source: https://www.pixar.com/feature-films/the-incredibles
Above: concept art from Pixar’s The Incredibles (read more about the film and see more art!)
Long before I thought critically about any art/aesthetics I consumed and their relation to SF, I had been enamored with the “modern,” but really, that was an indeterminate term. As I mentioned previously, my dad showed me Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope when I was a young child, and while the scrappy, well-used technology of the resistance forces has an undeniable warmth, I remember being drawn to the clean, sleek architecture of the Empire’s various spaceships and structures. It makes sense, then, that I would make my parents rent The Jetsons for me on Netflix back when it was still a disc-mailing service. At six years old, I certainly wasn’t watching it for the plot. I was there for the wacky architecture, full of glass and geometry. Much later, I seriously considered attending Vassar College when I saw the modernistic Noyes House on my visit–the lounge of which is nicknamed the “Jetsons’ Lounge.”
Jetsons’ Lounge! source: https://residentiallife.vassar.edu/residence-halls/halls/noyes.html
This brings us to today, when Professor Saiber helped me realize that some of these aesthetics I liked had names! The Jetsons drew heavily on the futuristic architecture of the 1960s, as well as the flashy, geometric “Googie” architectural style–perhaps most familiarly seen in the Las Vegas Welcome Sign, and as a key inspiration for the Pixar feature film The Incredibles, and, of course, The Jetsons.
Without pretending I’m some kind of expert on all this, I came to realize this all more or less falls under the banner of the aesthetic style known as retrofuturism. Its look comes from images of the future as imagined by artists in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. This article has a nice gallery of some great pieces of retrofuturist art, take a look if you want to see what I mean–it’s also a pretty easy, interesting read.
This aesthetic has by no means been left in the 20th century–while the future we live in may not resemble these retrofuturist visions all that much, the aesthetic remains attractive and its
source: https://bethesda.net/en/article/Yc9CGATYUU2qSosqMqIEO/the-art-of-fallout-4
examples precious and fascinating. Disneyland’s “Tomorrowland” has elements of retrofuturist architecture, and the “Theme Building” at LAX is another example of its influence. On a more personal note, I will never play Fallout 4 due to reasons that don’t belong on my WSF blog, but I will not deny the impeccable post-apocalyptic, retrofuturistic aesthetic parts of the game crafted (read more!) (along with an opening sequence I suspect is a reference to Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.”)
The Jetsons (read more!)
Source:https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto,h_1248,w_2220/v1555337999/shape/mentalfloss/thejetsonshed.jpg?itok=H-AIf1GQ
Disneyland’s Tomorrowland
Source: https://thekingdominsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/dlr-halloween-time-space-mountain-galaxy-16×9.jpg
LAX’s Theme Building
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_Building
