The kaleidoscope, devised by Scottish inventor David Brewster and patented in 1817, was a kind of artistic version of the microscope that was allowing invisible advances in microbiology. While that all sounds dynastically gothic, it was also a period of fantastic scientific, social and artistic advances: the rise of neoclassical Georgian architecture, upshots of the engineering ingenuity of the Industrial Revolution, commercial innovations (the tin can!) and, in medicine, the rise of cell theory to replace notions of “humours” to account for disease. The Regency ran sporadically from 1795 to 1837, corresponding to periods in which “mad” King George III was deemed unfit to reign, and a regent – latterly his son, the Prince of Wales – was named to rule in his stead, ultimately as King George IV. When Wood, who is renowned for kaleidoscopic accumulations of materials such as textiles (to make rugs), laminates (to create furniture) and glass (for lighting) was awarded this year’s Mecca x National Gallery of Victoria Women in Design Commission, she decided to research the NGV’s significant British Regency collection in order to riff off not just that aesthetics but the ethic of the time. “It acted as an echo chamber, with one single viewpoint multiplied in innumerable directions.” Sound familiar? “It was this tool of visual wonder that had people obsessed, walking around with their eyes glued to screens, bumping into walls,” she says via WhatsApp from London. The kaleidoscope was the iPhone of the 19th century, reckons British designer Bethan Laura Wood.
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