Retro Futurism

Retro Futurism’s basis is in that of a wonder of the future, it arises from people imagining what life might be like decades, or centuries in the future. One key aspect of retro futurism is that the creator takes inspiration from the present world around them, and then adds additions of science fiction to let their ideas and imagination run wild. Retro Futurism is a broad aesthetic due to its ability to relate itself to any point in the future, and it can be broken into many subcategories it has inspired since it’s dawn including: Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Raygun Gothic, Y2K Futurism and many more.

In the featured image, Figure 1, you can see an example of a retro futuristic monorail drawn by Kikuzo Ito in 1936, this piece was made for a magazine all about possible future transportation methods. In this example we can see the heavy influences of the real technology at the time of rail, however it of course incorporates futuristic components such as the seemingly unstable singular set of wheels and the use of the tail fin and propeller to keep the rail car upright during travel.

There are hundreds of artists that have adopted a retro futuristic aesthetic in their artforms, it is not contained to one form of art, it comes in the form of film, video games, sculpture, etc. However a large bulk of the ‘classic era’ (mid 1900s) of retro futurism is drawn art; Figure 2 shows one of Alexander Weygers concepts of what San Francisco could look like in the future, featuring huge “discopters” along the coast line that presumably transport citizens out and about. One key element that many retro futurists adopt is their interest in the grandiose and epic possibilities that the future holds, very little if any of their ideas stem from a scientific approach, and they captivate the viewer with the what if?

Retro Futurism has gone on to inspire many creatives, so much of science fiction is built upon the classic trends of early science fiction from the 1900s, the pioneers of the genre had nothing to base their futuristic ideas on so they based it purely on the existing world around them and their imagination. And retro futurism is alive today, Fallout 4 is heavily inspired by retro futuristic art and the entire world is built around the what-if of small scale fusion reactors.

I personally really enjoy the colorful work of Anton Brzezinski, he has numerous works very similar to the one in Figure 4 that depict awe inspiring cityscapes with funky and preposterous components like the plane transporter “Interstellar Airways.”

Of course retro futurism was not contained to imagining Earth in the future but also other planets, in Figure 5 Fred Freeman shows a possible vacation destination on a distant planet, where people walk around in large glass tubes, or fly around with jetpacks. It really is such a pure form of futurism that is readily digestible by anyone.

In Klaus Burgle’s work from 1969 shown in Figure 6 we get a really cool concept of underground travel tubes, I really like this piece’s combination of the already existing missiles and rockets of the ’60s and then applying them in a totally new context. That is the spirit of Retro Futurism, taking what exists, changing some aspects about it, then filling in the blanks with the totally new.

Sources

Content:

Future transportation (1936)

https://allthatsinteresting.com/retrofuturism

https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Retro-Futurism

https://weburbanist.com/2015/05/07/retrofuturistic-urbanism-6-cities-as-they-could-have-become/Images:

Images:

Figure 1: Kikuzo Ito, 1936

Figure 2: Alexander Weygers, 1950

Figure 3: Adam Adamowicz, Bethesda Studios

Figure 4: Anton Brzezinski, Forrest J. Ackerman Collection

Figure 5: Fred Freeman, Readers Digest (1966)

Figure 6: Klaus Burgle, 1969