Ever since Friday, when I saw the fascinating Futurism exhibition at the Tate Modern (now finished, sadly), I’ve been meaning to do this: left, The Rock Drill, a Vorticist sculpture by Jacob Epstein, created in 1914; right, a Cylon, from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, created in 2003 and designed I believe by Pierre Drolet. (I’m currenly working my way through BSG, as the kids call it, and I think it’s possibly one of the greatest US TV series ever made.) Anybody else see any similarities in these two striking images, taken from the best part of a century apart?
Never Knowingly Underwhelmed 
I always thought Rock Drill was cool – it's more like this, though, don't you think?
Fair point, John. Although a) the big quarterback shoulders are more akin to the Cylon's, and b) I have never heard of Star Wars.
Star Wars? Oh, it's over-excited Space Opera, but full of great Futurist sculpture (Another example). It would have been greatly improved it it had contained a bunch of men in rubber suits riding a colossal penis, but that was Dune.
That's a beautiful piece of art. I really LIKED the newly imagined Cylons in BSG, too.BSG remains one of the best pieces of US television ever for about two seasons…Sadly, however you feel about the plot choices they make in the last season and a half/two seasons, the quality of the show gets patchy, and it becomes obvious that they were narratively preoccupied by the possibility of cancellation.Still arguably some of the best moments in almost any medium happen during the course of the show, but shows like The Wire and Deadwood win out for overall consistent quality, I reckon.Will be interested to see how your relationship with the show progresses through some of the difficult later episodes!
But why did they break it after the hiatus?!Oh, sorry, wrong discussion. Agreed- that's pretty special. I'll ask the Caprica Seven lady if they ever saw Rock Drill in the early days..
Those "reimagined" cylons always looked a lot like the super battledroids from Attack of the Clones. The (ahem) B1 battledroids are more like The Rock Drill as John says above (here's a better pic) although the inspiration for these was African sculpture, which goes a lot further back than VorticismI want to see a robot based on Umberto Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, although it wouldn't be much cop as it doesn't have any arms, it would still look cool
BSG is phenomenal TV. If you're at all practically musical, Bear McCreary's blog (he was the score composer) makes for excellent reading – particularly in Season 4 where music becomes an even more integral part of the show.http://www.bearmccreary.com/blog/Anna
Just thought I'd say that you missed probably the most interesting Vorticist, Ezra Pound, a fantastic author and critic, who also happened to be a fascist. Oops, he's also not taught on UK university english literature courses because of his views (or at least that was the case when my ex asked them)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound
The reconstruction of Epstein's intended full 'Rock Drill' sculpture, ie with legs and sitting on an actual drill, looks even more like one of those Star Wars robots:http://theidiotandthedog.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/rockdrill.gif
Ali, just over ten years ago when I "studied" English literature at a UK university, Ezra Pound was most definitely on the syllabus.
Two time Emmy award winning Mad Men is one of the best US TV shows ever – Season 3 started a few weeks ago and in the latest episode a smarmy Brit got his foot mangled by a sit-on lawn mower in the ad agency's office – don't ask!
In which case, I'd take it up with the English Literature department at Lancaster University, concrete-y jewel of the North West. I know he was not allowed on their modernism module for that reason.
Glad you're enjoying BSG. I get the piss taken out of me whenever I recommend it to a non-sci-fi type. I had to pretty much force my girlfriend to watch the first two episodes as I don't have the time to watch TV series on my own, so if there's anything I want to watch she has to too. She was hooked by the end of the introductory mini-series. Certainly rates up there with The Wire, which we watched in parallel.
Ahh, that's interesting, I went to York University, the concrete-y jewel of the north east. And a hotbed of facism.
Ian, I didn't know York was a hotbed of facism. I know it's a hotbed of ducks though.
Ah yes, the ducks. Obviously you know what of you speak. What a trip down memory lane this has been. Every spring watching the Darwinian struggle for survival by the ducklings was enough to stop anyone romanticising nature for ever.
[geek] In fact, The Rock Drill directly inspired the Battle Droids. It's mentioned on one of the dvds or something. [/geek]This is one of the sculptures which has followed me around all through my life, usually popping up in Tate Liverpool when I least expect it. It's the Spanish Inquisition of art.
It'll be interesting to hear your views on BSG Andrew – I have a couple of friends who enjoyed it and tried to encourage me to watch it by telling me it was "like the West Wing…in space".Mind you, at least one of them had never seen The West Wing!Pete