Futurama

Futurama was a model city designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. It was commissioned by General Motors, and amongst the 1-acre of models and building were many streamlined highways and cars. Futurama, also called ‘The World of Tomorrow’ was Norman Bel Geddes vision of a utopian 1960. The future was shown as idyllic and efficient rural areas connected by massive highways to the ordered and clean cities. Areas of recreation and work were easily accessible, airports had efficient designs and transport was smooth and beneficial. The entire model was visible to the public through a system of conveyor belts, which gave them an aerial view of the ‘World of Tommorow’. The GM pavilion itself was designed to give the viewer an immersive experience. (Marchand 1992:31)

The Futurama was intensely popular with the public, with unprecedented queues, who instead of seeing the problematics and challenges of a corporation shared in a social and technological vision of the future. (Marchand 1992:25)

A video of the Futurama will give you a sense of its scale and ideological intentions (available here, or a smaller shorter version here).

Bel Geddes vision of the future was exclusive and evasive, there were no slums, the poor were not represented, the miniature scale made little provision for human relations and the rural villages were centralized around a church. (Marchand 1992:40). In Bel Geddes script for the audio accompanying the ride explicitly states that “whenever possible the rights of way of the express city thoroughfares have been so routed as to displace outmoded business sections and undesirable slum areas” (Cogdell 200:230). In a contemporaneous review by Stuart Chase he found Futurama to be a “civilization which had been cleaned, garnished, and ordered. Waste, clutter and ugliness were out of it.”(Cogdell 200:230)

These visions of a forceful evolution of the world are particularly interesting in terms of a similar programme of exclusion and modernity in South Africa. The idea too of a shared Modern vision of the future is an important step in forming a sense of national identity, apparent also in the Zeppelin craze and in the excitement of modern trains.

Looking back from a contemporary position, onto old visions of the Future, seems to hold a major element of nostalgia, another major motive for model making.