Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1332040
3 2 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 R E S O U R C E S SPACE FANTASIES 1:1: R.F. COLLECTION BY ROLF FEHLBAUM, FIFO STRICKER Presented in this oversize publication are 146 aerospace-related toys from the collection of Rolf Fehlbaum, Vitra's chairman emeritus and the founder of Vitra Design Museum. Toys related to space exploration—rockets, robots and astronaut fi gurinesexploded in popularity in the 1930s with the success of space opera comic strips such as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, which portrayed postwar fantasies of untold technological possibilities. From there, sci-fi only gained a wider audience as the SovietAmerican space race began and people of all ages turned their gazes skyward to wonder about what marvels may exist beyond Earth's orbit. PATRICK KEILLER: LONDON BY PATRICK KEILLER In London, the celebrated fi lmmaker and writer Patrick Keiller off ers a journey through the London of 1992, as undertaken by an unnamed narrator and his companion, Robinson. The unseen pair complete a series of excursions around the city, in an attempt to investigate what Robinson calls "the problem of London"; in so doing, the vast palimpsest of the city is revealed. Based on Keiller's acclaimed 199 fi lm of the same name, London is a unique take on the essay-fi lm format in the style of Chris Marker, with scathing refl ections on the recent past, enlivened by off beat humor and wide-ranging literary anecdotes. The amazing locations reveal the familiar London of the near past: The Concorde almost touches suburban houses as it takes off Union Jacks fl y from Wembley Stadium and pigeons fl ock around tourists in Trafalgar Square. These images, in combination with the script, allow us to see beyond the London presented on the page. TIME MACHINE: CINEMATIC TEMPORALITIES BY ANTONIO SOMAINI The year 1895 saw two events, from which Time Machine: Cinematic Temporalities takes its bearings: the publication of H.G. Wells' "scientifi c romance," The Time Machine: An Invention, the fi rst literary work in which movement through time is made possible by technology and the fi rst public presentation, on the evening of December 28, 1895, of the Lumire Brothers' Cinématographe. Based on these two moments, Time Machine shows how cinema, video and video installations have transformed our perception of time through techniques of slow motion and acceleration, loops and reversals, time-lapse and freeze-frame, multiple exposure and stop-motion animation, as well as through montage: that crucial act of separating and joining images and sounds which has often been considered as one of cinema's defi ning traits.