The Vault of the Atomic Space Age

If you’re interested in seeing how people perceived the scientific revolutions that surrounded them during the Cold War, this blog might be of some interest to you. It’s a great collection of commercial sf artwork (movie posters, book covers, etc.) and documents of space-age era interior design, technology, and aesthetics. I think the whole thing strikes a really interesting balance between comfortably nostalgic and genuinely unnerving.

LINK! –> https://thevaultoftheatomicspaceage.tumblr.com/ <– LINK!

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2 thoughts on “The Vault of the Atomic Space Age

  1. Professor Arielle Saiber

    Love this stuff! Where we stand now, we can look back at this and call it “past-futurism” or “retro-futurism,” although that is a a somewhat confusing term, as “retro-futurism” can also apply to current futuristic visions that hark back to early ones. A term linked with much of the “atomic age” or “space age” design (especially architecture and commercial design) in California and out west (north and south), is “googie”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googie_architecture#:~:text=Googie%20architecture%20(%2F%CB%88%C9%A1u%CB%90,Age%2C%20and%20the%20Atomic%20Age.&text=Features%20of%20Googie%20include%20upswept,of%20glass%2C%20steel%20and%20neon.

  2. Alaijah Rubianes '24

    Hey Alan,

    The “space-age” design is something that was super interesting to me when I was growing up. Whenever my family would go to Nevada (living in California at the time) we would pass houses similar to the picture you provided. I also got the chance to visit Roswell, NM this past summer because my girlfriend lived there, and it was really cool to see this fantasy of science-fiction incorporated into these houses! I really enjoyed this post! Good job!

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