Everyone has their own ideas about what the future will or should look like, from technological marvels to social equality to life everlasting. But as time goes on, some ideas about the future don't match up with what actually occurs. Instead of jetpacks and flying cars, we have smartphones and unmanned aircraft. However, some have taken to resurrecting the visuals of what people originally thought the future would be like, which we now call retro-futurism.

While predictions and visualizations of the future have never stopped, the current trend of retro-futurism got its start in the 1970s. This period was a time of rapid technological change, ushering in the creation of the personal computer and other breakthroughs. However, it was also a time of skepticism over the optimism of scientific progress from previous decades, especially in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Seventies' energy crisis. Artists and filmmakers began to explore a nostalgic view of the future progress imagined in the Forties and Fifties, resulting in films like Star Wars and the cartoon art of Kenny Scarf. Retro-futurism continues to the present day, revealed in video games series like Fallout and movies like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Most of the retro-futuristic style consists of throwbacks to visual art from the 1930s to the 1960s. Based off the aesthetics of the early 20th century, most retro scenes from the future come with solid colors, streamlined shapes, and larger-than-normal scales. A lot of inspiration comes from the Art Deco style, along with the retroactively optimistic view of the future. It shows up in architecture as well, giving us curved domes reminiscent of flying saucers and monolithic towers. We can consider Metropolis, a silent film directed by Fritz Lang in 1927, to be a strong example of the kind of aesthetic that retro-futurism has adopted for itself; to Lang's credit, he drew inspiration from Art Deco and Gothic architecture to give the film its unique appearance.

As an example of retro-futuristic painting, we can look at modern artists like Nazar Gnativ and Aleksey Golovchenko. They collaborated to produce a brilliant matte painting called Retrofuturistic cityscape, which can be found at Behance.net. True to its name, the painting shows us a future that never was, with a streamlined monorail gliding past a crystalline dome over a retro-style diner. In the background are flying cars on an ordinary road and beautiful towers illuminated by the setting sun. While the painting treats the scale as mundane, the audience's eye is drawn toward the impressive details in the diner's architecture and the design of the monorail. It brings us to a nostalgic state of mind, which is the whole point of retro-futurism.

While retro-futurism isn't likely to dominate actual future trends in art, fashion, and architecture, it does serve a valuable role in keeping alive our past visions of the future and preserving a bright and creative style for future generations.

Image by Joe Wolf on Flickr