the techno-futurist century (part b)

Introduc)on to New Media NM1000 | Townsville

1909 -‐ 2009 A Techno-‐Futurist Century II

To New Horizons | General Motors Futurama Exhibi)on | 1939

The Future Designing a Vision of Society

I think with a sense of sweetened pain of nights when I sat by Flushing River and saw The World of Tomorrow reflected on its onyx surface, in full colour, and upside down...”

Meyer Berger | speaking a;er The New York World’s Fair | 1940

Some)mes at night I lie awake in the dark and try to recapture the vision and the sound of The World of Tomorrow. “I try to remember how the pastel ligh)ng glowed on Mad Meadow in Flushing: soT greens, orange, yellow and red; blue moonglow on the great Perisphere and on the ghostly soaring Trylon.

The World’s Fair was once a hugely significant event, the right to host it fiercely contested, the sense of technological crystal balls and cultural exchange omnipresent. The World’s Fair came to a reconsMtuted plot of land in upstate New York in 1939. Like the Paris Fair (1937) before it -‐ which hosted such significant events (in hindsight, at least) as the hanging of Picasso’s Guernica, and the foreboding cultural face-‐off between Russia and Germany -‐ the New York World’s Fair of 1939/1940 was to be like no other.

NY World’s Fair | Nembhard Culin | 1939


Arriving at the outset of WWII, the Fair of ‘39 was a naMonalisMc display of democracy, technological achievement and naMonalisMc pride, designed to li; America out of the dust bowl of the Great Depression. "The Fair will dramaMcally display the most promising developments of ideas, products, services and social factors of the present day in such a fashion that the visitor may gain a vision of what he might a^ain for himself and for his community by intelligence and cooperaMve planning.“ Grover Whalen, NY World’s Fair president NY World’s Fair | Nembhard Culin | 1939


The ‘39 World’s Fair introduced a vast area of significant “futurisMc” developments which would become an intrinsic part of post war America : Television Photo copier Pre-‐prepared frozen foods Vocal synthesiser Washing machine Air Condi)oning And enthusiasMc appearances by Superman in his first public ouMng, President Roosevelt the author of the New Deal, Albert Einstein the inventor of the atom bomb and science ficMon author HG Wells.

Superman | Ray Middleton | 1939


Television Launch | RCA| 1939

Unlike the quaint tourist trade fair feel of Brisbane’s Expo 88, our modest Australian equivalent, the World’s Fair of 1939 took on ‘mythic’ proporMons Slogans which were used to market the event included: “Fair of the Future” “The World of Tomorrow” “Dawn of a New Day” “It was more than a collecMon of exhibits; it was a wellspring of innovaMon in corporate idenMty and promoMon.” (Heller & Pomeroy, 1997)


NY World’s Fair | 1939

In fact the World’s Fair of 1939 was a predetermined plan by key players among America’s wealthiest corporaMons to li; the country out of the depression era and signal their mastery of modernist design and demonstrate the possibiliMes of 20th century urban Utopias. This marriage between naMonal idenMty and markeMng -‐ consumer culture – was built around the proliferaMon of consumer goods developed by America’s leading corporaMons who exhibited alongside naMon states : General Motors Wes)nghouse Chrysler RCA AT&T


NY World’s Fair | 1939

In many ways this signalled the beginning of the corporaMsaMon of contemporary life – and in a sense the birth of a world wide movement lead by the West to blend domesMcity with technological progression. In an eerily similar manner to which conferences, swap meets, culture fesMvals, trade shows and industry events are dominated by corporaMons today, this event was bank rolled by these large American corporaMons. These corporaMons invested heavily in designing this vision in which the consumer was at the centre of this technological revoluMon.

Elektro Robot | Wes)nghouse Corpora)on | 1939


Leave It to Roll-‐Oh | Wes)nghouse Corpora)on | 1939


The Middleton Family Visit the World’s Fair | Wes)nghouse Corpora)on | 1939

The Middleton Family Visit the World’s Fair (Snody, 1939) As their name suggests, the Middletons are designed to represent the middle class response to the Fair's imagined future of consumables and social improvement. The film is classic corporate spin. The Middletons visit the Fair, but they only tour the WesMnghouse Building. The film is designed to enthrall the Middletons – and therefore the audience – with the wonders of an electrified future of capitalist America.


While the film follows the adventures of the family as they visit various WesMnghouse exhibits, the plot focuses on the romanMc struggles of Babs, a fresh-‐faced college student who must decide whether she'll marry her hometown beau, Jim Treadway, or the European slickster, Nicholas Makaroff. More than offering two different paths toward Babs' heart, both suitors represent ideologically opposing antudes toward industrializaMon and progress as imagined by WesMnghouse. It is a classic simplificaMon of western propaganda – Marxism and Abstract Art (ie not to be trusted) versus homespun values and corporate servitude (warm, safe and prosperous). “In the film, Babs' roman?c struggle illustrates the conflict between capitalism and communism as imagined by Wes?nghouse”. (Wood, SJSU)

The Middleton Family Visit the World’s Fair Wes)nghouse Corpora)on | 1939


Not to be out done, GM Motors sponsored the not so subtle, Democracity, the Fair’s central exhibit. Designed by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, this was to be a truly futurist project which projected a vision of American life in 2039. The Utopian city was called Centron. It featured richly gardened communiMes called Pleasantvilles and satellite commercial districts surrounded by farms and green belts called Millvilles. All of this was linked by a modern streamlined transportaMon network of highways and parkways. As the chairman of the fair’s design team declared : “This not a vague dream of a life that might be lived in the far future, but one that could be lived tomorrow morning if we willed it to be so.” (Robert Kohn)

NY World’s Fair | Albert Staehle | 1939


To New Horizons | General Motors Futurama Exhibi)on | 1939


Democracity aside, NY WF provided a plarorm for the execuMon of a modern futurist design aestheMc which would dominate American life for the best part of a century: Domes)c life Transporta)on Architecture as expression The explora)on of space Military technology The func)on of the human form

World’s Fair Comics | 1939


The Designer Designing the Everyday

At the centre of all of this was the industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, whose exploraMon of such design aestheMcs as streamline and pracMcal approaches ergonomics would shape much of the next 50 years. The origins of his modern futurist design aestheMc and the accompanying pragmaMcs of naMon building which underpinned the NY World Fair of 1939 can be seen even today in contemporary American culture.


J3 Hudsons | Dreyfuss | 1938

"If the point of contact between the product and the people becomes a point of fricMon, then the industrial designer has failed. If, on the other hand, people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient, or just plain happier, the designer has succeeded." -‐ Henry Dreyfuss

Henry Dreyfuss


John Deer Tractor | 1939 Honeywell Thermometer | 1952


Ma Bell's Princess Phone | 1937 Ingraham co. 'SenMnel Wafer' electric wall clock | 1952


J3 Hudsons | 1938

Hughes 500 Helicopter | Circa. 1950


Thermos Pitchers (Model 549) | 1935 The American Thermos bo^le co. | 1937


The Computer Designing the Personal Future


In 1983 Apple launched their new breed of personal computers. The Apple Macintosh was setup as a direct compeMtor with similar technologies being developed by IBM. However in a strange twist of markeMng, Apple used a Dystopian vision of the future to counter the hegemony of IBM. They Ridley Sco^, the director of the 1982 film Bladerunner, to direct a TV commercial which echoed the themes of George Orwell’s i1984. Apple CorporaMon | Macintosh | 1984

Apple CorporaMon | Macintosh | 1984 Apple CorporaMon | 1984 | 1983


Apple CorporaMon| 1997

In 1997 the Apple CorporaMon introduced their most widely used adverMsing campaign to date, which would conMnue well into 2002. Using 17 world leading figures from the 20th Century, Apple used the significaMon of these individuals and their achievements to construct the possibiliMes of a future built around the personal computer. In this sense the owner of an Apple computer would automaMcally be associated with this knowledge base and the product in effect would accelerate thinking and creaMvity via technology.



Apple CorporaMon | 1997

The Data Designing Meaning


h^p://www.labnol.org h^p://blogoscoped.com


Robert Delaunay | Circular Forms, Sun No. 2 | 1912-‐1913

Google Inc | Chrome Browser / OS | 2008


MicrosoT| Windows 7 OS | 2010 Morgan Russell | Cosmic Synchromy | 1914

Sony | Bravia TV | 2006

Samsung | LED TV | 2008

This is only half the story See : web browsers, iPods, social networking, data clouds The techno-‐futurist century began with a fascinaMon with technology reflected in art The techno-‐futurist century ended by using arMsMc noMons of product design and rules of colour to sell technology Somewhere during the course of the 20th Century consumer culture became the dominant market for the manufacture of electronics These electronics in turn became the dominant devices for the producMon of art

Conclusions The Techno-‐Futurist Century

the techno-futurist century (part b)

Education