Architecture & the Arts

95 advances: 93 achieved, 1 at the frontier now, 1 ahead.

The frontier

• Artificial intelligence visual art 2022 · frontier
  Genre of art. Text-to-3D software became sophisticated, shortly after generative AI art. OpenAI released Point-E, a machine learning system that can generate 3D models from text prompts, similar to previously released GET3D and Magic3D by Nvidia.
• Full-sensory immersive virtual worlds · future · progress: early
  Virtual environments indistinguishable from reality to the senses: virtual bodies for emulated minds and new art forms.

How we got here

• 3D-printed house (ICON) 2018 · achieved
  The first permitted 3D-printed home, in Austin.
• Burj Khalifa 2010 · achieved
  828 m; buttressed core; high-pressure concrete pumping to over 600 m.
• Parametric architecture (Guggenheim Bilbao, CATIA) 1997 · achieved
  Aerospace CAD used to build free-form titanium curves.
• Television film 1983 · achieved
  Film format that is broadcast and distributed specifically for television networks.. 1983 – November 20 – The television film The Day After premieres on ABC, significantly changing attitudes on nuclear war.
• Rubik's Cube 1974 · achieved
  3-D combination puzzle with many different permutations. 1974: The Rubik's cube is invented by Ernő Rubik which went on to be the best selling puzzle ever.
• Sydney Opera House shells 1973 · achieved
  Ove Arup's computer-aided structural analysis of the spherical shell solution.
• Space hopper 1968 · achieved
  Ball that the user sits on and while holding on to the ball's handles, bounces around.. 1968 – Space hopper invented.
• Docudrama 1965 · achieved
  Documentary genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. 1965 – The television docudrama The War Game is filmed in the United Kingdom as an episode of The Wednesday Play anthology series providing a realistic depiction of a nuclear war.
• Synthesizer 1964 · achieved
  Electronic musical instrument capable of producing a wide range of sounds. First music synthesizer ( Kurzweil K250 ) capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments Kurzweil Music Systems
• Moog synthesizer 1964 · achieved
  Modular voltage control.
• Chemigram 1956 · achieved
  Form of art made by painting with chemicals. 1956 - The Chemigram was defined by the belgian artist Pierre Cordier.
• Geodesic dome (Fuller) 1954 · achieved
  US patent 1954.
• Plectrum 1951 · achieved
  Small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb (either by plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping), or by using a plectrum.
• View-Master 1939~ · achieved
  Trademark name of a line of special-format stereoscopes. The View-Master 3-D viewer and its "reels" of seven small stereoscopic image pairs on Kodachrome film are introduced.
• Carrom 1935 · achieved
  Indian tabletop game. Carrom – The game of carrom originated in India. One carrom board with its surface made of glass is still available in one of the palaces in Patiala, India. It became very popular among the masses after World War I.
• Flowers and Trees 1932~ · achieved
  1932 film by Burt Gillett. " Flowers and Trees ", the first full-color cartoon, is made in Technicolor by Disney.
• Electric guitar 1932 · achieved
  Electrified guitar; fretted stringed instrument with a neck and body that uses a pickup to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals. A solid body electric guitar, made up of hardwood with a lacquer coating, is an electric guitar that has no hollow internal cavity to accommodate vibration.
• Rickenbacker Electro A-22 1931 · achieved
  Type of guitar. An electric guitar is a guitar using pickups to convert its metal string vibration into electricity. This is amplified with an instrument amplifier. The output is altered with guitar effects such as reverb or distortion.
• Drum machine 1930 · achieved
  Electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds. by Léon Theremin, the first drum machine
• A Trip to the Moon 1902 · achieved
  1902 French black-and-white silent science fiction film directed by Georges Méliès. 1902 - French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès directs A Trip to the Moon, the first film about space travel.
• Telharmonium 1897 · achieved
  Electromechanical Instrument. February 1907: de Forest transmits electronic telharmonium music from his laboratory station in New York City.
• Olympic sport 1895 · achieved
  Type of sport with events contested at the Olympic Games. Volleyball is an Olympic sport in which two teams of 6 active players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points against one another by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. William G.
• Eiffel Tower 1889 · achieved
  Wrought-iron lattice with prefabricated precision rivets; 300 m.
• Steel-frame skyscraper (Home Insurance Building) 1885 · achieved
  Chicago; the frame carries the load, not the walls.
• Brooklyn Bridge (steel-wire suspension) 1883 · achieved
  Spun steel wire cables and pneumatic caissons.
• Byzantine Revival architecture 1880 · achieved
  Architectural revival movement. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is the main and largest cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, located in Moscow on the bank of the Moskva River. It is the tallest Eastern Orthodox church in the world.
• Elevator safety brake (Otis) 1852 · achieved
  Demonstrated at the 1854 New York fair.
• Crystal Palace 1851 · achieved
  Prefabricated modular iron and glass, built in about 5 months.
• Rushnyk 1850~ · achieved
  East Slavic ritual embroidered cloth. Rushnik is a ritual cloth embroidered with symbols and cryptograms of the ancient world.
• Daguerreotype 1839 · achieved
  Practical photography.
• Limelight 1823 · achieved
  Type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. 1823 – Goldsworthy Gurney demonstrates limelight.
• Valved brass instruments 1818 · achieved
  Stölzel and Blühmel valve patent.
• Music box 1796 · achieved
  Automatic musical instrument. The first fully electronic music boxes (" Jukeboxes ") used in the USA on the market.
• The Iron Bridge (Coalbrookdale) 1779 · achieved
  The first cast-iron bridge.
• Piano (Cristofori) 1700 · achieved
  The escapement hammer action.
• Cremonese violin making 1700~ · achieved
  Amati to Stradivari: arching and varnish.
• Model car 1672 · achieved
  Scale model of car. 1672 – Ferdinand Verbiest built what may have been the first steam-powered scale model car.
• Naryshkin Baroque 1650~ · achieved
  Russian architectural style. Naryshkin Baroque. Also called Moscow Baroque, or Muscovite Baroque, is the name given to a particular style of Baroque architecture and decoration which was fashionable in Moscow from the turn of the 17th into the early 18th centuries.
• String instrument 1650~ · achieved
  Musical instrument that generates tones by one or more strings stretched between two points. The balalaika is a stringed instrument with a characteristic triangular body and 3 strings (or sometimes 6, in 3 courses), perhaps the best-known national Russian musical instrument.
• Scored orchestration (Monteverdi's Orfeo) 1607 · achieved
  Specified instrumentation; the orchestra as a coordination technology.
• Filimonovo toys 1600~ · achieved
  Ceramic Russian folk art toys. Filimonovo toys
• Corbel 1550~ · achieved
  Piece of masonry jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. The kokoshnik is a semicircular or keel-like exterior decorative element in the traditional Russian architecture, a type of corbel blind arch. The name was inspired by the traditional Russian women's head-dress.
• Marching band 1550~ · achieved
  Group of musicians that perform while marching. Marching band and military band: The marching band and military band both have their origins in the Ottoman military band, performed by the Janissary since the 16th century.
• Brunelleschi's dome (Florence) 1436 · achieved
  Herringbone brick, a double shell, and a reversible ox hoist; built without centering.
• Oil painting technique (van Eyck) 1432 · achieved
  Ghent Altarpiece glazing.
• Linear perspective (Brunelleschi, Alberti) 1415~ · achieved
  Brunelleschi's demonstration; Alberti's De pictura (1435).
• Diamond cut 1375 · achieved
  Gemstone cut in a particular shape with numerous facets so as to have an exceptional brilliance. Diamond drills – in the 12th century BCE or 7th century BCE, Indians not only innovated use of diamond tipped drills but also invented double diamond tipped drills for bead manufacturing.
• Canvas 1350~ · achieved
  Extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric. 14th century: Painting Canvas was first used in Italy.
• Free reed aerophone 1250~ · achieved
  Class of musical instruments. Free reed aerophone: The musical pipe organ employing metal piston bellows had a long history in the Western world, dating from the Hellenistic period.
• Naqareh 1250~ · achieved
  Middle Eastern drum with a rounded back and a hide head. Naker: Arabic nakers were the direct ancestors of most timpani, brought to 13th-century Continental Europe by Crusaders and Saracens.
• Gothic cathedral at scale (Chartres) 1220 · achieved
  Rebuilt in about 26 years; geometry-driven masonry.
• Al-Jazari's automata 1206 · achieved
  Camshafts, a programmable drum machine, and the elephant clock.
• Flying buttress 1180~ · achieved
  Notre-Dame de Paris nave, c. 1180.
• Gothic rib vault and pointed arch (Saint-Denis) 1144 · achieved
  Abbot Suger's choir.
• Dougong 1050 · achieved
  Architectural element in East Asian structures. Dougong: A dougong is a building bracket which is unique to Chinese architecture. Since at least the Western Zhou dynasty (c.
• Staff notation (Guido of Arezzo) 1026~ · achieved
  The four-line staff and solmization.
• Firework 950~ · achieved
  Low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. 10th century: Fireworks in Song dynasty China: Fireworks first appear in China during the Song dynasty (960–1279), in the early age of gunpowder. Fireworks could be purchased from market vendors;
• Playing card 850~ · achieved
  Card used as one of a set for playing card games. 9th century: Playing card in Tang dynasty China
• Music sequencer 850~ · achieved
  Device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music.
• Banu Musa programmable flute player 850~ · achieved
  A pinned rotating cylinder plays music, described in the Book of Ingenious Devices.
• Hagia Sophia pendentives 537 · achieved
  A dome over a square plan.
• Melisma 250~ · achieved
  Singing technique. Melisma — According to Demetrius of Falorene (3rd century A.D), the Egyptian priests used to praise the gods by singing 7 vowels successively producing sweet sounds.
• Pantheon dome 126 · achieved
  A 43.3 m unreinforced concrete dome with graded aggregate; it held the record for about 1,300 years.
• Hero's automata 60~ · achieved
  Programmable theatre with rope-and-peg drums.
• Cup of the Ptolemies 100 BCE · achieved
  Late hellenistic or roman onyx cameo cup. Probably a Hellenistic innovation, e.g. Cup of the Ptolemies, but taken up by the Emperors, e.g. Gemma Augustea, Gemma Claudia etc.
• Sky lantern 250 BCE~ · achieved
  Flying lantern used during celebrations. Sky lantern: The Chinese military strategist, politician, writer, and inventor Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms era is credited with its invention, and reportedly used it during military campaigns.
• Hydraulis water organ (Ctesibius) 250 BCE~ · achieved
  A pneumatic keyboard instrument in Alexandria.
• Gymnasium 350 BCE~ · achieved
  Ancient Greek training facility. 4th century BC A shower room for female athletes with plumbed-in water is depicted on an Athenian vase. A whole complex of shower-baths was also found in a 2nd-century BC gymnasium at Pergamum.
• Bianzhong 433 BCE · achieved
  Ancient Chinese musical instrument consisting of sets of bronze bells. Tuned bells: The earliest complete set of tuned bells, sixteen in all, were found in Tomb 8 of Marquis Su of Jin at Qucun, southern Shanxi.
• Pythagorean tuning 500 BCE~ · achieved
  Musical intervals as whole-number ratios.
• Cella 600 BCE~ · achieved
  Inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture. 480–470 BC The earliest spiral staircases appear in Temple A in Selinunte, Sicily, to both sides of the cella. The temple was constructed around 480–470 BC. Plan of ground floor of Temple A at Selinunte (c. 480 BC).
• Carved stone ball 2,000 BCE~ · achieved
  Petrosphere dating from the late Neolithic to the Iron Age, mainly found in and around Scotland. ca. 2000 BC – Scotland, carved stone balls exhibit a variety of symmetries including all of the symmetries of Platonic solids.
• True arch (voussoir) 2,000 BCE~ · achieved
  Mesopotamian brick arches, perfected by Rome.
• Umbrella 2,450 BCE~ · achieved
  Canopy designed to protect against inclement weather, particularly rain and sun. Umbrella — the earliest known parasols in Ancient Egyptian art date back to the Fifth Dynasty, around 2450 BC. The parasol is found in various shapes.
• Puppetry 2,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets. 2500 BC: Puppetry in the Indus Valley.
• Mosaic 2,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Image or writing made from an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. The church contains over 7500 square metres of mosaics — according to its restorers, more than any other church in the world.
• Tahtib 2,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Egyptian martial art and folk dance. Tahtib — The oldest traces of tahtib were found on engravings from the archaeological site of Abusir, an extensive necropolis of the Old Kingdom period, located in the south-western suburbs of Cairo.
• Table 2,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Piece of furniture with a flat top. Tables – Some very early tables were made and used by the ancient Egyptians around 2500 BC, using wood and alabaster.
• Stonehenge sarsen construction 2,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Mortise-and-tenon joints in stone, with transport over about 25 km.
• Egyptian blue (first synthetic pigment) 2,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Calcium copper silicate fired at about 850°C.
• Planned community 2,600 BCE~ · achieved
  Detailed developed land. 2600 BC: Planned city in Indus Valley.
• Corbel arch 2,600 BCE~ · achieved
  Arch-like construction method. Corbel arch — Corbelling is a technique first applied by the ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans. During the Fourth Dynasty reign of Pharaoh Sneferu (c. 2600 BC), the Ancient Egyptian pyramids used corbel vaults in some of their chambers.
• Dice 3,000 BCE~ · achieved
  Throwable object (usually but not necessarily a cube) with multiple resting positions, used for generating random integers or outcomes. 3000 BC: Devices functionally equivalent to dice, in the form of flat two-sided throwsticks, are seen in the Egyptian game of Senet.
• Kohl 3,100 BCE~ · achieved
  Ancient eye cosmetic used around the eyes, primarily inside the row of eyelashes. Kohl — Worn during Naqada III era (c. 3100 BCE) by Egyptians of all social classes, originally as protection against eye ailments.
• Chair 3,100 BCE~ · achieved
  Piece of furniture for sitting on. Chairs – Chairs were in existence since at least the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (c. 3100 BC).
• Lost-wax casting 3,700 BCE~ · achieved
  Nahal Mishmar hoard; it became the method for bronze statues and bells.
• Çatalhöyük wall paintings 6,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Plastered and painted house walls, hunting scenes and possibly the first landscape painting at Çatalhöyük, Anatolia, c. 6500 BC.
• Göbekli Tepe megaliths 9,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Carved T-pillars raised before farming.
• Lascaux cave paintings 17,000 BCE~ · achieved
  Hundreds of polychrome animal paintings and engravings at Lascaux, France, c. 17,000 BC.
• Venus of Dolní Věstonice 22,000 BCE~ · achieved
  A ceramic statuette comes from the Upper Paleolithic. 24 kya: Oldest known ceramic sculpture
• Cave painting pigments 36,000 BCE~ · achieved
  Ochre, charcoal and manganese pigments (Chauvet c. 36,000 BP; Sulawesi older).
• Flute 40,000 BCE~ · achieved
  Musical instrument of the woodwind family. 42 kya: Flute in Germany
• Sulawesi cave painting (Leang Tedongnge) 45,500 BCE~ · achieved
  Painted Sulawesi warty pig in Leang Tedongnge (Maros-Pangkep), dated to at least 45,500 years ago by uranium-series dating of overlying calcite. Claimed: a minimum age, and the dating method is debated.