In the 1760s, the bigger houses might have had an ornamental hermit installed out back in a grotto, used like a proto computer, searching for answers from the cosmos to be presented at dinner parties. Wealthy people are just too busy to do this themselves. There is a hermit's house not far from here in Dalkeith Country Park. You can paste 55.904513,-3.072481 into Google Maps, but he's not there any more. The fashion didn’t last that long, research shows a chequered history, although they did at least seem to have a sense of humour.
A contemporary equivalent might be The Artists Studio. There is a show soon at the Whitechapel Gallery in London about this. I am looking forward to it. I’ve ordered the book. I imagine Francis Bacon’s studio will figure. This is currently recreated to perfection in the Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin. We have Eduardo Paolozzi’s version of this in the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, but it doesn’t quite have the peep show into the artist's head we want.
Our extended brains (mobile phones) can be enlarged in a studio. Is our interior decoration a reflection of our minds? Lofts in NYC were coveted for their industrial edge. The fashion continues in the UK with organisations like ACME and WASPS. I have rented from both in the past. Eventually the large mechanical spaces are always sub-let into more human traditions with rugs and chintz.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/500916/short-lived-british-fashion-ornamental-hermits
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/22/the-stranger-in-the-woods-by-michael-finkel-review
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