Retro-futurism - Historiography

Historiography

Retro-futurism took its current shape in the 1970s, a time when technology was rapidly changing. From the advent of the personal computer to the birth of the first test tube baby, this period was characterized by intense and rapid technological change. But many in the general public began to question whether applied science would achieve its earlier promise—that life would inevitably improve through technological progress. In the wake of the Vietnam war, environmental depredations, and the energy crisis, many commentators began to question the benefits of applied science. But they also wondered, sometimes in awe, sometimes in confusion, at the scientific positivism evinced by earlier generations. Retro-futurism “seeped into academic and popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s,” inflecting George Lucas’ Star Wars and the paintings of pop artist Kenny Scharf alike." Surveying the optimistic futurism of the early twentieth century, the historians Joe Corn and Brian Horrigan remind us that retro-futurism is "a history of an idea, or a system of ideas--an ideology. The future, or course, does not exist except as an act of belief or imagination."