"The Decorated Machine" at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Decorated Machine, a temporary exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, explored the aesthetic standards applied to American-made machines in the 19th century. Two schools of thought emerged: one favored strict functionalism, and another preferred additional design elements consistent with popular taste in other areas. Most of the artifacts displayed were examples of the latter, while a careful balance of viewpoints was presented by the text on freestanding wall panels. The exhibit was tightly focused, and its theme is not trivial. At a time when the direction of the interaction between technology and culture is under vigorous discussion,' this exhibit reminded us that identical standards were applied to objects in both the manufacturing and consuming sectors and that the transition in taste from Victorian embellishment to modern streamlined functionalism (sometimes referred to as machine style) was approximately simultaneous across sectors

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Engineering physics · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Functionalism (philosophy of mind) · Gray (unit) · Political science · Sociology · Style (visual arts) · Taste · Theme (computing) · Viewpoints · Visual arts · Wright · Architecture · Architecture, Design, and Social History · Art, Technology, and Culture · Computer Science · Engineering · History · Law · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Philosophy