ABSTRACT
At the 1900 exposition the sensual pleasures of consumption clearly triumphed over the abstract intellectual enjoyment of contemplating the progress of knowledge. The Trocadero was the section of the exposition on the Right Bank of the Seine, directly across the river from the Eiffel Tower, where all the colonial exhibits were gathered. The Bon Marche was the first department store, opening in Paris in 1852, the year after the Crystal Palace exposition, and the Louvre appeared just three years later. The department store introduced an entirely new set of social interactions to shopping. The importance of an electrical power grid in transforming and diversifying production is obvious, as is its eventual effect in putting a whole new range of goods on the market. The advent of large-scale city lighting by electrical power nurtured a collective sense of life in a dream world. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam's prophecies were borne out by the rapid application of electrical lighting to advertising.
