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@article{ART003014573},
author={Jae-Joon Lee},
title={Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism},
journal={The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art},
issn={1229-0246},
year={2023},
volume={70},
pages={148-167},
doi={10.17527/JASA.70.0.07}

TY - JOUR
AU - Jae-Joon Lee
TI - Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism
JO - The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art
PY - 2023
VL - 70
IS - null
PB - 한국미학예술학회
SP - 148
EP - 167
SN - 1229-0246
AB - Critical realism, constructivist sociology of science, science and technology politics, and new materialism all strive to elucidate the continuity between science and technology and culture. These theoretical perspectives grapple with scientific knowledge itself as well as its existence distinct from anthropocentric knowledge. They argue that contemporary science and technology do not operate outside of capitalism and that their relationship with culture is similarly constructed. With this theoretical background, the article focuses on several events that occurred in late 1930s in the United States, a time when consumer capitalism was taking shape. The New York World’s Fair (1939-40), Westinghouse’s film The Middleton Family (1939), and the robot Elektro (1937) are the subjects of investigation. The New York World’s Fair combined an image of the future of consumption with science and technology. It served as a device to process consumption into a form of cultural capital and to reproduce science and technology as cultural capital. Westinghouse’s film and the robot were part of such devices operating as propaganda. In particular, the robot functioned as a spectacle that reproduced an image of cutting-edge products of the future and encoded the male-centeredness of technology and women as consumers. These can be referred to as the “theater of science and technology” of the 1930s.
KW - Aesthetics of Science and Technology;Consumer Capitalism;Middleton Family;New York World’s Fair;Robot Elektro;Theater of Science and Technology;Westinghouse
DO - 10.17527/JASA.70.0.07
ER -

Jae-Joon Lee. (2023). Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, 70, 148-167.

Jae-Joon Lee. 2023, "Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism", The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, vol.70, pp.148-167. Available from: doi:10.17527/JASA.70.0.07

Jae-Joon Lee "Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 70 pp.148-167 (2023) : 148.

Jae-Joon Lee. Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism. 2023; 70 148-167. Available from: doi:10.17527/JASA.70.0.07

Jae-Joon Lee. "Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 70(2023) : 148-167.doi: 10.17527/JASA.70.0.07

Jae-Joon Lee. Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, 70, 148-167. doi: 10.17527/JASA.70.0.07

Jae-Joon Lee. Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art. 2023; 70 148-167. doi: 10.17527/JASA.70.0.07

Jae-Joon Lee. Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism. 2023; 70 148-167. Available from: doi:10.17527/JASA.70.0.07

Jae-Joon Lee. "Theater of Science and Technology: The Film The Middleton Family and the Robot Elektro as Cultural Apparatuses of 1930s Consumer Capitalism" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 70(2023) : 148-167.doi: 10.17527/JASA.70.0.07