Everything new is old again
May 23, 2009 by cynthia
Every time I think I’ve invented a startling, refreshingly innovative glass technique, I thumb through one of my art books and…there it is. The pate de verre sculpture technique I’m playing with right now, for example, was old hat to the ancient Egyptians. And don’t even get me started on fusing and slumping glass.
Kinda ironic to think I’m worrying about zone controllers in casting kilns, a 10-degree temperature differential inside a mold, adding a few milligrams of talc to a facecoat…when some ancient glassmaker made much the same stuff without electricity, pyrometers or online shopping. His “digital controller” was most likely a slave shoveling charcoal through the night.
I suppose it’s only natural to think that this generation invented everything from computers to sex, but “everything old is new again” is probably the longest-standing joke in the universe. It’s a necessary conceit; if inventors, artists and scientists knew they were probably rediscovering instead of originating, would they be as motivated?
Reason I’m bringing this up now is a YouTube video someone posted on warmglass.com. Turns out that you don’t need thousands of slaves to drag stone blocks around when you’re building a pyramid…or Stonehenge. One guy, retired carpenter Wally Wallington, can do it by himself quite handily, with a little help from Archimedes.
It’s not earthshaking news, not to anyone who’s ever needed to, say, move 20 massive boxes of computer equipment up two flights of stairs from her basement network lab, but it does kinda render the phrase “primitive man” meaningless.
Enjoy.
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Actually, the phrase is ‘modern human’. Why do we continue to think they were stupid?
No idea. History’s full of been there, done thats, and sometimes I really wonder how many breakthroughs turn out to be something we could have found out by just listening… The fun part of truisms is watching them get knocked down.
I loved seeing his creative brilliance. The teeter totter hoist was fabulous. I am certain it’s all been done before. We all get where we are on the shoulders of others. It’s the way it work (in my estimation). We’re just a touch too arrogant to want to believe it. There’s a great deal of fun in reinventing the wheel though—don’t stop creating!
Thanks for the fun posts. I enjoy your writing style as much as your candid and sensitive observations.