Matt Novak

Frolicking in London

Nunc non turpis sed nibh fringilla elementum non mollis sem. Duis et nisl et felis feugiat placerat non nec odio. Nullam dui arcu, iaculis et pellentesque non, facilisis eget nunc. Suspendisse pharetra blandit felis, et fringilla nulla placerat a. Vestibulum ante neque, ultricies id interdum semper, consequat rhoncus nibh. Ut luctus, felis eu semper fermentum,…

Crape

Crape or crepe (Anglicized versions of the Fr. crêpe ) is a silk, wool, or polyester fabric of a gauzy texture, having a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance. (The word crape is also used as an Anglicized spelling of crêpe (pancake).) Silk crape is woven of hard spun silk yarn in the gum or natural…

La Garconne Luxury & Emerging Designer Fashion: Women’s Designer Ready-to-Wear, Shoes, Bags & Accessories

Textiles: Made in USA

In this series, photographer Christopher Payne ventures into various textile factories to uncover industrial architecture and document historical textile-making processes. Image source: chrispaynephoto.com

“If you know yourself, you are doomed” — Alexey Brodovitch Such was the attitude with which legendary designer and photographer Alexey Brodovitch, the long-time art director of “Harper’s Bazaar”, approached each new project and transformed graphic design in the 20th century. Brodovitch was known foremost for his work on “Harper’s”, but his legacy extended far…

The 1958 Plan to Turn Ellis Island Into a Vacation Resort

After Ellis Islandwas closed in November 1954, no one was quite sure what to do with it. The 27-acre government facility located in New York Harbor had stopped processing immigrants coming into the United States and no government entity was stepping up with a plan for the site. So in 1956 the U.S. government started…

Googie: Architecture of the Space Age

Before I moved to Los Angeles (almost 2 years ago now) I had never heard the word Googie. In fact, when a friend — a native Californian — used the term I initially thought it must have something to do with Google. I didn’t know the word, but I definitely knew the style. And I…

The Rise and Fall of Ken-chan, the $43,000 Robot Waiter

While the robot waiters of mid-’80s Pasadena were serving up chow mein at the Two Panda Deli in sunny California, another robot waiter 5,400 miles west was slinging spaghetti at Grazie’s Italian Restaurant in Tokyo. Released in 1985 by the Japanese company Daimichi Koki with software designed by the Seibu Saison Group, Ken-chan was a…

1923 Envisions the Two-Wheeled Flying Car of 1973

From the vantage point of 2012 we often associate flying cars with the slick, Jetsonian ideas of the 1950s and ‘60s. But predictions of futuristic flying cars buzzing over major American cities are actually about as old as the automobile itself. The May 1923 issue of Science and Invention featured a two-wheeled flying car that…

Don’t Let Your Money Fly Away: A 1909 Warning to Airship Investors

Today, new futuristic-looking technologies often attract investors hoping to make gobs of money. And airships of the past were no different. In the first few decades of the 20th century people scrambled to figure out how they might cash in on these exciting new inventions, which were slowly beginning to prove themselves technologically reliable. But…

Predictions for Educational TV in the 1930s

Today most universities offer online courses that allow students to study and take tests without physically being on campus, but in the 1930s the distance learning technology of the future was television. Both radio and television were initially envisioned as methods for point-to-point communication, but once radio broadcasting became mainstream in the 1920s universities saw…

Big Things Ahead… But Keep Your Shirt On

The October 1944 issue of Science and Mechanics looked at what technological advancements Americans might expect after WWII with an article titled, “Big Things Ahead — But Keep Your Shirt On,” by John Silence. What makes this article so fascinating is that it looks at the advances of the future with optimism, but tempers that…

Mechanical Matchmaking: The Science of Love in the 1920s

Online dating sites like eHarmony and OkCupid claim they can find you the perfect romantic match by using algorithms. These kinds of sites have catchy slogans like “date smarter, not harder,” implying that they’ve finally perfected a scientific approach to matchmaking. Just answer a few questions, and their super-secret love science will find the person…

Maps of the Future

Remember paper maps? They used to be the only game in town. But the 2000s (the aughts? have we named that decade yet?) saw a radical shift in the way that befuddled drivers could figure out how to get from point A to point B. Suddenly, global positioning systems (GPS) became affordable enough that the…

Tripping Through the Cold War: Drug Warfare in the Retrofuture

Chemical warfare is nothing new. As early as 428 BC the Spartans were burning wood soaked in resin and sulfur for use against their enemies. And the First World War is often remembered for its horrific deaths due to mustard gas. But the mid-20th century ushered in a new futuristic chemical weapon: LSD. Lysergic acid…

No More Travel Agents or Stockbrokers: 1982’s Jobs of the Year 2012

The Kids’ Whole Future Catalog touted itself as “a book about your future.” This 1982 book promised kids a peek into a coming era of automatic language translators, cities floating on the ocean and robot teachers. It also told kids about the kinds of jobs they’d have 30 years into the future. Well, 30 years…

The Monument to Electricity That Never Was

In 1922, eccentric magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback decided that the world needed a 1,000-foot tall concrete monument to electricity. Gernsback imagined that this monument might last for thousands of years, and rather than some static behemoth stuck in time, the interior of his monument would be constantly changed to reflect the technological advances of each…

Resurrecting the Dead With Computer Graphics

A couple of weeks ago audiences at the Coachella music festival got to see Tupac perform live (NSFW language), despite the fact that he’s been dead for fifteen years. Countless websites have already dissected why the technology used to create this “Tupac hologram” isn’t actually a hologram, but rather a Pepper’s Ghost effect that dates…

Billboard Advertising in the City of Blade Runner

A somewhat glitchy electronic billboard in Los Angeles, California (photo by Matt Novak, 2012) New York has the Statue of Liberty, St. Louis has the Gateway Arch and Los Angeles has the Hollywood sign. It seems rather fitting that the landmark most emblematic of Los Angeles — a city built on glitz and showmanship —…

Rocket to the Stars at the 1939 New York World’s Fair

At first glance, the cover of the April 1938 issue of Popular Science magazine looks like a particularly odd vision of the future. Is that a 1930’s rocketship, blasting off into space? What about the door on the right with a clearly marked “EXIT” sign above it? Our Depression-era rocketship is indeed indoors and claims…