Author's Note: Multiple new inexpensive hardbound copies suitable for classroom use are available from the author. A paperback reprint edition is forthcoming in 2009.
With its unique focus and many never-before published illustrations, BREAKING FRAME vividly portrays the way new machines and technologies captured artists' imaginations and forever changed American and European society.
Through its many engravings, photographs, and paintings, the book captures the dramatic and often traumatic impact of new machines on the natural and human landscape. In their clever satires, artists deftly lampooned the prospect of robot-like people walking on steam-powered legs and comically pictured people at the mercy of runaway trains.
BREAKING FRAME evokes the feelings of disorientation as social frameworks were being broken apart. This innovative book also presents an in-depth study of technology's impact on nineteenth-century design and highlights the heated design debates that raged throughout the century. Included are chapters on the uses of decorative iron seen in building fronts, steam engines that looked like miniature classical temples, and sewing machines with colorfully-ornamented frames.
