Nostalgia and Technology: Embracing the New through Art and Design

Nostalgia and Technology Embracing the New through Art and Design
At first glance, the terms "nostalgia" and "technology" make an unlikely, even incompatible combination.

Technology invites change. Nostalgia resists. Technology looks to the future.

Nostalgia clings to the past.

But for centuries, these adversarial ideas have been harmoniously fused together, facilitating the acceptance of change and innovation by appealing to the past.

"Nostalgia and Technology: Embracing the New through Art and Design," at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art from Dec. 2, 2005 through May 13, 2006, explores the role of art as a mediator in society's acceptance and use of new technologies through objects, art, and ephemera representing a selection of domestic technologies.

From the scientific instruments that shared shelf space with art objects and taxidermy in the collections of 17th-century nobility to the cabinet radio disguised as period furniture, technology often enters the home with familiar company.