April 21, 2006
"Bullet and teardrop shapes and parallel 'speed lines'..."
Streamlining -- "the paring down of shape until it presents the least possible resistance to the flow of air or water" -- is a modernistic design trend that belongs to the 1930s and 40s. Do you love the futurism of the past? Or does it make you feel sad? If you get a bad twinge from it, is it nostalgia or disappointment? That is, that we live in this place that was once called the future, and we see that it doesn't have that exciting futuristic look we once imagined? We got tired of the future before it ever arrived, and we decided to preserve the look of past, except that part of the past that was the futuristic vision.
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18 comments:
Few things are as old and sad as yesterday's future. It whispers of defeat and loss and promises unkept, and evinces a state of ennui, wistful for an innocent but mistaken optimism.
"Stopped and awful as a photograph of somebody laughing
But ten years dead."
Sylvia Plath
Do we really want teenagers to have the keys to dad's Toyota hybrid flying car anytime in the future. Look to the skys!
[coffee consumed, more awake]
What'd I say? Feh.
Just count me nostalgic for the future that never was. Cool pictures, like at Lileks.
So? Let's make a future, right now, today! Who cares if people in the actual future make fun of it, diss it, etc. They're going to do that anyway, so joke 'em if they can't take a fug!
Why do it? Because it makes it ours. We don't just bumble into it, or accept whatever comes down the hill fatalistically; We Made It Ourselves! Even if it turns out that we don't.
Talking about cynical assumptions, these futuristic visions are part sad, part accurate, part ludicrous, aren't they?
Let me skew the topic a bit.
Here is one British man's vision of the year 2050 in the UK and the US.
Amongst the predictions:
- First "Latino" president in 2030. There will also be an absolute Hispanic majority in both Congress and the Senate.
- The US will become a pseudo-Roman Catholic state, which ironically will have a lot in common, he says, with its Puritan forebears.
- The US will break up into regions, North/South/East/West. This will spark a "Water War" as water becomes more valuable a commodity, than petroleum crude oil. British Columbia (those dern Canadians again), will be the Sarajevo, and the South will attack Washington State's water pipelines during the "hot" summer of 2026.
- Complete US withdrawal of troops in Japan will make the Japanese militarised again. Bonzai!
Finally, this cheery message:
Was it worth it?
In 2001 it was thought that after 600 years since the Portugese began to roam the oceans- new technology, advances in health programmes and science as well as the ubiqity of the web, creating English as a world language, it would lead to a kind of global pax Romana. But the reality of 2050, is that the world is divided into four unstable power zones, Oceania-Sino-Japan, North and South America, Eurozone and the Middle-East collective. Each are gazing at their own navels, strained by ever growing numbers, unable to focus on anything other than self-preservation. In effect, the world is in retreat from the age of discovery and the sound we can hear is of minds closing everywhere.
Jeez...
Ever since man began ruminating on a time which may not include him, he's thought the world would be more catastrophic than it is now.
For all the cheery visions of a streamlined world, with "Homes of the Future", we get this claptrap up top.
Doomsday predictions were the lesson of Malthus, and like Malthus, they're always wrong.
Cheers,
Victoria
Here is some evidence of this kind of streamlining coming back in modern architecture.
The style is as frozen in time as any other, and yet, it's always called "modern."
Odd, yes. But what is odder to me still (in its way) is how old some aspects of the style are. While visiting Vienna a few years ago, I saw an exhibition of Imperial silveware in one of the museums (the Kunsthistorisches Museum, I think) by Theresienplatz or whatever it's called. There were a number of items -- teapots, plates, etc. -- all very plain, simple, streamlined, polished, and modern. They looked like they came from machine processes in the 1950's or so. They were from 1820.
balfegor - Yes. And type design has changed less than you might think since 1476.
JOE - I think those curvy buildings are fantastic. I'm all for the unexpected in architecture, as long as it's not soul-crushingly, nightmarishly ugly.
P Froward- That was an interesting page you linked to. I noticed Cicero's Treatise on Old Age published by our old Althouse friend, Benjamin Franklin. Magnificent.
As far as the Gehry stuff-- hangin's too good fer 'em, we should make him live in one of those buildings. Check that. Make him live across the street from those monstrosities.
It's amazing how many people are fooled by guys like Gehry, thinking they're cutting edge. What's cutting edge about a carnival funhouse married to Doctor Cagliari's Cabinet?
Flying cars don't have any place to store the wings for when you land. You need a truck follow you around. A friend has a Bugati, with the boat tail, still is the coolest car on the road. People are looking for something new and post modern, they aren't going to find it in any gallery, it was made in the 13th century by a couple of monks making Bibles. Donald Jackson claims his bible is post modern, it was at the V&A, my Bible is just plain modern, I am not into this post stuff.
http://hometown.aol.com/biblescribe1/biblescribe1/index.htm
Too confusing---all these labels....
Mid-century modern vs. Post Modern vs. Neo-Classic
Sippican, help!
All I know is that I like something that has charm and warmth. Nothing too too too busy or exhausting (ahem), yet not too minimalist, or cold either.
Balance,warmth, and symmetry.
I don't like that.... Jetsons/ (A-Spaceship-Has-Landed) look either.
Peace, Maxine
Regarding the Gehry haters (of which I'm one, with the exception being Disney Hall, that actually does kick-ass)
He DOES live in a butt-ugly house of his own design here in Santa Monica.
The Eichler homes are the best. Mid-century modern with an open floor plan, and lots of plants:
In my dreams: http://www.milehimodern.com/images/1815SJerseyExt.jpg
Peace, Maxine
I was once streamlined and aerodynamic. But then I discovered the pleasure of fried foods and red meat.
Mmmmm... chinese Orange Beef... deep fried red meat... the best of both worlds...
I was trying to come up with something more relevant, but another poster beat me to the Sky Captain movie, so I'm stuck with this.
"T, you look like a Flash Gordon rocket: Tiny pointed top, wide middle, fiery gas coming out the end..."
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