Paleotechnic News

Abstract

The Paleotechnic era of Patrick Geddes is a time characterized by wasting of contaminating energies, coal dirt, factories’ fires, industrial fumes and gases from lighting and heating. A new visual culture arises from the vision of this world of smoke and fire, based on representations of hell from the paintings of John Martin and others, the fantastic shows of smoke and lighting effects as the Diorama, the Phantasmagorias and theatrical entertainments of ghosts and graveyards. The Gothic imagery that emerged from this new culture feeds the fantasies of artists of the time such as the magical world of Charlotte Brontë. The public, influenced by this literature and the visual shows as well as fashion and decoration magazines, looks for a domestic romantic life suggested by shady environments illuminated by dim lights. Goethe, sensitive to color and light, reveals these environments in his novels. Balzac, extends and complements the moral and economic description of the society of his time, describing the state and color of the upholstery and the scrim walls of Parisian homes belonging to upper and lower classes.