Discuss speed planes trains and automobiles in relation to spaces and subjects of modernity

The introduction of time saving technologies in communication such as the telegraph, telephone, email and technologies of transportation such as the railroad, automobiles and planes have significantly decreased the distance between people, nations and cultures. Painters have drawn a correlation between the technology of speed such as William Turner’s painting Rain, Steam and Speed (1844) which celebrates the power of the steam engine and railroad by making a favorable correlation of industrial technology with the forces of nature (Hendrick, 2000).
While humans can sense speed when riding on a train, at the same time there is the danger of losing the sensual experience of nature. Riding on a train, it is possible only to catch a glimpse of the landscape and imagine its beauty; to benefit fully from it requires coming back on foot. According to a popular anecdote, the Emperor Franz Joseph I stopped the train to enjoy a particularly beautiful view during his first ride up to the Semmering. This indicates that the history of newly opened landscapes is also a history of sight. Typical train travelers could not stop the train like a royal; with the opportunity only for fleeting glances, they had to be attentive in order to perceive the passing landscape.
The dynamics of sight is a concept that was first acknowledged as a special phenomenon during a train ride but later came to have an effect on modern-day perceptions as a whole. Speed moved pieces of scenery closer to one another, even though they had belonged to distant and distinctly different areas. Panoramic perception, in contrast to traditional perception, no longer belongs to the same space as the perceived objects: the traveler saw the objects, landscapes, etc., through the apparatus which moved him through the world. That machine and the motion it created became integrated into his visual perception. The reality of that mobility of visions passing rapidly by shapes reality in a new way (Conan, 2003). The railway by its enormous speed dissolved the given space continuum. Two distant places could suddenly be “ close.” As Heinrich Heine put it in 1843: “ I feel as if all mountains and forests of all countries approach Paris. I already smell.” the perfume of German lime trees. In front of my door the North Sea is roaring (Conan, 2003).
People create a sense of place reflecting their situation in society. They have a hometown, a college that they attended, favorite experiences that they remember and the comforts of knowing where they belong. In a broader sense, the concept of place refers to the geography of being. That is, people will claim national heritage, meaning that they associate themselves with a country, which, in turn is part of a geographic hemisphere (Canfield, n. d.). The contexts of humans’ sense of a geographical home is shifting rapidly. The geography of place and space is altered. Old boundaries are eliminated and new boundaries formed. Time barriers are crossed with ease. Members of a pastoral sheep-raising society having few or no communicative technologies are likely to talk face-to-face about events in their lives. Intersubjective, shared meanings are deeply imbedded in the pastoral setting. Time slows down and the pace of events is slowed. The sheepherders sense of place is keen. All this is different in modern society. Technologies intrude in human affairs, shaping and altering how people communicate. They constitute designs for human action and behavior (Canfield, n. d.).
References
Canfield, Allen. (n. d.). Body, Identity and Interaction: Interpreting Nonverbal Communication. Accessed 15 January 2006 from .
Conan, Michal. (2003). Landscape Design and the Experience of Motion. Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Hendrick, Robert. (2000). “ Expressing Technology: Instruments, Machines, and Communication Devices in Post-World War II Art.” St. John’s University. Accessed 15 January 2006 from .