Fragile Planet
The Cold War changed the way in which the world was seen. Life on earth came to seem all the more precious when it could be viewed from the vacuum of space. As an editorial in the New York Times in 1970 put it:
'Unless this flowering home planet remains a haven of life, the entire solar system may become as devoid of life as are the mountains of the moon.'
This Cold War future still haunts us: the threat of nuclear warfare may seem somewhat more distant today, but the legacies of aggressive industrialisation in the 1950s and 1960s are all too evident in our global environment.
Many of the key questions of Cold War modernity - such as how to design new technology for the benefit of humanity without producing inhuman effects, or how to imagine modern lives outside conditions set by the marketplace - remain just as present today.
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Your Comments
Looks great and I think I'll be coming along but why leave out the 80's? This was a great period for film. The BBC production Threads springs to mind.
Totally agree with the comments made by the last person . Although unfortunately i was'nt able to get along to see the exhibition this time and don't wish to be unfair about what i'm sure has been an excellent , feel the inclusion of the eighties period somewhat pivotal in providing a subjective and retrospective view of the period . This , from late night broadcasting into Western Europe by Radio Moscow and it's promotion of Russian folk music intertwined with interviews from young children commenting upon their education at the time alongside anti american/british rhetoric . Even more obscure and touching on the surrealism of Dali were broacasts made from Tirana Albania . A country who's leader eventually rejected Chairmen Mao's brand of Communism as revisionist and liberal . There are ways of accessing such historical broacasts , and if anyone is interested i would very willing to help .