Nicholas de Monchaux spoke at the Google Mountain View campus on April 6, 2011, about his book Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo: When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface in July of 1969, they wore spacesuits made by Playtex: twenty-one layers of fabric, each with a distinct yet interrelated function, custom-sewn for them by seamstresses whose usual work was fashioning bras and girdles. This talk is the story of those spacesuits. It is a story of the Playtex Corporation's triumph over the military-industrial complex—a victory of elegant softness over engineered hardness, of adaptation over cybernetics. The lecture touches on, amongst other things, eighteenth-century androids, Christian Dior's New Look, Atlas missiles, cybernetics and cyborgs, latex, JFK's carefully cultivated image, the CBS lunar broadcast soundstage, NASA's Mission Control, and the applications of Apollo-style engineering to city planning. The twenty-one-layer spacesuit, de Monchaux argues, offers an object lesson. It tells us about redundancy and interdependence and about the distinctions between natural and man-made complexity; it teaches us to know the virtues of adaptation and to see the future as a set of possibilities rather than a scripted scenario. About the author: Nicholas de Monchaux is an architect and urbanist focused on issues of nature, technology, and the city. He received his BA with distinction in Architecture, from Yale University, and his Professional Degree (M ...
Nicholas de Monchaux spoke at the Google Mountain View campus on 6 April 2011, about his book spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo: When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the lunar surface recorded in July 1969, they wore spacesuits from Playtex created: 2001 layers, each Designed with a clear and working together is sewn for her by seamstresses, normal working hours making bras and girdles. This presentation is the story of the spacesuits. It is a story of the Playtex CorporationTriumph of the military-industrial complex, a victory of the elegant softness of technical hardness, the adaptation of cybernetics. The talk touches, including the eighteenth century Android, Christian Dior's New Look, Atlas rockets, cybernetics and cyborgs, latex, carefully cultivated image of JFK, that CBS moon mission soundstage, NASA's Mission Control, and the applications of the Apollo-style engineering to urban planning. The 21-layer spacesuit, argues the Monchaux,offers a lesson. He tells us about redundancy and interdependence and the differences between natural and artificial complexity, it teaches us about the virtues of learning to adjust and see the future as a number of ways, and not as a script scenario. About the author: Nicholas de Monchaux architect and urban in nature, technology is concentrated, and the city. He received his BA cum laude in architecture from Yale University and his professional degree (M...