THE DOMESTICATION OF THE ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA

I wonder if the rationalisation of electricity can be a factor for the recreation of myths in nowadays society. Studying modern myths gave me the possibility to investigate beyond the surface of the technological aspect. I discovered an intriguing part which raises fear and hope according to anguish of different stage of modernity.


Today it would be obsolete to proclaim Zeus as a divine entity and it might seem that myths have been rejected from our modernity. 


Because of the scientific rationalization of electricity, lightning as an attribute of divine wrath has been disenchanted. We nowadays perceive it as the result of various meteorological factors.
By taking Zeus as an example to investigate the characteristics of the myths, I saw an open door where I found correlations between this ancient myth and today. This helped me to understand our modern society.

Zeus as a supreme god, controlled and lead the ancient Greeks, he held the lightning as a symbol of this supreme power.
Now technology has become our new faith, and nowadays it’s the electrical devices which controls and regulate our daily life.
To understand how we came to this point, I want to understand what the relationship between myths and progress is. As a method of research, I took into consideration the capacity of the myth to reinvent itself according to its environment.

This metamorphosis-aspect of myths gave me the possibility to expand them into a different time and age. Through these different times we will explore examples such as the Monster of Frankenstein, the ‘od rays’, the UFO and Hollywood monsters. To me, these myths might be a mutation of Zeus.
They were born from technological advances which are particularly linked with the rationalization of electrical phenomena.


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Posters :
The domestication of the electrical phenomena,
*A3, on tracing paper.

ICONOGRAPHY



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