As I wrote about yesterday, I met up with my former City Tech colleague Alan Lovegreen in March 2019 on the west side of Manhattan to visit the Intrepid Museum and USS Growler submarine. My last post showed pictures of from the Intrepid. Today’s post is all about the Growler.
The claustrophobic interior of the Growler submarine was thrilling to walk through. Everything seemed to have its specific purpose and was made to go where it fit into the overall interior puzzle space. It’s hard to imagine the design work that went into building this (or the aircraft carrier next door for that matter) before computer aided design.
Also, I could more easily visualize the similarity between voyaging under water in a submarine and voyaging in outer space in a spacecraft. Both create a living environment for human beings in otherwise inhospitable environments. The former keeps pressure out and the latter keeps pressure in. Catastrophe is possible in a number of ways–some slow and others sudden.
The Growler is also a communication technology museum–loud speakers, telephones, exterior microphones, recording and processing devices, radios, sonar, mimeograph machine, typewriter, gauges, and indicators.
When I’m willing to jump through the hoops of a CUNY class field trip, I imagine a multifaceted technologies of representation and technical communication gold mine at the Intrepid Museum and USS Growler submarine.
