DESIGNING THE SUBLIME: MECHANISM, RISK, AND WONDER

World-renowned antiquarian horologist Brittany Nicole Cox explores
the diverse utilization of the machine in design through a selection
of objects drawn from the collections of Cooper Hewitt and other
Smithsonian museums. Examples range from a nineteenth-century
singing bird box to the world’s first tuning fork watch. Cox makes
metaphysical and material connections among fascinating time-keeping
machines and engineered mechanisms that were designed to produce
illusion, animation, decoration, destruction, and more.

The Enid and Lester Morse Historic Design Lecture Series is made possible by the generous support of Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse, Jr.