Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects

by Barbara Penner (Editor), Adrian Forty (Editor), Olivia Horsfall Turner (Editor), Miranda Critchley (Editor)

Overview

Blending architecture, design, and technology, a visual tour through futures past via the objects we have replaced, left behind, and forgotten.
 
So-called extinct objects are those that were imagined but were never in use, or that existed but are now unused—superseded, unfashionable, or simply forgotten. Extinct gathers together an exceptional range of artists, curators, architects, critics, and academics, including Hal Foster, Barry Bergdoll, Deyan Sudjic, Tacita Dean, Emily Orr, Richard Wentworth, and many more. In eighty-five essays, contributors nominate “extinct” objects and address them in a series of short, vivid, sometimes personal accounts, speaking not only of obsolete technologies, but of other ways of thinking, making, and interacting with the world. Extinct is filled with curious, half-remembered objects, each one evoking a future that never came to pass. It is also a visual treat, full of interest and delight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789144529
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	12/21/2021
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Barbara Penner is professor of architectural humanities at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. She is a contributing editor of Places Journal.


Adrian Forty is professor emeritus of architectural history at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He is the author of many books.


Olivia Horsfall Turner is a historian of architecture and design, and senior curator of designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum.


Miranda Critchley is completing her PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, on railways and colonial narratives of progress.

Table of Contents

Introduction Barbara Penner Adrian Forty Olivia Horsfall Turner Miranda Critchley 09

Acoustic Location Device Bryony Quinn 21

Action Office Acoustic Area Conditioner: The 'Maskitball' Kristen Gallerneaux 25

Air-curtain Roof Laurent Stalder 29

All-plastic House Carola Hein 33

Arsenic Wallpaper Lucinda Hawksley 37

Arundel Print Tanya Harrod 41

Asbestos-cement Rondavel Hannah le Roux 45

Ashtray Catherine Slessor 49

Atmospheric Railway Niall McLaughlin 53

Cab-fare Map Paul Dobraszczyk 57

Central Heating Mario Carpo 61

Chaparral 2J: The 'Sucker Car' Eirik A.G. Bøhn 65

Chatelaine Iris Moon 69

The Clapper Charles Rice 73

Close-constraint Key Ben Vandenput 77

Concorde Thomas McQuillan 81

ConvAirCar Emily M. Orr 85

Cybernetic Anthropomorphic Machines Lydia Kallipoliti 89

Cybersyn Hugo Palmarola Pedro Ignacio Alonso 93

Cyclegraph Barbara Penner 97

Cyclops 1 Thandi Loewenson 101

Dougong Guang Yu Ren Edward Denison 105

Dymaxion House Barry Bergdoll 109

Edison's Anti-gravitation Under-clothing Bob Nicholson 113

Electrotype Pattern Angus Patterson 117

Fisher-Price Peg Figures Mark Morris 121

Flashcube Harriet Harriss 125

Flying Boat David Edgerton 129

Glass Lantern Slide Daniel M. Abramson 133

Globe of Mars Lucy Garrett 137

High-pressure Water Mains Adrian Forty 141

House Environment Eszter Steierhoffer 145

'Hummingbird' Taxi Lucinda Hawksley 149

Incandescent Light Bulb Mari Hvattum 153

Integrated Radio/TV Cabinet Anders V. Munch 157

Invacar: The 'Invalid Carriage' Elizabeth Guffey 161

Kodachrome Tacita Dean 165

Letraset Robin Kinross 169

Leucotome Carsten Timmermann 173

Manchester Pail System: 'Dolly Vardens' Barbara Penner 177

Mechanical Polygraph Danielle S. Willkens 181

Medical Wax Model Thomas Kador 185

Memo Adrian Forty 189

Milk Spoon Hugo Palmarola 193

MiniDisc Priya Khanchandani 197

Minitel Shahed Saleem 201

Moon Towers Bryony Quinn 205

Nikini Rachel Siobhán Tyler 209

'No Nonsense' Fountain Pen Pippo Ciorra 213

North Bucks Monorail City Gillian Darley 217

Notgeld Tom Wilkinson 221

Oil from Coal David Edgerton 225

Optical Telegraph David Trotter 229

Paper Aeroplane Ticket Gökçe Günel 233

Paper Dress Olivia Horsfall Turner 237

Pasilalinic-sympathetic Compass Richard Taws 241

Phase-change Chemical Heat-storage Barrel Daniel Barber 245

Player Piano Hal Foster 249

Pneumatic Postal System Jacob Paskins 253

Polaroid SX-70 Deyan Sudjic 257

Public Standards of Length David Rooney 261

Pyrophone Tim Boon 265

Realistic Wax Mannequin Maude Bass-Krueger 269

Rotring, Letratone, MiniCAD Tony Fretton 273

Scaphander: 'Man-boat' Steven Connor 277

Scarificator Thomas Kador 281

Serving Hatch Tim Ainsworth Anstey 285

Sinclair C5 Simon Sadler 289

Skirt Grip Amyde la Haye 293

Slide Rule Adrian Forty 297

Slotted Screwdriver Richard Wentworth 301

Space Frame Catherine Slessor 305

Stanley 55 Combination Plane Nikos Magouliotis 309

Telephone Table Edwin Heathcote 313

Teletype James Purdon 317

Théâtrophone Carlotta Darò 321

Think City Electric Vehicle Kjetil Fallan 325

Trombe Wall Paul Bouet 329

T-shirt Plastic Bag Johanna Agerman Ross 333

Ultratemp® Roasting Rack Christian Parreno 337

UV-radiated Artificial Beach Maarten Liefooghe 341

Vertical Filing Cabinet Zeynep Çelik Alexander 345

Water Bag Sarah Bell 349

Writing Case Barry Curtis 353

Zeppelin Jeremy Myerson 357

Biographies 361

References and Further Reading 368

Acknowledgements 387

Photo Acknowledgements 388

Editorial Reviews

Objects have come and gone from our lives throughout history, mostly because something new has been designed to fulfill their functions more efficiently, appealingly, economically, or sustainably. Never before has this happened with such speed or on the same scale as in the digital age. Extinct is both a thoughtful and incisive analysis of the phenomenon and an engaging tribute to some of the intriguing or eccentric objects we have lost in design’s equivalent of natural selection.

Alice Rawsthorn

"Remember audio cassettes, paper airline tickets, Polaroid cameras and fountain pens? Extinct is a wonderful compendium of objects that are past their prime, but evoke nostalgia not derision. The four editors discuss eighty-five objects and the visions that drove them. The book leaves you wondering which of the objects we use today will be part of a book like this in the near future."

The Hard Copy

"The Clapper, literal snail mail, anti-gravity underwear—there are reasons why all of these objects are extinct. But now, a new book is exhuming them from the trash heap of history. In Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects, a team of professors, historians, artists, and curators seeks to understand why various objects became 'obsolete,' and what this tells us about the worlds they existed in. Modern technology now moves at a lightning pace, with endless updates to phones, cameras, and other gadgets. But the book's authors hope to challenge the assumption that things disappear due to 'inadequacy' or 'unsuitedness to their conditions.' From the defunct to the superseded, from the failed to the visionary, there can be many reasons why an invention no longer serves a purpose."

CNN Style

A truly fascinating and consistently unexpected account of a forgotten landscape of lost futures. This richly original work chronicles the designed world of the undead and, at the same time, challenges today’s easy consensus of progress and modernization. Entertaining, jolting, and scholarly, it is a superb counterblast to our own age of relentless upgrades and product improvements.

Tristram Hunt

"Extinct is an intoxicating exploration of a host of objects, systems, and protocols that are no longer in use or never made it. They are design ghosts, actively haunting the present and conjuring up alternative nested futures. Each short story becomes epic. This brilliant book is a survey of the future rather than of the past."

Beatriz Colomina

"An innovation that seemed life changing in one era might seem ridiculous or useless—or even deadly—in another. This illustrated cavalcade of inventions highlights the rise (and fall) of such things as the Concorde, arsenic wallpaper, pneumatic tubes, and flying cars."

MIT Technology Review

"A fascinating and curious read. It is host to accounts, conclusions, and warnings from the ghosts of deceased inventions and their often-haunting lives that float on beyond the grave. The authors use natural selection and evolution as an analogy to the birth, death, mutation, and rebirth of designed or ideated objects as they cycle through their usefulness and ultimate obsolescence."

departmentofinformation.org

This is a wonderfully curious book about how the ghosts of extinct inventions live on, not just in our minds but in the world around us. It is strangely addictive to discover how the epitaphs of these technologies form the blueprints of our future.

Mark Miodownik