Reflections Summary.

Austin's essay flows smoothly as he discusses the different revolutions that take place across Europe and America as well as different competing design languages. I believe his choice in the image he provided gave me a new clear way of how to think of the reflections unit. He summarized the different 19th century design languages and how they were all different reflections of a similar language. He illustrated this analysis by comparing it to an Olympic diver and said, "Although his impact with the water is the same each time the journey from the diving platform to the water is never identical to the one before."

Justin additionally discusses the plethora of design languages that emerged during the 19th century. He discusses how design languages emerge so rapidly and they fade just as fast as each new language is competing with a whirlwind of others in order to establish some dominant voice. The image he chose for this unit additionally is a good visual representative for what was going on at this point in history. I actually had to enlarge the picture to be able to understand what the image really was of, and I think that the fog like Justin mentions, is exactly how people felt back when all these different design languages were blending together. All the languages merged together to form this mask that is hard to see through. He also relates this picture back to the influence of the Industrial revolution by saying, " Yet in the midst of this blended chaos, there is the dominance of the industry in the background, never letting go of its influence on design."

Daniel does a really great job comparing the Crystal Palace of the 19th century to the present day modern Guggenheim museum. He makes the connection that both buildings are considered modern for the time period in which they are built, yet what they house inside speaks very different languages. Both buildings are innovative models of their time, but they are also a vessel that houses artifacts that showcase all the different design revolutions of their times. By studying the buildings and what is inside, one can see all the revolutions and innovations that took place.