BREAKING FRAME: TECHOLOGY AND THE VISUAL ARTS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, Rutgers University Press, 1992.
In this reissue of her 1992 book with its new introduction, Julie Wosk reveals how American and British artists captured the widespread hopes and fears about new mechanical inventions and industries that were transforming the human life. Artists created dramatic and sometimes traumatic images reflecting the impact of the Industrial Revolution and new steam-powered transportation machines---seen in their views of factories spewing smoke, trains speeding and sometimes crashing, and satires of people-turn-automatons. American and European designers also produced ornamented steam engine frames and factory-made imitations of decorative ware. Many of the issues probed in BREAKING FRAME still intrigue and haunt us in our own digital age. We continue in our quest for speed, we try to avert technological catastrophes, and we develop new human-like robots to entertain us and do our work.