Davin Heckman’s intriguing title A Small World - Smart Houses and the Dream of the Perfect Day immediately drew me in. His book gathers intensely detailed research into aspects of mid to late 20th-century American culture and overlaps that with references to futuristic visions of the home and lifestyles. Heckman illustrates the details of Smart Houses of last century, including the introduction of computers in the home, and then explores contemporary American society on many levels. This is a very satisfying read that gets better as it unfolds.

Smart houses are a key feature of the lifestyle and design industries of contemporary Australia, so much so that it easy to forget how long this word "smart" has been used in branding. Heckman takes us back to the time of technological innocence, where innovations were individually celebrated, and the time between introductions of new ideas was more drawn out than it is today.

On a very personal level, I continued reading because of the constant reflection on that special time in the 20th-century when the futuristic styling of houses, cars, furnishings, appliances as well as the cinematic styling was so shiny, sleek in an exaggerated way, and very high quality. I revisited my knowledge of the generation before my own memories actually began. Movies and cartoons of domestic scenes of futuristic utopia, like The Jetsons, came to mind immediately. References to domestic robots took me further, to Lost in Space and Robby the Robot, and even further back to Metropolis - not exactly your Perfect Day scenario. I had visions of the eroticism of Flash Gordon's weapons and ships, and those of Barbarella with her costumes and numerous accessories.

This whole genre activated my senses as I read what initially spoke of an almost obsessive academic project, finely referenced and densely packed with historical data. Based around the two Disney experimental community 'theme park' projects, EPCOT and the exorbitant 1990's community development, Celebration in Florida, the concept of Smart Houses and the technological aspects of "labour-saving" devices in the home is thoroughly explored. Heckman leads us enticingly into the realms of domestic robots, and into a brief discussion of the duality between being the controller and the controlled.

Cultural theory comes briefly into play when Heckman addresses the notions of Foucault's Governmentality, which could have then been brought back into the discussion much later on in the book, when he delves into contemporary media and the manner in which audiences of Internet television and television provided via broadcast, along with other media, have more free will about what to watch and when. In addition, to touch this particular reader's favourite buttons, Heckman calls on Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction for a look at his concept of habitus and its application to the ways in which we identify beauty and how we classify things around us. From this cultural gem, Heckman moves to an open discussion of the importance of knowledge in consumer culture, all of which are factors that apply as much today as they did in the mid 20th-century. Lifestyle and all the trappings of the Joneses are thoroughly wrapped up in this easily digestible text. This took my thoughts to Alain de Botton's works, Status Anxiety and The Architecture of Happiness, and the finicky nature of "domestic bliss" and the way in which happiness for many can be influenced by spatial arrangements in their environments.

However, Heckman takes us further into the concept of home, referencing Heidegger and Freud in a thought-provoking discussion of the problem of the home and what it really represents in different places and then directs us towards lifestyle and the smart house as a concept. While this section of the book is interesting, it seemed overlong in part. References to Phillip K. Dick kept me engaged, as did the fascinating description of the Gates's home technology system. But a sense of Maxwell Smart's "cone of silence" uselessness occurred to me as I read on. I found myself asking why anyone would invest so much money in such systems that reach for high levels of domestic "convenience" though "transparency" or invisibility, when (unless you unfortunately have a disability) you can just as easily turn on the lights or the stereo like everyone else.

I have to admit, my genuine love of minimalism and elegance in functionality is challenged by this complication of the simplest domestic processes. As a reformed technophobe, I will also admit that I never use any of my own digital devices to the limits of their functionality. And this is where Heckman argues that the security mechanisms of smart houses, for instance, could become more of a very obvious hindrance than the intended unobtrusive system of protection. All of this relates to quality of life and the notion that while the house knows when you will be getting up and what type of coffee you'll be having, you still have previously chosen to take these actions are under your own control. I recall a Wallace and Gromit breakfast scene, where the automated jam on toast ended up in the wrong place, and the trousers were of the wrong variety altogether. Sabotaging penguins notwithstanding, this text really does inspire continual recollections and cultural references.

Moving on to the last section of the text, "The Dawn of the Perfect Day", the mood changes. The pace and readability ratchets up a notch, and while the previous three sections were engaging, this final chapter is even better. The research-heavy background has all been covered, and Heckman is truly free to explore contemporary notions of lifestyle, global politics, economics, the media and technology. There is no doubt that the majority of this text is solidly American, but the references to global patterns of consumption are true and relevant for all.

This section introduces a fascinating discussion of posthumanism and the alienation of consumer society, that when the power of the innovation (in new commodities) no longer holds firm, society is no longer impressed with the newness of things and disenchantment unravels our reactions. This experience disempowers spectacles or cultural events, and leads to a break-down of the "cultural capital" (for Bourdieu) invested in social/cultural experiences. Special things are just not so special anymore. Many futuristic notions of the past seem to have come to fruition. Many aspects of technology have converged, and with them, the collaborative and accessible nature of personal digital devices has accelerated and been refined very rapidly. The research here is no less robust, with excellent material on aspects of minimalism and complexity from R. L. Rutsky. And there is further material on biopolitics and the influence of politics on our lives, something we are all very much aware of in the current state of the world, but which may not have been so explicitly obvious to middle Americans of the 50s and 60s.

The most original discussion is held until last. Here is a piece of Heckman from among the many very interesting possible quotes. This in reference to the global tourist industry and the tensions between the comfortable and the uncomfortable:

Americans love 'ethnic' foods, music and ritual as a matter of style, but generally reject deep-seated attachments to these claims to 'ethnicity' which produce actual ideological conflicts. Any sort of deeply held identity which is deemed to be worth fighting for must be crushed through 'free-trade' and propaganda and, as a last resort, armed 'peace-keeping' missions. The spirit of the riskless risk and the idea that an exciting life can be experienced effortlessly as a series of consumable experiences infects even the farthest corners of the globe (197).

When you arrive at the postscript, you can almost smell the atmosphere on the American street that Heckman describes. He expresses and almost whimsical belief that at that moment, he has reached his Perfect Day. Lifestyle and culture are all relative, but this blissful American perspective is naïvely positive, but not positively naïve.

Davin Heckman is Assistant Professor of English at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan.

A Small World, Smart Houses and the Dream of the Perfect Day
(2008)

by Davin Heckman
Duke University Press
ISBN: 987-0-6223-4158-1
214 pages US$21.95