The+Persistence+of+Technology

The Persistence of Technology OJ Guzzardo



Albert Einstein once said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. He was one of the first to bring up the idea that society is becoming more and more prominent in society, to the point of where humanity is lost. //The Persistence of Memory// represents the control of technology over society and the resulting loss of individuality, humanity, and personal development.

In the bottom right corner of the box, there is a “soft” keyboard (in reference to Dali’s soft clocks) covering up a pencil sharpener. This represents the emergence of technology. Everything has now been shifted to electronics, illustrated by the fact that the keyboard is essentially consuming the pencil sharpener. The center focus of the box is the cell phone that has a girl entrapped in it. She has no face, emphasizing the idea that technology is causing a loss of identity for people. People lose their individuality by becoming lost in the sea of millions of others that are bound by technology. The screen of the phone is reflective. By adding this piece to the shoe box, it allows the viewers question if their reliance upon technology is binding them as well. Finally, the container that has a bird on it represents society’s choice in whether or not to be lost in technology forever. The container can be opened and closed; in the container is the word “space.” Space can be defined as “freedom to do what a person wishes to for his or her own personal development”. Technology is limiting this freedom because society is becoming so reliant upon it that they no longer have any sort of personal development or free will; their minds are being controlled by technology. By having the container opened, it shows that there is still the tiny possibility of hope in recovering the idea that space in society, but once the container is closed, there is no going back.

This box is similar to the 1984 Macintosh commercial because in the commercial, people don’t realize how bad their society is until the woman shakes things up. The box makes a statement about how nobody will realize how controlled society is by technology until it is either too late or until someone decides to put an end to the control. The idea of technological control also relates to //Brave New World// because the society in that novel is controlled essentially by brainwashing through technology. The box makes the statement that if society is not careful, one day it may become completely dominated by technology.

I started playing around with the old cell phone that I had in my box. I took out the keypad and was able to use that as a soft keypad, in reference to soft clocks in Salvador Dali’s painting //The Persistence of Memory.// This is how I decided what to title the box. Once the keypad was out, only empty bars were left on the phone. This created the feeling of a girl being literally caged in by technology. This is where I first got the inspiration to make a literary statement about how society is becoming controlled by technology, and the other pieces fit in well with that idea.