The Concepts and, Myths of the Modern World - Essay Example

The Concepts and, Myths of the Modern World. 'Utopia', according to Krishan Kumar, is synonymous almost with the 'Good Society or the Good Time'. Ever since its first origin in the Utopia of Thomas Moore in 1516, Utopia has become a concept, resilient and changing its point concern. 'Dystopia' also termed as anti-utopia, is a fore-warning, generally of political nature, a picture some terrible happening. The commonality of the dystopian literature, is a sort of Gothic horror, as found in 'Brave New World' by Huxley's and all powerful in Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. 'Enlightenment' is a state, wherein, people concluded that discovery of the natural laws that governed human beings, and adherence to the laws can lead create an orderly, equitable, and prosperous society (Adapted from the Radical Academy, 2003). The followers were called Rationalists. The Utopians strive to banish from memory the dark struggle against feudalism in pursuit of revolutionary principles, and a new class of the industrial commoner is conceived by the application of the enlightened sciences. The concepts of Degeneration and Regeneration operate on the basis of an assumed mutual-understanding of order and chaos, function and malfunction, the normal and the pathological. It is closely associated to the ethical realm of norms and values. The concrete, spatial transgression of boundaries (between the house, the garden, the street, the country and the city, as well as between inner and outer space) found in the above, often symbolizes a transgression of conventional gender norms. (Buchholz et al, 2002). An in-depth understanding of the above can, it is argued, lead to avoidance of the deficits or malaise (this seems so normal in the dystopian scheme), of the modern world. Modern Conditioning in Relation to Geographies. In ancient civilizations like the Mesopotamian, the 'juridico-discursive' power is entirely at the hands of a 'sovereign authority who exercised absolute control over the population through the threat or open display of violence' (Foucault, 1978). Bentham's concept of 'Panoticon' or the 'Inspection House' symbolizes this authority transferred to buildings in (especially constructed in circular forms) wherein people were to be kept under Surveillance or inspection. This is, particularly applicable to "Penitentiary-Houses, Prisons, Hospitals, Schools, Industrial Houses, Poor-houses, Lazarettos and Mad-houses" (Bentham, 1787). Surveillance, becomes an important tool of the state is but, a sort of mapping of contours, geographies, and finally human beings too. Modern states also used such "thematic mapping technologies", a notable one, being "the cadastral map, which record land ownership and resource characteristics" (Goss, Jon. 1995). Constant surveillance which, when internalized, as in "disciplining the body, takes hold of the mind as well to induce a psychological state of 'conscious and permanent visibility" (Foucault 1977). It then becomes a disciplinary power that is used directly on the body, and collectively, to control social groups. Foucault speaks of the structured ways of knowing and exercising this power, in respect of Body, Power and the Sexuality; Subjectivity, identity and resistance; and Freedom, power and Politics.( Armstrong,2005). Speed: Relationship between new technologies, spaces and new identities. Speed is inversely proportional to the time within which a work is done. It is something that man, by conscious reformation of his techniques, "more conscious that ever of himself and his time in life," (Kudera, 1996) has brought in with the technical revolution. This revolution is evident in the rampant automation of many every-day processes. Asger Jorn(1958), elucidates the process of automation as something that progressive and, "adds more than it replaces or suppresses." The invention of the bi-cycle, can be said as the first step. Constant improvisation lead to rapid industrialization (mass production), the off-shoot of which is the railroad system. The fascination for Speed not only lead to degeneration of distances but also, was frightening as well, leading to the connection between the railroad ride and the sublime experience (Nye, 1994). People transcended the space of distances in shorter durations. It was thought that railway would stimulate the commerce, populate hitherto empty regions and unite the nation; later petroleum and electricity, empowered railroads and now automobile, air-planes and even space-ships, to quickly move products/people. As Nye ultimately highlights in his work, it is the differences between natural and the newly blossoming technological sublime, which makes an interesting study. While the natural sublime served to remind people of the smallness in size in contrast to the world, the technological sublime served to point out, how they are yet able to conquer this vast landscape by means of the technology. Communication: from the Telegraph to the Internet One can argue that, the age of Information began in 1844; the invention of telegraph the speed of information transfer was independent on the speed of human travel. The telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, followed by mobile phones revolutionized the communication systems. The ultra-modern invention of computer-systems and, their networking are a wonder, which have helped transcend the space of time and distance in communication. 'Annihilation of distance' is a phrase coined by Frances Cairncross, meaning 'the death of distance,' suggesting that distance may no longer be a limiting factor in people's ability to communicate. The Business Week describes the modern technology of Internet as "a revolution that impacts each of our lives," " It is being used for applications as far flung as finding delinquent tax-payers, developing pizza delivery routes and setting insurance rates. It is even being used to increase the impact of the "junk" mail you receive. In medical applications too, their use has been acknowledged by the National Library of Medicine. The cell phone or a networked personal computer has a vast reach and is anything but natural or neutral, but with the development of e-business and e-commerce, the control of e-stocks, and rise and fall of financial empires, technology certainly adds a new dimension in the spatial geography (Robinson, 2001). The Modern Metropolis "The individual has become a mere cog in an enormous organization of things and powers" and individuality is the basis on which all intimate emotional relations between persons are founded; whereas in rational relations man is reckoned with like a number, like an element, totally indifferent (Simmel, 1908). Money, in the modern world, becomes the common denominator of all values; the development of culture is characterized by the preoccupation the "objective spirit" over the "subjective spirit. The objective culture is defined as the collection of rules, tools, symbols and products created by human beings and the subjective culture is what individuals have been able to absorb and integrate into them-selves from the objective culture. Metropolitan life places the utmost importance to stable but impersonal time schedule. It is opposite nature of the small circle in which the inevitable knowledge of individuality as inevitably produces a warmer tone of behavior, a behavior which is more than just balancing of service and return. There seems to be in the metropolitan style, direct dissociation in reality, in one of its elemental forms which is socialization (Simmel, 1908). Le Bon offers insight into the psychology of crowds; understood as slight in acting of laws and institutions, the powerless to hold opinions other than those which are imposed upon them. A conceived a link between the new social and environmental conditions of the metropolis and psychological state of continuity, the urban dweller, described by Richard Sinnett & H. P. Blavatsky's passive and comfortable concepts adapted in public spaces. During an active period, promulgates "an expansion of this Divine essence from without inwardly and from within outwardly, .. the passive condition is resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence takes place, and the previous work of creation is gradually and progressively undone." It has strong connotations to the destruction and re-construction of modern cities (like Paris, Berlin etc,) as dictated by the changes in mobility, economy, technology and infrastructure which all go in the making of the Metropolis. The Relevance of Psycho-geography in Modern Geography Psychogeography is defined as "The study of specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals"(Situationniste Internationale, 1958). It was first developed by the 'Lettrist International,' as part of their system of unitary urbanism. It has since evolved to encomapss many things; "psycho geography is one antithetical pole among many which realizes the conflict between our idealized role as citizens and our subjectivity arising from the material conditions of our life"(Psycho geography, 2005). Psycho geography and Walter Benjamin are closely associated because his interpretations help us change our perceptions of the familiar. As Voorthuis puts it, "Benjamin removes the distortions we have grown accustomed to and substitutes these for new distortions to develop fresh strategies to approach your own problems and your own interpretation of events" (1999). 'Phantasmagorical' is explained as 'fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever, 2. Fantastic imagery as represented in art (Farlex, 2005). Avant-garde in French means 'advance guard'; a small band of avant-garde artists and intellectuals influenced by Dada, Surrealism and Letterism gave rise to the "Situationists movement". And these 'Situationists' have serviced us with "their critique of modern culture, their celebration of creativity, and their stress on the immediate transformation of everyday life" (Marshall, 2000). Woman & Departmental Store in the Modern World Until the late eighteenth century women had hardly any role to play except as domestic characters. Though some women managed to enter some parts of the male domain like paintings etc, in early nineteenth century it seemed that 'the ideology of women's place in the domestic realm permeated the whole of society' (Wolff, 1985). The ideological middle class woman (including working), were mentally restricted to the private sphere, and were barred from city life, bars, and cafs to the respectable woman. However, by late nineteenth century, the church was replaced by shopping as an important activity for women; "the rise of the department store and of the consumer society providing a highly legitimate, if limited, participation in the public sphere."(Wolff, 1990). As to Butler states Women's identity, 'a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being' (Butler, 1990). This liberalism gave rise to sensual identification and increased sexuality in women. "The high point of the nineteenth-century shopping revolution was the creation of the department store. Like the arcades, the boulevard and the caf, this was an environment half-public, half-private, and it was a space that women were able to inhabit comfortably".(Wilson, 1992) The 'Commodification' means: 'assigning an economic value to something that would not be traditionally considered in economic terms, (Wikipedia, 2005). ex. Sex, and sexuality became a marketed commodity, something to be bought and sold rather than freely exchanged, in the modern city. The Female Gender and the Metropolis Elizabeth Wilson (1992) discusses in detail the relationship of women to cities. The birth of the modern cities or the Metropolis offered hitherto unheard of possibilities to wealth and changed living. The abundance of "public places of pleasure and interest created a new kind of public person with the leisure to wander, watch and browse" (Wilson, 1992). And grisettes, who are women from humble backgrounds who, form relationships with students, public women, painters, governesses, clerks, factory workers, all find their meeting place in such public spaces, " who have few opportunities for strolling and gazing at shop windows during the week...all took the opportunity of gazing their fill on Sundays" (Wilson, 1992). While 'Public women' or prostitutes are frowned upon to be "metaphor for disorder and the overturning of the natural hierarchies and institutions of society", others like the woman painter are found to be interesting. The role of dandies, women waitress, manageress, enriched the canvas in rich and bright hues. In patriarchal structures, woman is thought of as other mysterious half, (enigma), therefore considered as outside of (male) language (Ann Kaplan). However, 'the special provisions to ensure that women felt comfortable' spread rapidly, "ladies-only dining rooms, and the opening of West End establishments, such as the Criterion (1874), which specifically catered for women."(Wilson. 1992) She also sums up the position of women in the Metropolis the best: "Their financial position notwithstanding, women's independence does seem to have increased when they lived in towns. Nevertheless, they certainly remained badly off by comparison with men of their own class. The majority of women led insecure lives at best." Making the modern: World Fairs and Exhibitions "The Century" segment of ABC Nightly News on Friday, May 28, 1999, dealt with the 1939 presentation of the NYWF. The timeline says, "New York wanted to build the "World of Tomorrow," and made progress the central theme of the fair". Exhibitions served as doorways of knowledge about history through myriad disciplines - geology, natural history, archaeology, and anthropology and of course the latest branches of geography. The words of Prince Albert 1851, the first ever of such an event, at the opening of the fair: "a living picture of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived in this great task, and a new starting-point from which all nations will be able to direct their further exertions." Exhibitions show, in the words of Jack Crowley, "that there are moments where you can see the world turning from what it is into what it will be". Exhibitions are public places in which the people can be educated and impressed upon about art, science, future etc. and this according to Le Bon is a powerful mental disciplinary tool, of the modern state; "to know the art of impressing the imagination of crowds is to know at the same time the art of governing them."(Le Bon, 1896). New experiences like the Parachute Jump (1939 WF), The Queens Museum of Art in Flushing, Art Exhibits of the French, German, and some unforgettable events like "the 10,000,000 volt lightning display at the fair was a dressed up copy of the lightning equipment in the high voltage laboratory in the General Electric Pittsfield, MA large transformer plant" and "mighty Railroads on Parade and Railroads at Work" (NYWF, 1996) were spectacular ever. As Lewis Mumford sums up Exhibitions, "as members of a great metropolis, to think of the world at large, we may lay the foundation for a pattern of life which would have an enormous impact in times to come".(1937) The "Picture-house" as a Modern place Cinema was first termed as movies or moving pictures. In the history of Motion Pictures, most films were silent and short. Though initially viewed for the novelty, in the early 1910's, silent films became more complex and lengthy becoming, increasingly an art form and literary form (Yahnke, 1996). The Movies proved to be powerful reflections that lay threadbare the identity, societal institutions and political power struggles that remained as constructed entities in the Metropolis. The feeling of eeriness in cinema plays on the medium's subjective nature, and, demands the cinemagoer to fill silences and darkness with their own imagination, bringing their own take on anxiety into the mix of experience (McKenzie, 2003). Conventions of discourse developed, in cinema, as the viewing, and consuming subject was introduced to and moved through the discourse. As Walter Benjamin argues "the presence of the original [was] the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity" while in Cinema, "the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility" (1969). Film is, in this sense, a representation of itself-something consumed without a material trace. (Keller, 1991) The cinema also, provided one of few acceptable spaces for women in the public sphere. The city and its markets and squares and theaters of all kinds propelled women into the public as never before and their new status as public figures, ratified by both the marketplace and increasing progressive political and social activity. Fire Over England in 1937 & The Private Life of Henry VIII in 1933, are some of the early British movies screened for the public. Space and Time within the Modern Factory Thompson, states, that one of the most important feature of capitalism in industries, was the capacity to impose a work discipline with uniform and regular patterns, and also eliminating the possibility of self-organizing.(1967). "Factories" is a term consisting of two economic phenomena namely, a) the many artisans were collectively made to work in place, called 'manufactories' and b) the other which involved more investment in terms of money and discipline, and more importantly a radical change in production technique, called 'mills'. The Industrial Revolution brought about new factories wherein there were previously none. (Mokyr, 2001) As Benjamin quotes Engels from the latter's book "The Condition of the Working Class in England", he remarks about the industrialization of London, "colossal centralization, this agglomeration of three and a half million people on a single spot has multiplied the strength of these three and a half million inhabitants a hundredfold" (Benjamin, 1987). This made surveillance, possible in order to negotiate the pay or the wages. The offshoot of such large factories, was that they forced small cottage industries to close down, since large manufacturing brought the prices down. As the techniques became more and more refined, the labor force was divided on the basis of knowledge and skill they were able acquire. The faster they adapted the better the pay. In Simmel's words "the nineteenth century demanded the functional specialization {1} of man and his work; this specialization makes one individual incomparable to another,however, this specialization makes each man the more directly dependent upon the supplementary activities of all others"( 1903). Modernity and the Holocaust The nineteenth saw much of 'bourgeois' culture transform into a celebration of Aryan and German rites and myths, later incorporated into the Nazi cult. At a slightly later period, Stalinist concepts were preached in Russia. In 1914, with the outbreak of war, the first Fascist groups emerged, they united with hatred of the workers' independent organizations and "foreign" or "Jewish" ideas like Communism, Marxism and Liberalism. The Nazis, isolated and oppressed the Jewish population. They targeted and confiscated the Jewish property, and issued special identity cards that separated the Jews. After 1938 (The Crystal Night), the atrocities intensified. Zygmunt Bauman(1991) explains, that the entire Jewish population came under the control of Nazi Germany; often forced into the Polish cities, inescapable ghettos and were shot at directly, along with Communists and Gypsies. In 1941, the Wannsee-conference, saw the commingling of all the anti-semitic joining hands, "where the formal foundations of what we call the Holocaust were laid." (Eriksson) Camps looked like factories wherein, they were sorted into two groups of well and fit, and the unfit. They were viewed as unworthy raw material for experiments. The enormity of the holocaust can be gauged by mere figures - about five and six million Jews were killed; but it was especially horrible because, they were exterminated simply because they were Jews. The Schindler's List, by far the most viewed movie on the subject, in which Spielberg has attempted to mimally re-create the concentration camps, haunts the human psyche, even today. The Construction of the Bomb as a modern event. At the time of World War II, came forward willingly in great numbers, both for technological and organizational assistance to the Allied effort; in order to counter the potential dangers of the Nazis and Facist Italy, and developed powerful tools as radar, the proximity fuse. A glimpse into the history of American Atomic Culture brings up the name, Manhattan Project. Operating from three main sites and employing as many as 125,000 people at one time, it was secretly executed in vast sites (one nearly as large as a state), hidden in mountains, or set in desert lands bounded by layers of wall, fences, security patrols, guards: in order to invent and manufacture the most destructive and dangerous weapons in the history of humankind The Atom Bomb. The program was carried out ensuring secrecy and security on the project. For this a number of techniques including the invention, manipulation, and transformation of languages: spoken and written, but also visual, gestural and symbolic were practiced. Thus the Manhattan Engineer District created a new form of American cultural landscape with a single, focused, Herculean goal in mind which was to be prepared to attack the Japanese with the atomic Bomb (Atomic Spaces, 1996). The consequent physical landscapes manufactured by the Manhattan Engineer District, reflected a complex and evolving ideology, blending corporate capitalism, government social management, and military codes of coercion and obedience, into a new sort of alternative culture (Atomic Spaces, 1996). Finally, on August 6, 1945, a uranium bomb niknamed 'The Little Boy' was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The 'Fat Man' plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, three days later. The bombs killed hundreds of thousands of civilians immediately and many more over time. Many scientists and military involved in the program were later filled with remorse at the weapon's killing power after it was used to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Wikipedia, 2005). The modern world is more under threat of destruction, as it gets more globalized, because of the inherent power stuggles and terrorist wars. Theme Parks in the Modern Urban Space Walter Benjamin (1935) in his 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', has devoted detailed articles on the famous Mickey Mouse. Esther Leslie (1930), takes a positive view of the seriousness behind the business, "modernist theorists and artists were fascinated by cartoons' (v), the 'relationship between intellectuals and popular culture was productive in the sense that both intellectuals and mass culture producers recognized, in some way". Walter Elias Disney, struggled to create a modern amusement park. As Disney himself said, "I don't want the public to see the real world they live in while they're in the park.... I want them to feel they're in another world" (King, 1981). Disney foresaw the theme park as an ideal small world. And he succeeded in creating that other world; a sort of "symbolic American utopia" Henry A. Giroux puts it "Disney's power lies, in part, in its ability to tap into the lost hopes, abortive dreams, and utopian potential of popular culture". Common Public Places have always been the breeding places of pleasure and politics in the modern society. For a democracy to flourish there must be sufficient energy-filled spaces, where groups/individuals exchange their point of view. And that is precisely what Walt Disney has tried to convey in the various exhibits; fulfilling serious business interests while offering invaluable entertainment to the public who then become both consumers and spectators. (Villmoare & Stillman, 2002) Global Telematic systems Niles (1998), writes on Telematics, the result of "marrying computers and telecommunications is described variously by optimists and pessimists: Information overload. More opportunity. More security. Less privacy. More control. More unknowns. Shopping and managing financial investments from work. Friction-free capitalism". With the expedition of the communication process, the Modern society has successfully annihilated Time. It is now possible to communicate without physically moving to the destination; which can be powerful tool of surveillience, as the Panopticon Jeremy Bentham(1787) puts it, the "apparent omnipresence of the inspector (if divines will allow me the expression,) combined with the extreme facility of his real presence." The latest of the modern telematics is one of the most wonderful and useful for mapping systems. It is called GIS. It stands for Geographic Information Systems, spatially-oriented computer systems that "map" that makes the distribution transparent. In a broader sense, GIS makes use of computer software for translating information into a spatial format that can then be overlaid onto maps. (Rick Jonasse, 1995). And, because GIS inherently uses software that translates mathematical data into a spatial format, it can hide the way that numbers have been "tweaked" so that the same set of information can be presented in any way required by the end user. This gives rise to enormous possibilities to map anything from cancer to the results of the opinion polls. (Adapted from Rick Jonasse, 1995). Telecommunications, including wireless and the Internet, is thus a powerful tool to restructure the internal organizational processes and external customer service routines; however a word of caution must be stated here that the same can be used as tools of intrusion into privacy and unseen and invisible watch the user. Also there is the possibility of "balkanization and an overemphasis on individual interest articulation at the expense of interest aggregation" (Niles , 1998). List of References for "Some common concepts and Myths of the Modern World." Buchholz, Sabine, Andrea Gutenberg & Natascha Wrzbach (2002) "Group Project - Modernity in England (ca. 1914-1939)." English 13.2, 73-87. Huxley, Aldous, (1984), "The Brave New World". Krishan Kumar (1987), "Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times" Basil Blackwell. Moore, Sir Thomas (1516) "Utopia" Cambridge University Press 1995. Orwell, George, (1949) "Nineteen Eighty four" Signet Book; Reissue edition (May, 1990) The Radical Academy: http://radicalacademy.com/adiphilrationalism.htm Schfer, Martin (1979), "The Rise and Fall of Antiutopia: Utopia, Gothic Romance, Dystopia" Science Fiction Studies, #19 = Volume 6, Part 3. Benjamin, Walter (1940), "Thesis on the Philosophy of History," trans. Harry Zohn. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml List of References for Speed: Relationship between new technologies, spaces and new identities. Asger Jorn(1958), "Les situationnistes et l'automation" Trans: a.h.s. boy, Internationale Situationniste #1 Kudera, Milan (1996), "Slowness". Nye, E. David (1994), "The Railroad: The Dynamic Sublime in American Technological Sublime" MIT Press, Cambridge, MA List of References for Modern Conditioning in Relation to Geographies. Armstrong, Aurelia (2005), "Foucault and Feminism", The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. www.iep.utm.edu/f/foucfem.htm Bentham, Jeremy (1787), "The Panopticon Writings". Ed. Miran Bozovic (London: Verso, 1995). p. 29-95 Foucault, M. (1977), "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison," trans. A. Sheridan, Harmondsworth: Peregrine. Foucault, M. (1978), "Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984", L. Kritzman (ed.), London: Routledge, Goss, Jon (April 1995), "'We Know Who You Are and We Know Where You live': The Instrumental Rationality of Geodemographic Systems", in Economic Geography 71, 2 Sawicki, J., (1998) 'Feminism, Foucault and "Subjects" of Power and Freedom' in 'The Later Foucault: politics and philosophy,' J. Moss (ed.), London; Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. www.uwgb.edu/urs/Ray_Hutchison_web_pages/ Metropolis%20&%20Mental%20Life.htm List of References for Communication: from the Telegraph to the Internet Business Week. "GIS: Special Advertising Section." Business Week. (July, 1) 1991. Cairncross Frances (1977), "The Economist Magazine and The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives" Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. James W. Carey and John J. Quirk(1973), "The History of the Future", Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (New York and London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 179-80 Robinson, Wendy (2001), "Technological Futures and Determinisms: Technoculture and Progressive Embodiment, Precedent, Causality and Marketplace Choice", Michigan State University. List of References for The Modern Metropolis George Simmil (1903), "The Metropolis and Mental Life", adapted by D. Weinstein from KurtWolff (Trans.) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, 1950, pp.409-424 Gustave Le Bon, (1921) The Crowd: a study of the popular mind. T. Fisher and Unwin, London. The Theosophical Enquirer (2002), Richard Sinnett & H. P. Blavatsky's 'Theosophical Teachings as to Nature and Man' The Secret Doctrine, PROEM, pg 4. The Relevance of Psycho-geography in Modern Geography The Free Dictionary (2005), By Farlex, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/phantasmagoria Marshall, Peter (2000), 'Guy Debord and the Situationists' Demanding the Impossible 2000. www.nothingness.org Situationniste Internationale (1958) , Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation, in Situationniste Internationale No. 1 . Voorthuis, Jacob (1999),"Walter Benjamin ,Ambling Through the City of a Mind", Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml References for Woman & Departmental Store in the Modern World Butler, J(1990), 'Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity', NY: Routledge. Elizabeth Wilson, 1992 "The Invisible Flaneur", New Left Review 191, 90-110. Janet Wolff (1985), 'The Invisible Flneuse: Women and the Literature of Modernity', Theory Culture and Society, special issue, 'The Fate of Modernity', vol. 2, no. 37, Janet Wolff (1990), 'Feminism and Modernism', in Janet Wolff, Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture, Cambridge. p. 58. Wikipedia, (2005), "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodification" Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. References for The Female Gender and the Metropolis E. Ann Kaplan, 'Is the Gaze Male', in Snitow, Stansell and Thompson, eds., Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, p. 321. Elizabeth Wilson, 1992 "The Invisible Flaneur", New Left Review 191, 90-110. Elizabeth Wilson, 1992 "The Invisible Flaneur", page 6. (Ibid, p 23) References for Making the modern: World Fairs and Exhibitions John Crowley (1939), The World of Tomorrow - The New York World Fair (1939- 1940, NY. Le Bon, Le Bon, Gustave (1896), "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind", Macmillan & Co NY. Lewis Mumford (1938), "The Culture of Cities. New York", Harcourt Brace and Co., 'NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1939-1940' by Alan Anderson , 1996. http://members.aol.com/bbqprod/bbqprod.html. Feb. 11, 1998, Bob Hafstrom's e-mail to Alan Anderson. Prince Albert, (1851), Exhibition, London's Great Exhibition of 1851; The Crystal Palace. http://www.mcgill.ca/mchg/cp/crystal.html The Iconography of Hope: The 1939-40 New York World's Fair, http://xroads.virginia.edu/1930S/DISPLAY/39wf/front.htm "The Century", ABC Nightly News on Friday, May 28, 1999. List of References for The "Picture-house" as a Modern place Keller, Alexandra (1991, 1994), "Disseminations of Modernity: Representation and Consumer Desire in Early Mail-Order Catalogs", http://content.cdlib.org/cinema and the invention of modern life McKenzie, Simon (2003), The City of Absurdity, "More Deeply Lost: Lost highway and the Tradition of Alienation in Film Noir - An examination of the contemporary noir phenomenon and its wider cultural significance" David Lynch Papers. Walter Benjamin (1969), "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books,) p. 220. Yahnke, Robert (1996), "Cinema History, Chapter 1, Films from the Silent Era", http://www.tc.umn.edu-Cinema history: Films from the Silent Era. List of References for Space and Time within the Modern Factory George Simmil (1903), "The Metropolis and Mental Life", adapted by D. Weinstein from KurtWolff (Trans.) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, 1950, pp.409-424 Thompson, E. P. (1967), "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism" Past and Present 28, 56-97. Walter Benjamin, (1987), "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in his Illuminations". www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_qa3657/is_200506/ai_n14682420 - 30k List of Reference for Modernity and the Holocaust Eriksson, Inge. Last accessed on 31st, Oct, 2005, "The Holocaust -An attempt to explain the inexplicable" , University lecturer at Malmo University, Sweden, in personal capacity http://www.marxist.com/History/holocaust.html Schindler's List, (dir. Steven Spielberg), 1993 Zymund Baumann (1991), "Modernity and the Holocaust, Polity", Cambridge Press. List of References for The Construction of the Bomb as a modern event. Atomic Spaces: (1996), Living on the Manhattan Project, Peter Bacon Hales, the University of Illinois Press. http://tigger.uic.edu/pbhales/atomicspaces/intro Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Robert Oppenheimer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer List of References for Theme Parks in the Modern Urban Space Adelaide H. Villmoare and Peter G. Stillman (2002), "Pleasure and Politics in Disney's Utopia", Canadian Review of American Studies - Issue 32:1 Giroux, Henry A. (1999), "The Mouse that Roared. Lanham," MD: Rowman & Littlefield . King, Margaret. (1981): "Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form." Journal of Popular Culture 15, 1 116-40. Walter Benjamin (1935) , 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction'. List of References for Global Telematic systems Bentham, Jeremy (1787), "The Panopticon Writings". Ed. Miran Bozovic (London: Verso, 1995). p. 29-95 John S. Niles (1998), "Telecommunications' Big Idea", Global Telematics, NTQ (New Telecom Quarterly), Volume 6, Number 4, Fourth Quarter. Rick Jonasse, (1995), "What is GIS" , ComNotes, University of California. Read More