The Personal Transport Railway System (1972), by Noah Steinberg

4 Responses to "The Personal Transport Railway System (1972), by Noah Steinberg"

Vinay Ghai says:

April 25, 2014 at 9:02 pm

I thought this was a really good presentation. The analysis of the article and especially the explanation of the way that the images of the article contradicted each other was excellent, as was the consideration given to the popular ideas of the time. I also enjoyed the looking back to the origin of futuristic cars and how they progressed to see how these railway pods were influenced in design and purpose – two-seats versus four seats, and should you be driving with a significant other, or with business partners, etc. In addition, the in-depth analysis of the context of the images, in particular the promise of the government to citizens that the future was coming, was very good, and brought up fine points about the desires of the time – especially spaciousness and visual aesthetics – that may have further influenced the design of the pods. I also enjoyed the use of music in the background, it worked well with the tone of the piece and brought the whole thing together. I can’t really think of any huge critical points that diminished the quality of the slidecast. I thought it was a really well-done piece overall.

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Brandon Smith says:

April 27, 2014 at 10:06 pm

The arguments in the slidecast were all very well thought out, and were presented quite well. The detail you went into in explaining each picture in the article was fascinating. I read the article you were talking about during the course of my own research, but I hadn’t noticed some of things you pointed out in the pictures—namely, that there were still cars below the PTR and that some pictures had double tracks while others were single-tracked—until watching your slidecast. The point about how many pods would be appropriate in a city was also a very good point. The music in background definitely helped keep me interested throughout the whole thing, but it wasn’t so overpowering as to drown out everything else. One thing about the slidecast that wasn’t top-notch was the final point about how a presentist viewpoint was the best way to look at the PTR system. Your description seemed to be more post-humanist than presentist.

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Megan Reiling says:

April 28, 2014 at 12:17 am

This presentation is very thorough and detailed in all aspects. Your analysis of each picture was very thorough in the way you frequently referenced concepts we talked about in class as well as the tiny details in the picture, particularly the first/main picture. I particularly liked how you summarized the values at the end of the first set of pictures. Personally, it helped me retain more of the information. One of the biggest ideas we’ve been talking about is the notion of progress, for example, when you showed the picture of the PTR and said how it was supposed to replace cars, meanwhile the rail which it is built on obstructs the middle of the road that is still in use by cars. In the presentation you mention how this it’s ironic, but I think it speaks more to the question of progress. Lastly, I liked the creativity with the slide transitions and background music that wasn’t distracting – they finished off the presentation nicely.

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Kristen Propst says:

April 28, 2014 at 1:35 pm

I really enjoyed how this presentation and thought the introduction was a good way to peak interesting in the project. Also the music made it interesting and kept me focused, although if you use music in the next slidecast maybe use less sleepy sounding music. I also liked the thorough background on the railroads and cars of the time. I also like how you took apart each of the pictures to find flaws and logical issues in the system. I saw these pictures while doing my own research previously and had not picked out nearly as many details as you had. I also thought the four person theory was remarkable and caused me to think more critically of pictures I used in my own presentation. Overall, I think it was one of the best slidecasts and that the use of music and transitions made it on the whole a very interesting presentation.

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