The Blog of mipiano

I understand that not everyone can easily reach these places we will see today in this post, especially if we consider that those cities, squares, buildings and moments are captured in the past. No, as far as I know, modern technology has not enabled us to travel to the future or the past, I mean in the literal sense of the word. We can only do it figuratively; we can go back in time by reading books, documents, watching photographs, films, etc, or assume the future based on our previous experience. Predict it rationally, based on the data we have from the present... but hey, we shouldn't forget art and imagination that are completely free to present us with some scenes that have never happened before.

Admittedly, imagination is also largely tied to our mental makeup. Our whole attitude, seasoned with our will, possibilities, or desires, placed in a certain interval of time, contributes to the imaginary journeys we decide to take, or not. But today, if you fancy a bit of travelling to some stories and places that probably don't even look the same nowadays, so basically these scenes are now invisible in real time, please take a look at this little device you see in the following photo:

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What is this at all, you could ask. If we take a look at it, we can describe it as a blue plastic box with two barrels, similar to those of binoculars. It has a little black button on one side, probably to press it down... When you turn it over, you will see two white, actually one large transparent field with two tiles, where light can pass through. Hmmm, are we going to illuminate something there in this action?

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To use this object that can teleport us into the cities, squares, stories, etc., that I vaguely mentioned, we need light. Natural light, if possible. Of course, we also need to put these thin cardboard disks containing small transparent photographs into the blue mysterious device.

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You see, just a moment, and we are going to take this journey... for example, let's choose the city of Dresden. Come and place your eyes on the barrels of our blue device, which is, btw a stereoscope made in a country that doesn't exist anymore, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), in the 1980s.

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Do you see it as well? Ok, so I guess you also see the massive buildings with impressive arches, towers that emerge over roofs but seem so close to us because of the 3D effect the stereoscope gives us, a square with a lively fountain and huge buildings built in the communist style, and streets bathed in sunshine. In one corner, just behind a fountain, there is a girl in a red shirt taking a photo of a young man.

Smile! Okay, I think you turned out great in the picture. Your mom will be so happy once we reveal the truth and show her the pictures we took on our secret trip. What a fantastic idea we had, coming here to Dresden, even though everyone thinks we are busy at work. Hahaha, it will be a great surprise, I just hope they will not experience a heart attack when we also tell them that we are moving here. So nice the city is, I think I fell in love with it and also, your new job offer sounds awesome. Designing a little device that one day will be just a rare, vintage little box, not known to many people by this name, Stereobox. No one knows we are here right now, just the water in the fountain and the flowers around us.

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At that moment, someone took a photo of this couple from a distance. It was a private detective who had to follow this couple and secretly take photos of them, so those could later be added to a flat, reel-mounted film chip. The private detective thought he was doing his job unnoticed...

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... but I think I just took a photo of him while taking a photo of the young woman, who was taking a photo of her fiancé, and this time in Leipzig. 😂