Concept art by Robert McCall
Show the "space age" human fantasy of the future cosmic city
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Imagining the future has always been one of the sources of inspiration for human beings, and is an outlet for artists' eager creativity. However, human knowledge of the universe is extremely limited at every stage of time, and even so, we continue to create the most wonderful imagination for the future.
"Retro-Futurism" was born in such a background, this trend of thought after years of development and precipitation, has formed a unique aesthetic system, deeply affecting the art, popular culture and fashion fields, and in recent years of retro trend, leading a unique retro trend.
A variety of futuristic retro paintings
"Retro Futurism" refers to the artists' imitation of the early Futurist design style by means of contemporary art, and the grafting of retro pictures with future technology to express the early artists' ideas for the future, forming a romantic texture of the new and the old. Simply put: how people in the past imagined the future.
The formation of retro-futurism is very clear, which is inseparable from the two key points in time of the "Golden Age" at the beginning of the 20th century and the "Space Age" in the 1960s. During this period, mankind made successive great breakthroughs in natural science, prompting mankind to be full of positive imagination of space and the future, and the "futurism" trend of thought came into being.
People's fantasies about technology in the last century
In the 1970s, it was also a new node in the development of science and technology in Western society: the birth of IVF, the breakthrough of space technology, etc. made some people begin to fear the future, they longed for the development of society, and the development of society was based on people's fantasies about the future in the past. But this is not the case in front of mankind, the future did not develop according to the original expectations, human beings began to question the idea of "futurism", so the idea of "retro futurism" appeared.
Artists have created "future imaginations of the past" of this unique texture in various fields and become part of popular culture. The staggered mixture of past, present and future is one of the manifestations of retro-futurism. Genres include Cyberpunk from last year's fire to the present, as well as steampunk, Dieselpunk, Atompunk and RayGun Gothic.
Philosophers have used Hauntology to answer the reason why retro-futurism is favored by various fields, that is, the era we live in is the overlap of past and future generations, so we often look at things with a sense of familiarity and strangeness, which is also the attraction of retro-futurism aesthetics.
2001: A Space Odyssey Swipe left and right to view
1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" typically depicts the imagination of 60 generations of human beings for 2000, and has been hailed as a "milestone in modern science fiction film technology". MGM once promoted the film: "Everything in 2001: A Space Odyssey will become a reality in the next 30 years." Obviously, not really, but some of the predictions in the film were indeed fulfilled when humans entered the 2020s, such as the proliferation of computers, flat panel displays, glass cockpits made with aerospace technology, voice-activated computers, increased numbers of phone numbers, computers successfully defeating humans in human-machine chess games, and so on.
The Fifth Element
"The Fifth Element" was released in 1997, is a lot of childhood memories of the 80s and 90s, this sci-fi love movie, in the setting and picture of a good show of people's fantasies about the future of the technologically developed society. For example, three-dimensional transportation in the cities of the future, and interstellar travel at the speed of light, have become very common spaceships. In addition, the costumes for the film were designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, revealing a millennial fashion aesthetic everywhere.
Britney Spears
When it comes to music, we have to mention Britney Spears. As she escaped the control of her biological father and was given the freedom she deserved for a long time, we think back to the millennial pop scene ruled by her, when almost the world knew there was a little sweet.
《Ops I Did It Again》
In the music video of her song "Ops I Did It Again" released in 2000, she showed the mainstream futuristic retrosist elements of the time, wearing a red plastic tights, blue-gray eyeshadow, in the space capsule, and the MV also told the setting of "Martians fall in love with Earth astronauts".
Dua Lipa
The timeline shifts to the 2020s, with pop newcomers emerging, including singer Dua Lipa, who has become a global hit on the retro-futuristic album Future Nostalgia. The name of the album actually directly says what kind of album this is, the literal translation is "future nostalgia", in fact, it is the meaning of "future retro", and the whole album is also a retro Disco in a modern way. From the music to the overall visual, to the MV, this aesthetic is well implemented.
Lady Gaga《Chromatica》
The overall aesthetic concept of Lady Gaga's new album "Chromatica" also has a strong retro flavor of the future. In the MV of the first "Stupid Love" filmed with the iPhone, you can see the intertwining and collision of futuristic technology and the sense of ancient ruin. Dressed in space futuristic costumes, Lady Gaga and the dancers are in an endless, dilapidated desert that combines cyberpunk and wasteland.
Mugler is a designer brand of the same name founded in 1974 by the famous fashion genius Thierry Mugler, whose designs are exaggerated, fantastical and imaginative, combining architectural, dramatic and other design styles, full of futuristic, becoming a legend in the fashion history of the 90s, and he has been inspired by the retro future more than once.
Thierry Mugler 1979 “Futuristic Spiral”
Inspired by the name of Thierry Mugler's "Futuristic Spiral" series, which was launched in 1979, it showed the understanding of the future of the times in exaggerated silver, depicting a virtual underwater living dress that carried a retro-futuristic fashion sense.
Thierry Mugler 1995
Thierry Mugler's 1995 collection is a textbook work in fashion history that showcases the aesthetics of retro futurism. These columns use the fusion of metal machinery and the human body to express people's imagination of how technology and humans will get along at that time.
Givenchy 1999
In 1999, Givenchy, while at the helm of Alexander McQueen, presented another vision of a futuristic retro aesthetic on the fall/winter runway. This series combines elements of the future that were considered futuristic at the time, such as circuit boards, LED lights, and luminous fabrics, and uses McQueen's usual bold design language to interpret the future robot in his mind.
《Gucci and Beyond》
Fast forward to the fact that Gucci's Fall/Winter 2017 ad series,"Gucci and Beyond," is based on the Star Trek style of USS Calist, showing the outward aesthetic characteristics of retro futurism. Alessandro Michele pays homage to Star Trek, and many of the scenes in the film are almost one-to-one restoration of the film.
Gucci Fall/Winter 2018
Gucci's Fall/Winter 2018 show shows a strong sense of science fiction. This time, Michele moved the runway directly to the green "operating room", where a retrofit of fashion style, various elements that appear in science fiction movies, can be seen on the runway. The theme of the show is a reference to D. J. Harlowe's Cyborg Manifesto expresses the timeless spirit of the Gucci brand – undefined freedom and pluralism.
Louis Vuitton 2019
The 2019 Louis Vuitton show, inspired by the show, implemented the aesthetics of futuristic retroism, which is set in the courtyard of the Louvre, using glass and white neon lights to form a space where retro and technology collide, shaping the concept of dialogue between the past and the future.
Balenciaga 2019
The Balenciaga Pre-Spring '19 runway also interprets futuristic retrofuturism. This big show was co-created by artist Jon Rafman, using LED screen animation to make the show futuristic, like a time and space tunnel, and the clothing series is a strong retro style, forming a sensory experience of traveling between the future and the past.
The formation of each aesthetic style has its own unique driving force, and the futuristic retro aesthetic is driven by the imagination of human Pegasus Starry Sky. But what makes it unique is the "unknowable" aspect of the world and the universe that we cannot fully predict the future. This kind of infinite imagination of the future that is "backward" in a certain period of time has achieved the idea of future retrofuturism and formed a unique aesthetic style, which has also deeply influenced all aspects of culture and enriched human civilization. Sometimes, "unknowable" is not so terrible, and human beings are always on the road to exploring the sea of stars.
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