One great thing about Disney, that I think a lot of people can relate to, is that its so awesome in its old-new atmosphere. It is the epitome of retrofuturism, everything from It’s A Small World to Epcot has something old that was at one point cutting edge and brand new in design, technology or appearance.
Case in point, The Contemporary Resort. This place had to have been designed by architects who were sitting around, smoking and reminiscing about Logan’s Run.
Ever been to the Wonders of Life Exhibit at Epcot in Disney World? This place is like ground zero for retrofuturism.
If my memory serves me correctly, and I think it does, this whole area of Epcot exhumes the perfect atmosphere of a blend of great exhibits from the the 80s that were, at one time, cutting edge. I believe the exhibit, unfortunately, closed in January of ’07, but it was definitely an awesome experience, culminating in the “thrill ride” Body Wars.
Just looks at that double helix in all its awesome glory. To be honest, I guess the exhibit is a little late in the 20th century to be considered “Atomic” but its still got that great retrofuturist ambience that was very much still around in the 80s.
Archive.org has this awesome video from the ’62 Worlds Fair in Seattle.
I still can’t figure out how to embed videos from fu**ing archive.org without a straight link to the flv, but its worth watching on the clickthrough…
I’m trying to keep it alive. This, technically, isn’t “Atom Punk” but it is Disney Land and it is the monorail and its from 1962 (a film called 40 Pounds of Trouble, I might add). So its a cool shot.
What is it about Disney Land in the late fifties/early sixties that is so visually appealing?
Image comes from: Disneyland stills from 40 Pounds of Trouble
Here’s a cool image from BoingBoing.net:
I’m wondering if Atom Punk will ever actually catch on. I’m gonna go with no, but, regardless, I’ll keep posting crap anyway.
If I were more of a nerd and wasn’t lazy I’d probably write my own Atom Punk literature just for my own edification. Alas, I am neither…
That Disney animation is a real find…
Some of the greatest visuals of the Atomic Age, IMHO, come from Disneyland. There’s something about the grainy super 8 and 16mm film stock of home movies coupled with the colors and architecture of the place that really capture the time period well.
Old video from 1953 about atoms/atomic energy. Cool animation, bad music, but what are you gonna do?
Haven’t posted some in a while, so here are some cool images and a viddy…
You know, the atomic age is one of the coolest times in American History. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it is probably the most “American” time for this country. Couple that with cool places like Denmark, the Netherlands and other nations it is my favorite time in (recent) history.
On that note, I have been searching google and other parts of the Internet and have yet to find any true following or website dedicated to this following. Steam Punk is cool and all, but I like Atom Punk better. So, I’m going to try to dedicate a post or two a day to some cool Atomic age stuff, like below… and below that…
Note: Just found out about the Atomic Age Alliance, cool stuff…
I am a huge Atom-Punk fan. Anything from the fifties to early seventies that has to do with design, architecture or the “future” is awesome. One of my favorite things about this time period is Disney World/Land. The Contemporary is especially cool. However, the Polynesian is another great area that was designed during this time period. Here are some awesome images (from Tikiman’s Polynesian page):
The Life Archive at Google Images has a collection of hundreds of photographs from the World’s Fair. Actually, World’s Fairs, plural, as they have images from all of them including Chicago, NY, SF, Brussels and so on…
As a pretty huge atom punk fan I can say that the World’s Fair is awesome and thus, these images are as well.
Check them out here.
