The Machine Age

The period of technological optimism coincided with the pre-World War I era, often gaining the moniker ‘Machine Age,’ whereby modernism and modernity combined to influence fields ranging from art and architecture to business and politics. Positing the values of such an era, its proponents also attacked previous historical ages, emphasizing the purity of the machine. Despite the horrors of mass warfare, the optimism accompanying the machine age never disappeared despite heavy social criticisms leveled against it.

Over half-a-century ago, Reyner Banham exposed the shortcomings of the machine age, acknowledging nevertheless that its many iterations provided the foundation for a ‘new go at it’ in the 1960s. Shifting away from the architectural realm with which the machine age is associated, I suggest applying Gaston Bachelard’s position that ‘Science does not correspond to a world to be described. It corresponds to a world to be constructed.’

To do so, I review the evolution of the concept as it shifted away from architecture towards a consumption of aesthetics, and I suggest that only by borrowing from other fields can we make better sense of what the ‘machine age’ entailed. Rather than a dichotomy between enslavement and open exploration, the machine age incorporated multiple origins and perceptions that in turn channeled so many inquiries that these confused the term’s origins and intent. In so doing, however, such interrogations also cleared the way for a shift away from machinery in favor of other ages this panel discusses.