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Extinct
Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects | Barbara Penner, Adrian Forty, Olivia Horsfall Turner, Miranda Critchley
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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 So-called extinct objects are those that were imagined but were never in use, or that existed but are now unused—superseded, unfashionable, or simply forgotten.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.
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Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects | Barbara Penner, Adrian Forty, Olivia Horsfall Turner, Miranda Critchley
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book of 2-3 page essays about objects and ideas that enter our culture either as essential threads in the social fabric, or as fun and modish niche elements, with an ephemerality that may not be apparent but which always assets itself.
The focus is on Western culture, and I'd like to see a companion volume taking in other cultures, as those things we've lost or given up are as telling as those things we hold onto.

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Bookwomble
Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects | Barbara Penner, Adrian Forty, Olivia Horsfall Turner, Miranda Critchley
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"This book is a collection of objects that once populated the world, but do so no longer."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

I'm about halfway through this collection of 85 short essays about defunct and superceded objects and the ideas they manifested. I'm really enjoying it, and while each essay is brief, the information density of reading them in one consecutive stretch is cognitively demanding, so I'm taking a brief break to rest my ?

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