the conservative mindset. It is interesting to see that image though because it does show the idea of engineering society to account for an increasing population by having ground society and air society integrated, though it does not make sense to have such beautiful buildings in a society that cannot really admire them at all.
You did an excellent job dissecting some of the ideas shown in the image about the futuristic city. I liked that you focused less on the technical side and more about explaining mindsets and ideas. Overall an excellent presentation and a good story about past mindsets.
I really enjoyed the images that you used in your slidecast. I thought because you had such a great focus on the cultural and social values during the time period that it made it easier for the viewer to grasp what you were saying by seeing it too. Therefore, the fact that your images were so carefully chosen to exhibit exactly what your main emphasis was for that slide was definitely one of the strong suits in your slidecast. Since we focus, in class, so heavily on trying to understand what social motives instead of just technical reasons have influenced these innovations, I believe that taking this approach on focusing on these non-technical factors almost resembles a lot of our class discussions about specific technological systems.
Although I did really appreciate this approach, I agree with Matthew with that it might have been a little bit too much and I wish you would’ve dove in a little bit more into the actual technological reasons.
Lastly, I believe that the images and your tone while explaining were extremely clear and easy to follow while still managing to keep the audience engaged. My only advice is next time, just dive right into what you want to say instead of setting up and explaining what you are about to talk about (during the slide ~4 min mark) because it allows you to get even more really interesting information across (especially because you’re very good at explaining details and unpacking this story).
It seems that you constrained yourself to only addressing the content of a single image which hindered your ability to make more global and poignant commentary on the ideals of the time without spending a outside portion of the slide cast on background information.
In addition, although it is important to discuss the societal factors that influenced technological futurism, it is equally important to address the scientific advancements that create the framework for those future visions. For example, more time could have been devoted to the concept that new processes in steel manufacturing and inventions, such as the elevator, were crucial drivers that made the skyscraper possible, instead of honing in on the social context of urbanization.
There are clear areas of growth, but it is clear that the creator of this podcast is brilliant and from his wonderful narration skills I assume his is also tremendously affable and charming.
This slidecast did an excellent job in summarizing the important technological and social context of the time. Despite this, too much focus was on history rather than the technological futuristic elements. In future slidecasts, a more compact and chronological historical background could leave more room for the main topic. I found the analysis of the future city to be very interesting. Talking about each piece in the cluttered photo was very informative and this part was well related to the chosen context pieces. For example, the rooftop orchestra which was chosen as the music of the future was clearly related to the previous picture of the black jazz musicians, whose music was labeled as the “devils music.” This was a great transition into your topic of social values of the future, which are more of a reflection of the current social state. The church next to the school was another great example of this. It was a keen observation that the artist was most likely socially conservative due to his futuristic depictions of religion, class, and music. To summarize, it would be interesting to see more technological futuristic depictions of future cities, but you did a great job making the most out the pictures you included.
This presentation was very good at establishing context. I liked that you made sure to mention that you were talking about the futuristic city before going into the context. I also like your comment about futurism showing the fundamental qualities of the time in which that future was predicted. Your context was good and multifaceted, and your focus on going to the structure of the city, then the prevailing technology of the time, then laying down some of the social context was really important in telling the story of what people might see when they looked into the future.
The image you chose for the future city was really great and you were right, there was plenty to unpack. The image does differ from many in that it does actually have some considerations for social change, in that the change would be a regression to the “good old days” that is often a staple in the conservative mindset. It is interesting to see that image though because it does show the idea of engineering society to account for an increasing population by having ground society and air society integrated, though it does not make sense to have such beautiful buildings in a society that cannot really admire them at all.
You did an excellent job dissecting some of the ideas shown in the image about the futuristic city. I liked that you focused less on the technical side and more about explaining mindsets and ideas. Overall an excellent presentation and a good story about past mindsets.
I really enjoyed the images that you used in your slidecast. I thought because you had such a great focus on the cultural and social values during the time period that it made it easier for the viewer to grasp what you were saying by seeing it too. Therefore, the fact that your images were so carefully chosen to exhibit exactly what your main emphasis was for that slide was definitely one of the strong suits in your slidecast. Since we focus, in class, so heavily on trying to understand what social motives instead of just technical reasons have influenced these innovations, I believe that taking this approach on focusing on these non-technical factors almost resembles a lot of our class discussions about specific technological systems.
Although I did really appreciate this approach, I agree with Matthew with that it might have been a little bit too much and I wish you would’ve dove in a little bit more into the actual technological reasons.
Lastly, I believe that the images and your tone while explaining were extremely clear and easy to follow while still managing to keep the audience engaged. My only advice is next time, just dive right into what you want to say instead of setting up and explaining what you are about to talk about (during the slide ~4 min mark) because it allows you to get even more really interesting information across (especially because you’re very good at explaining details and unpacking this story).
It seems that you constrained yourself to only addressing the content of a single image which hindered your ability to make more global and poignant commentary on the ideals of the time without spending a outside portion of the slide cast on background information.
In addition, although it is important to discuss the societal factors that influenced technological futurism, it is equally important to address the scientific advancements that create the framework for those future visions. For example, more time could have been devoted to the concept that new processes in steel manufacturing and inventions, such as the elevator, were crucial drivers that made the skyscraper possible, instead of honing in on the social context of urbanization.
There are clear areas of growth, but it is clear that the creator of this podcast is brilliant and from his wonderful narration skills I assume his is also tremendously affable and charming.