Flickering Light

Neon signs illuminate modernity's ambivalence. For some observers, they stand for crass commercialism; for others, they light the way to the vibrant heart of popular culture. Energized by this tension, Flickering Light explores neon's technological and intellectual history, from the discovery of neon gas in a late-nineteenth-century London laboratory to its flickering career in the art spaces of our time. It investigates how neon transformed a sleepy desert town called Las Vegas...
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Neon signs illuminate modernity's ambivalence. For some observers, they stand for crass commercialism; for others, they light the way to the vibrant heart of popular culture. Energized by this tension, Flickering Light explores neon's technological and intellectual history, from the discovery of neon gas in a late-nineteenth-century London laboratory to its flickering career in the art spaces of our time. It investigates how neon transformed a sleepy desert town called Las Vegas in the 1950s and '60s. It demonstrates how writers, artists and musicians, on the move in European, American and Asian neon cities, turned the blinking lights and letters into powerful metaphors of our time.