Massachusetts Retrofuturism is an exploration of how past generations imagined what the future would hold; their predictions ranged from completely inaccurate to astonishingly accurate.
But as science advanced rapidly, old dreams began to seem outdated and unrealistic; thus giving rise to retro futurism as an interest.
Unearthing Massachusetts' Retrofuturistic Past
Retrofuturism refers to many things - fiction, art and even clothing designs can all contribute to its definition - but at its core, retrofuturism refers to how past visions of future influences our perception of present reality.
History in Massachusetts shows us that people have imagined future societies in various ways throughout time, often through futuristic fiction. 19th-century futuristic literature typically focused on mechanical advancements like cars and trains; similarly, popular authors like H. G. Wells (The Time Machine) and Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) created future societies based around science and technology.
After World War II, technological developments like color television and space travel inspired utopian visions for the future. While some futurists were accurate with some predictions about technology advancements, others fell far short of expectations and dreams. When these optimistic forecasts started appearing implausible to many writers and artists of earlier decades, new visionaries tried to revive these utopian concepts through writing or artistic endeavors.
Retrofuturism as we understand it today was first conceptualized in 1983 by experimental artist Lloyd John Dunn, and its name accurately captures its concept: to blend past and future aesthetics to form something both familiar and alien at once.
This was manifested through furniture, architecture and fashion; from clothing to music. Googie architecture's curvier forms and flashy neon colors featured in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey were major factors. Additionally, futuristic cars, gadgets and clothing that graced film and TV sets was an integral component.
Reverse futurism, however, focuses not only on our past ideas about the future but on modern interpretations of history as seen through genres such as steampunk and cyberpunk that reimagine it with advanced technologies from today.
Retrofuturism can be thought of as the cultural response to climate change and other threats, oscillating between hope and dread, utopia and dystopia. We can only hope that someday humanity will find refuge elsewhere.
Massachusetts' Retrofuturism: Future glimpses
As technology develops in Massachusetts, so too do our ideas of what the future might hold. These visions have found expression in modern art, architecture, design, movies and other areas of life. Retrofuturism is an exploration of past visions of future worlds as manifested today - it offers us a glimpse of what our world may look like years from now.
Retrofuturism draws upon the artists, writers and filmmakers of past generations and reinvents their visions in its most common form: steampunk. Dieselpunk and decodence are newer genres of retrofuturism which use similar techniques while drawing from styles from different eras of history for inspiration.
Now, much of what our ancestors envisioned for the future seems laughable from our modern perspective, yet there remain truths within their predictions. Self-driving cars have become more widespread; video conferencing services and wrist accessories that play TV shows have also become readily available; visual representations such as curvy geometric shapes with pop neon colors have come true as have as much glass as possible in buildings.
Are You Inspired By the Future? For those interested in the future, old illustrations depicting clothing functions of 21st Century clothes, gardening techniques and drive-thru grocery stores can provide inspiration. There are also plenty of websites which celebrate futurist imagination from decades past, like Paleofuture that showcases 19th and 20th century illustrators' creative designs as sources for future inspiration.
Futuristic Retro is another subgenre of retrofuturism that takes an entirely current, future-focused approach, which reimagines contemporary technology and fashion into an alternate version of the past. Examples of Futuristic Retro can be seen in many recent computer games and movies like Fallout, Jetsons, The Rocketeer and Brazil as well as music styles like synthwave, steampunk and electro bands like Kraftwerk. Furthermore, Futuristic Retro has become an influential fashion trend featuring tall plastic boots, skintight chrome leggings or anything made entirely out of PVC material!
Retrofiction turned Reality: Massachusetts' Retrofuturism & Science
Future concepts imagined in the past have continued to have an effect on us today, from how we think about ourselves, dress and even shop (think drive-thrus for grocery stores!). Since science continues to advance and technology develops quickly, it's fascinating to look back and see what our ancestors imagined the future would look like!
In the 1950s, Massachusetts magazines conveyed many ideas about humanity's future. Artists and sculptors depicted everything from living on the moon to flying saucer rides; architects created structures designed to resemble flying saucers. Such imagery also made its way into movies like The Terminator and Star Trek that depicted humans traveling deeper into space.
These designs and ideas remained relevant in the 1980s, particularly through music as artists experimented with synthesizers to produce retrofuturism-influenced beats. Lloyd John Dunn coined the term retrofuturism in 1983 to describe an artistic movement which blended nostalgia for past years with optimism for future endeavors. He used both words retro and futurism together as part of this definition to capture its spirit - it was intended to describe a style of art which combined nostalgia for past memories with optimism for what lies ahead.
Fashion, furniture, and architecture exhibit the intersection of past and future in ways that blend the two together seamlessly. Retrofuturism from the past found expression in modern styles such as Googie and Streamline Moderne architecture; its influence also found itself on video game backdrops as well as clothing that often featured one-piece skintight outfits with lighter tones or plastic boots.
Steampunk is an emerging form of retrofuturism. Steampunk blends retro aesthetic with modern or futuristic technology to form an eclectic mixture that evokes both history and the future. Its roots in DIY culture provide an appealing counterpoint to detachment and cynicism associated with another form of futuristic retro, known as vaporwave.
Massachusetts' Retrofuturism & Science
When we think of the future, we often imagine it to be an age of technological progress - space travel, self-driving cars and their like are often imagined as depicted by Hollywood movies and shows such as Black Mirror or Iron Man 2. However, such concepts are heavily shaped by ideas from past decades, making it hard to predict what exactly our future will hold due to decisions we make and events occurring right now.
Futuristic themes have long shaped art and literature. Artists have long imagined vivid future scenes ranging from living on the moon to flying saucer rides, while novelists based their fictional depictions on Jules Verne's pulp SF novels or science-fiction movies like Star Trek or Terminator as their basis.
As globalization increased, a trend known as retrofuturism emerged - an amalgamation of past and future ideas. This has become popularly known among art movements; moreover, it can also be applied to interior design of our homes or spaces through features like cosmic lighting or unusual finishes such as Panton's cantilevered chair from the 50s as an excellent example of retrofuturism.
Making predictions about what the future will hold is difficult at best and impossible at worst, yet this has never stopped people from trying. Futurism was popular during the early twentieth century through to the 1970s; today technology is developing at an ever-increasing rate - for instance it was once thought that mobile phones would eventually be much smaller and sleeker - it was even speculated they'd eventually fit inside your jeans pocket like thumbs!
Retrofuturism has also changed our understanding of fashion. Once, it was thought that future clothing would be highly uniform; most characters in science-fiction movies and TV shows wore one-piece or skintight garments along with plastic boots. Over time however, designers have created clothes combining multiple styles - this trend is sometimes known as Raygun Gothic; an amalgamation of Googie, Streamline Moderne, and Art Deco designs into clothing designs that span centuries and decades.
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