Accelerating modernity: time-space compression in the wake of the aeroplane

TY - JOUR

T1 - Accelerating modernity: time-space compression in the wake of the aeroplane

AU - Simonsen, Dorthe Gert

PY - 2005

Y1 - 2005

N2 - The acceleration of transport in the modern era has been linked to a continuous process of time-space compression. This article suggests a more diverse view of the social construction of speed, time and space by comparing two significant modernist perceptions of the flying machine. The speed of the aeroplane led the Italian avant-garde movement Futurism to proclaim the annihilation of time and space and the “plasticity” of reality in the 1910s. Two decades later, the Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier reached quite different conclusions. The shifting significations and the temporal/spatial implications of speed are proposed as a central and prolific theme in the history of transport.

AB - The acceleration of transport in the modern era has been linked to a continuous process of time-space compression. This article suggests a more diverse view of the social construction of speed, time and space by comparing two significant modernist perceptions of the flying machine. The speed of the aeroplane led the Italian avant-garde movement Futurism to proclaim the annihilation of time and space and the “plasticity” of reality in the 1910s. Two decades later, the Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier reached quite different conclusions. The shifting significations and the temporal/spatial implications of speed are proposed as a central and prolific theme in the history of transport.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - historie

KW - tid-rum kompression

KW - teknologi og kultur

KW - hastighed

KW - flyvningens historie

KW - history

KW - time-space compression

KW - technology and culture

KW - speed

KW - history of aviation

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0022-5266

VL - Vol. 2

SP - 98

EP - 117

JO - Journal of Transport History

JF - Journal of Transport History

IS - 6/2

ER -