My way … to express myself

The historical figure I chose is Thomas A. Edison. This is the first person that comes to my mind, every time I think about technology plus history. He is not only a very important person in terms of telegraph, phonograph, and microphone technology, but the light bulb is what he is most known for. Because of the fact that the light bulb was one of his most amazing inventions, I chose to take this as a theme for the facebook profile. Furthermore, as I did research I found out that he bought the patents of earlier light bulb experiments, as well as the fact that he ruled out Emile Berliner as an inventor of the carbon microphone, and the fact that he created a different phonograph than Alexander Graham Bell. This explains some of the comments by Berliner and Bell.

Home Page

Profile Page

I tried to keep the profile informative, but at the same time give it some humor. Aside from that, I wanted to bring these historical figures more into the modern age, by combining elements of the past with elements of the present. In addition, I showed 2 images of Brendans fictional facebook, because of the fact that he posted things related to Thomas Edison.

All in all, I must state that it was actually a lot of fun 😀

Cheers

This is the second essay of an essay trilogy, and I will now focus on the skateboard’s historical precedents, while the third one, which will follow in a few weeks, will focus on the future of skateboards. In advance, I would like to mention that some information provided in this essay either comes from my personal experience as a skater, or knowledge I gained during history classes.

The Technological Development of Skateboards Through History

The Skateboard is a very popular technology of the 20th and 21st century, but the question why it exactly evolved, as well as where it appeared first, the time of appearance, and by whom it was first invented remains unclear. So does the question whether or not we can find any historical precedents of the skateboard. It is believed that the first skateboards appeared around the 1930s and 1940s when children modified their soap-box carts (Clarke, 2008). Besides that during the 1960s and 1970s surfer wanted to transfer the feeling of surfing to the street (Clarke, 2008). We can find many images of skateboards of the 1970s. We might also find some images of the first skateboards of the 1930s. But, further than that one will not be able to find anything about skateboards, simply because they did not exist at that time. However, there might be inventions related to the skateboard that existed during the Industrial Revolution, or even before that, for example, the wheel. This essay will discuss the development of skateboards throughout history. Because of the fact that the first appearance of soap-box carts was dated back to the early 1930s (“Soapbox (car)”, 2009, “History”, n. d.) , this essay will only focus on the following two historic precedents related to skateboards: The wheel and the surfboard.

Brief Description of the Time Periods

In history we differentiate between many time periods, but the pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial time might be the most important. During the pre-industrial time, the people did farming and lived in small villages. This period was ended, as the people started to move from their small villages into cities, which started the Industrial Revolution ― started in Great Brittan and moved to France and then Germany. The people started to work in factories, and inventions like the steam engine, bicycles, or the assembly line appeared ― many of the inventions used wheels. While the industrial society was a manufacturing based economy, the post-industrial society is a service based economy where globalisation and privatization are most apparent (“Post-industrial society”, 2009).

The Wheel

The wheel might be, aside from language and computers, one of the most important and world changing accomplishments. We use it in factories, for farm equipment, and for transportation. Some examples: Bikes, cars, planes, wheel chairs, elevators, steam engines, skateboards, soap-box carts, etcetera. Nevertheless, just like the skateboard it remains unclear who first invented the wheel. The oldest wheel was found in the region of Mesopotamia, ― area of Iraq ― and it is dated back to 3,500 B.C. (Bellis, n. d., Harris, n. d., “Wheel”, 2005, “The Evolution of the Wheel”, n. d., “Wheel”, 2009, “Invention of the Wheel”, n. d.). One website also claims that, according to archaeologists, the wheel was probably invented around 8,000 B.C. or even as far as the Paleolithic era, circa 15,000 to 750,000 years ago (“The Evolution of the Wheel”, n. d., “Invention of the Wheel”, n. d.). It enabled cultures to transport huge weights from one location to another location, creating astonishing monuments. Examples of this are: The great Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, and many others. At first, some cultures used tree logs as rollers, and others sledges underneath heavy objects to transport them (Bellis, n. d., “Invention of the Wheel”, n. d.). Later on, rollers and sledges were combined, and eventually evolved to, what is now known as, a cart (Bellis, n. d., “Invention of the Wheel”, n. d.). During the Industrial Revolution, the wheel was used as a key component for steam engines. Small gear wheels made movement through steam possible.

The wheel had a huge social impact, and it was and is constantly evolving. It affected the society as a whole, as well as the individuals. The notion behind the wheel was to transport heavy objects, and to travel faster through time and space. This can be related to the skateboard, because it uses a wheel to move, it has the same function of traveling through time and space, as well as it is only possible because of the wheel.

The Surfboard

A different historical precedent of the skateboard is the surfboard. Even though, it is unclear who invented the skateboard, we do know that surfers took surfing to the street by using a plank mounted onto wheels (Clarke, 2008). This highly influenced the sport of skateboarding.

In surfing the person stands upright on a board, which he or she guides across the water, using waves to accelerate. The origins of surfing can be traced back to pre-industrial Hawaii, where both men and women from all social strata used to surf. By the time European explorers and travelers arrived, ― James Cook and James King ― the Hawaiians were praised for their skills (Booth,2004, Marcus, n. d.). However, the intermingling of men and women was highly repulsive to Calvinistic Christian missionaries that arrived in Hawaii in 1820, and because of that, surfing was disapproved and slowly disappeared.(Booth, 2004, Marcus, n. d.). It never fully disappeared, but because of the western culture the Hawaiian people disappeared. Because of the fact that the western explores and missionaries brought bacteria to Hawaii, the population of natives dropped from 800,000 in 1779 ― James Cooks arrival ― to 40,000 in 1896. It was not until the early 20th century that surfing got popular again, and Hawaii was annexed as United States territory (Marcus, n. d.).

The first surfboard was made out of pure, solid wood. It was large and heavy ― up to 100 pounds (Booth, 2004). Later Tom Blake created, in the 1930s, a lighter board by attaching plywood over crossbeams; ultimately making the board 30 to 40 pounds lighter(Booth, 2004). During the late 20th century the board got lighter, a fin was attached, to enhance movement, ― Malibu boards ― and the materials changed. As the time went on, surfing gained more popularity, and because of the constantly evolving board, different riding styles appeared. For example, the Hawaiians “flowed with waves under nature’s guidance” (Booth, 2004).

Other than the wheel, the surfboard did not create such a huge worldwide social impact, but it created a part of a huge genocide during the Industrial Revolution, when the whole Hawaiian culture was destroyed. Furthermore, the surfboard might have caused a small revolution concerning sexes and social classes. In pre-industrial, industrial societies it was unthinkable that people from all social strata do the same sport, as well as the fact that women, equally to men, were allowed to do something like that. In these societies, the woman had to care for the children, clean the house, and give herself to the husband. However, what the Christian missionaries experienced in Hawaii was equality. It was not until the 20th century that the women began to be equal to men. The same could be applied to skateboarding. Skateboarding is a sport that anyone, regardless of age, social strata, and gender can do. Aside from that, it has the same idea of self expression and freedom. Additionally, like I mentioned before, skateboarding is tightly bound to surfing. Because of the fact that surfers took surfing to the street, skateboarding evolved.

Even though, there might be no direct historical precedents during and before the Industrial Revolution, other technologies can be found that can be related to skateboards, like the wheel or surfboards. These historical precedents either could have caused a similar desire in society, like the desire for self expression and freedom, or could have made the skateboard possible, like the wheel. In conclusion, I have to say that it is a very interesting experience to look for historical precedents of a technology that only exists for circa 80 years.

Bibliography

Clarke, A. (2008, July 11). “Skateboard Decks – History and Construction”
Retrieved March 17, 2009, from:
LINK

Booth, Douglas. (2004). “Surfing”. Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America. Ed. Gary S.
Cross. Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004. 328-330. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Retrieved March 18, 2009, from:
LINK

Marcus, Ben. (n. d.). “From Polynesia, with Love”. Surfing For Live.
Retrieved March 18, 2009, from:
LINK

Harris, Angela. (n. d.). “Invention of the Wheel”. Hub Pages.
Retrieved March 17, 2009, from:
LINK

“Wheel”. (2005). “Fascination facts about the invention of the Wheel by Mesopotamian’s
in c3500 BC.”. The Great Idea Finder. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from:
LINK

Bellis, Mary. (n. d.)”The Invention of the Wheel”. About.com:Inventors.
Retrieved March 18, 2009, from:
LINK

“Invention of the Wheel”. (n. d.). Ancient Civilizations.
Retrieved March 18, 2009, from:
LINK

“The Evolution of the Wheel”. (n. d.). Retrieved March 17, 2009, from:
LINK

“Wheel”. (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from:
LINK

“Soapbox (car)”. (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from:
LINK

“History”. (n. d.). All-American Soap Box Derby. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from:
LINK

Reflection on Studio Lab #3

Crowdpower and crowdsourcing can be very efficient ‘tools’ or practices to solve a problem that concerns the crowd, but in some cases, like during the student protest on Tiananmen Square in 1989, it can have unforeseen consequences. However, a world without crowdpower would have a different appearance than the world we inhabit today. There would have never been events, like the French Revolution, on which modern society is built.

In the context of our Collective Research Project, crowdsourcing is a very convenient way of gathering the state of knowledge. If it is done with a proper strategy, most problems can be solved within a matter of minutes or hours, depending on its difficulty. Serendipitously, we were able to organize the collective project during the lab, which allowed us to discuss and develop a strategy faster, via face-to-face communication, and we were ,instantly, able to start on our individual parts. Without this key component the development would have been more difficult and time-consuming. Limitations of crowdsourcing appear when the quantity of people in a group rises. Unless the group arranges a meeting, it is hard to get a hold of each other, because every individual has a different schedule.

During the lab the group decided to split into small teams and publish their work by latest Tuesday. Clearly, the problems I experienced in this project arose once everybody was set to work on their individual parts, because many people tend to procrastinate. Even though I realized that I tend to to do this myself, I usually work hard to get everything done as scheduled, because others depend on me. In team projects one is dependent on each other, sadly many people do not realize that, until it is too late. Other than this it should be mentioned that the Collective Research was, aside from publishing a research, about the interaction between individuals by the use a wiki — in this case Wetpaint. Obviously, this did not happen at all.

To come to a conclusion, I have to say that even though there was no communication between group members, except the face-to-face communication during the lab, it was an interesting experience.

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