By Kelli Urry
Television remote controls, iPods and sewing machines are everyday items found in most homes, but the BYU Museum of Art puts these familiar objects and more on full display in a new exhibit.
?Nostalgia and Technology: Embracing the New through Art and Design,? analyzes how technology has been introduced into society and the home since the 17th century.
The exhibit takes visitors on a travel through time and features a whirlwind of objects from scientific instruments to typewriters, cameras, a car and clothing.
Mark Olivier, professor of French, conducted research for the display and said he encourages viewers to notice how technology and society have interacted through the ages.
?I want people to think about how we respond to technology with art and design, and how we socialize technology in our lives,? Olivier said. ?And these are things that may be invisible to us.?
Rita Wright, an educator at the museum, said many designers cloak or mask technology to make it accepted in society.
For example, when electricity was introduced into the home it was seen as a masculine power of nature so designers used feminine elements like glass and flower embellishments to make it more accepted.
Wright said the exhibit helps viewers look at recognizable objects in a different light.
?This is about really questioning and challenging some of the things that are very familiar to us,? Wright said.
Richard Fry, professor of industrial design said designers try to find links to peoples? aspirations and dreams in their work so it strongly influences the public.
?Most people don''t realize the power that is represented by designers in their specific goal to make things more believable, comfortable, acceptable and desirable to the consumer.?
Fry said new designs either make our lives easier or more complicated as we sort through technological messages being sent to us.
The exhibit is Olivier?s first work in a museum and was inspired by research he has conducted since 2000.
?It?s exciting for me to see work that normally would only be on print in academic journals that very few people would ever read,? Olivier said. ? transformed into a three-dimensional space where thousands of people can walk through and experience it.?
Nostalgia and Technology is free to the public and runs until May 13, 2006. For more information call the museum at 422-8287.