Art Deco and Steampunk Airship

What to make of renewed fascination with art deco and the steampunk subculture?



1) There is the socioeconomic reason of erosion of social democratic institutions in the Western world and default gradual semi return of English speaking countries to decadence and emulation of styles from the 1920s.

2) There is the end of the government focus on the space program and thus a switch of public focus towards privately funded heroism for which 1920s explorers offer some guidance. Art Deco shows mostly privately funded optimism about the future, dynamic economy, technological progress, heroic capitalism, and a sort of a high fashion culture that the Western world now lacks. Steampunk subculture is an escapist geeky elaboration on the same theme and a troubling example of the past being a shinier inspiration than the present. Psyche's escape into deep retro should be considered by futurists and their attempts to market their visions.

3) There is also technology (and thus culture) enabled individualism that no longer belongs to only children of the rich. People want to be explorers of various realms and the cost of flying technology decreases, we should see first (obviously often unsuccessful!) attempts. Art deco and art generally is key in current attention deficit visual age if 21st century Wright Brothers types want to get their projects off the ground.

Take a look at the lobby of Empire State Building, it is otherworldly. Notice energetic yellow lights as well as gears and celestial body hieroglyphics on the ceiling. Neat.

The reach of this modernist yet luxurious style went as far as the subway stations of Soviet Moscow. Previously we mentioned how we want our flying house to be the iPhone of the sky. The title picture shows one illustration of such a design. Neat, slick, with blue and white shades. Yet something feels a bit cold about it. Is it possible to have neo art deco design that bridges the luxurious futuristic art of yesteryear with the ergonomics and sleekness of 21st century technology? Surely we'd be able to sell our flying house better among the more emotional types of people? This would tap certain current popular cultural attraction towards hyper femininity and hyper masculinity of the 20th century.

1930 Henderson inspired 21st century art deco motorcycle

And now a flying motorcycle version

Humans want fuzziness and comfiness alongside their technology. Currently, these fuzzy comfy designs are provided in an increasingly played out cartoony style found in social networking sites and software applications. Neo art deco provides an alternative to sliding towards Japanese style hyper cartoony cuteness in the decades to come.

Besides comfort, art deco airships, blimps, and Zeppelin imagery have and still are being used as symbols of progress whether in cartoony, fantasy, actual, or stylized form. Here are some random examples.

The key reason of airships capturing attention of steampunk fantasy and art deco modernism is that they are "ocean liners of the sky" allowing luxurious travel, permanent home, and headquarters. Rockets, helicopters, and airplanes cannot be decorated to nearly the same extent even in ridiculous steampunk sketches (which often have the tackiness level of a 17th century royal Spaniard ship). It doesn't feel right.

To make a house fly, an artistic understanding and bridge should be constructed between the past and the future that takes into account psychological needs of both the flying enthusiasts themselves and the public at large. Understanding fascination with escapism into artsy "alternate earths" is one of the steps towards creating the type of future we want on our real earth.

Chrysler building lobby

Flying House: A Fusion of Cutting Edge Aerodynamic Concepts

"But the nature and structure of the propulsion system determines the shape" you say? Of course. However we're not at that point yet. We're trying to popularize the concept among rich kids. The popularity of the post with pictures of futuristic luxury Zeppelins shows that a sort of cultural momentum is building for flying living quarters. The Atlantic had an article about hipsters having a strange cabin fetish. Well, we're taking the cabin into the sky and ripping off the impractical geeky steampunk airship nonsense off it (although we must admit that art deco still has its charm, see below).

We do have some guiding principles though beyond cynical marketing. 

1) The house should be a lot faster than most current blimps and thus utilize sufficient angularity borrowed from the ongoing efforts of Boeing and Northrop Grumman to win lucrative unmanned aerial vehicle contracts. Yes, there's dozens of countries developing drones but we should focus on which players have the most money, technology, resources, and talent to work with. The futile struggle to keep China out of west Pacific is serious business and so far our flying house shape borrows the triangle heavily.

Rome wasn't built in a day as can be seen but we want the flying house to utilize every side like a real house would and/or hopefully be able to spin on its vertical axis (if not move sideways and backwards when needed).

2) The shape should be thick enough to accommodate up to 250 square meters of space (average US house in 2009 up from 130 sq meters in 1970) without fully resorting to oval/cylinder aerodynamics of a futuristic blimp. 

3) Once again, it will not be powered by a sack of gas and neither will it be too fast. So no insane scramjet shapes (see below).

There's a dozen other more technical principles that are not relevant to the shape as much. In essence, we'll take the best of the high tech DARPA and amateur airship concept art, the best of the drones, and integrate it onto a sturdy floating platform spinal chord that extends its ribcage support beams throughout the whole house. The final product will be designed to be visually and psychologically marketable to the tastes of a certain elite demographic. Cultural, subcultural, and technological trends point to flying houses and we'll see you next time about this.