Gregor Vukasinovič
Un.Imagine
Another open air museum village I visited last week. Much larger and much more longer established than the other one, and also going back a bit further in history in what it depicts from what I could gather.
Looking at pictures are one thing, being there in person is a whole different story. The atmosphere in those buildings, the smell somewhere between soot and campfire in them, because that's what they were fueled and heated with. Smells we rather associate with the outdoors today. The stove in the kitchen is also the heating, and the main light source. If one goes out, they all go out, save for some candles perhaps. Connected in a similar fashion are the air conditioning and the refrigerator. With the difference that those go out every time spring is coming and won't start again until fall. That also explains the few and far between and minuscule windows these buildings tend to have. That and the fact that glass was a rare and expensive commodity. Not like gold but a luxury item nonetheless. Just how dark it was inside, that was quite something, and something distinctly positive.
Strolling these grounds here, I couldn't help thinking that I could totally imagine living like that at a regular everyday basis. Now, I would probably be doing finer than most in such circumstances, not owning a cell phone or TV and many other techy things already as it is. But it also didn't take me very long to figure out where my thinking was going wrong: I was imagining a car or at least a bus stop at my disposal and a modern supermarket somewhere nearby. I also imagined modern indoor plumbing. Which would be especially helpful to avoid infections considering the burns and scalds people tended to have on their hands at all times from handling open fire and metal containers on a daily basis as the only means to get hot water. And probably also would have been caught off guard by the fact there's no computer anywhere, on which I could play some games and edit some pictures when there's nothing to do and it's raining outside.
Long story short, what I had in mind was not living history, but more like a vacation here in the museum. That being said. I could totally see something like that being a business model, and one that will become ever more viable now that the right to disconnect (finally!) becomes an ever louder cry. And places like this do in fact exist. Cabins somewhere in the wild, that writers, artists and musicians sometimes book as a retreat for creative stimulation. What's good for them can't be bad for ordinary people. Heck, artists... just staying alive back then looks like an artform in hindsight, that only the best got any good at. Which I guess it indeed was, looking at average life expectancies in the 1800s and prior.
Seriously though. The modern way the human mind works, combined with the ancient simple down to earth way of living, that could really be a best of two worlds situation right there.
Fun fact: I've read once, every single modern skyscraper contains more glass than the Roman empire produced over the entire course of its existence. But then, that's a very different episode of history yet again.
Un.Imagine
Another open air museum village I visited last week. Much larger and much more longer established than the other one, and also going back a bit further in history in what it depicts from what I could gather.
Looking at pictures are one thing, being there in person is a whole different story. The atmosphere in those buildings, the smell somewhere between soot and campfire in them, because that's what they were fueled and heated with. Smells we rather associate with the outdoors today. The stove in the kitchen is also the heating, and the main light source. If one goes out, they all go out, save for some candles perhaps. Connected in a similar fashion are the air conditioning and the refrigerator. With the difference that those go out every time spring is coming and won't start again until fall. That also explains the few and far between and minuscule windows these buildings tend to have. That and the fact that glass was a rare and expensive commodity. Not like gold but a luxury item nonetheless. Just how dark it was inside, that was quite something, and something distinctly positive.
Strolling these grounds here, I couldn't help thinking that I could totally imagine living like that at a regular everyday basis. Now, I would probably be doing finer than most in such circumstances, not owning a cell phone or TV and many other techy things already as it is. But it also didn't take me very long to figure out where my thinking was going wrong: I was imagining a car or at least a bus stop at my disposal and a modern supermarket somewhere nearby. I also imagined modern indoor plumbing. Which would be especially helpful to avoid infections considering the burns and scalds people tended to have on their hands at all times from handling open fire and metal containers on a daily basis as the only means to get hot water. And probably also would have been caught off guard by the fact there's no computer anywhere, on which I could play some games and edit some pictures when there's nothing to do and it's raining outside.
Long story short, what I had in mind was not living history, but more like a vacation here in the museum. That being said. I could totally see something like that being a business model, and one that will become ever more viable now that the right to disconnect (finally!) becomes an ever louder cry. And places like this do in fact exist. Cabins somewhere in the wild, that writers, artists and musicians sometimes book as a retreat for creative stimulation. What's good for them can't be bad for ordinary people. Heck, artists... just staying alive back then looks like an artform in hindsight, that only the best got any good at. Which I guess it indeed was, looking at average life expectancies in the 1800s and prior.
Seriously though. The modern way the human mind works, combined with the ancient simple down to earth way of living, that could really be a best of two worlds situation right there.
Fun fact: I've read once, every single modern skyscraper contains more glass than the Roman empire produced over the entire course of its existence. But then, that's a very different episode of history yet again.