← A. Inventions, No. 46
Eraldo Garfagnini (1912–1986)
Home Monitoring Machines
c. 1958
Abercrombie & Fitch, est. 1892, New York. Polystyrene with polycarbonate and aluminum. 10 × 11¼ × 1⅝". Collection of the author.
These beautiful home monitoring systems were retailed by Abercrombie & Fitch around 1958, expanding on the simple weather/barometers then available from department stores.
The most deluxe models monitored indoor and outdoor conditions for temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, heat index, wind chill, wind index, heat chill, rainfall, rain index, rain chill, uv, solar radiation, barometric pressure, seismic waves (strength and duration), t-waves, solar flares (vlf/sid), photon emission, ionization, em radiation, tornadoes (phased array detection), hailstorms, microwaves, listening devices, submarines (magnetic anomaly/sonar), kaiju (kraken, generic serpent, n-zilla), smoke, gas, carbon monoxide, radon, asbestos, avalanche, police band/conelrad, water impurities, oil temperature, volcanic activity, ambient noise level, riverine flooding, tire pressure, air quality index, and dew point, and included a combination burglar alarm and sonar fishfinder.
Published January 25, 2023. Copyright © 2023 Jonathan Hoefler.
About
The objects in the Apocryphal Inventions series are technical chimeras, intentional misdirections coaxed from the generative AI platform Midjourney. Instead of iterating on the system’s early drafts to create ever more accurate renderings of real-world objects, creator Jonathan Hoefler subverted the system to refine and intensify its most intriguing misunderstandings, pushing the software to create beguiling, aestheticized nonsense. Some images have been retouched to make them more plausible; others have been left intact, appearing exactly as generated by the software. The accompanying descriptions, written by the author, offer fictitious backstories rooted in historical fact, which suggest how each of these inventions might have come to be.
These images represent some of AI’s most intriguing answers to confounding questions, an inversion of the more pressing debate in which it is humanity that must confront the difficult and existential questions posed by artificial intelligence.
Previously:
No. 45. Colt’s Desk Accessories
Next:
No. 47. The Dragon Lyre
