Hello, beautiful. No, not you. That animated GIF of a wonderfully curvy Coronet Super 12 typewriter. Oh and that one of TEAC reel-to-reel tapedeck and the Bell & Howe Super 8 projector. Actually, all of the images in Jim Golden’s new project “Relics of Technology” are just great.
Golden’s known for strikingly simple and almost geometric photographs of things organised neatly, anything from hair barrettes to camping gear. This time, though, his focus has shifted towards obsolete gadgets that he decided to showcase using an old but immortal image format. Golden explains in an artist’s statement:
The seeds for the Relics of Technology project started when I found a brick cell phone at a thrift store in rural Oregon. Since finding it, similar bits and pieces of old technology and media kept grabbing my attention. The fascination was equal parts nostalgia for the forms, and curiosity as to what had become of them. One thing led to another and I was on a hunt for groups of media and key pieces of technology, most of which have now been downsized to fit in the palm of our hand. These photos are reminders that progress has a price and our efforts have an expiration date.
Well, that’s a pretty heady way of putting it. The images also showcase well how the design of technology has evolved — or some might say devolved — from the era of chrome and curves to the plasticky 90s. And although they don’t exactly show all the moving parts, the GIFs really make the gadgets come alive. [designboom]
