I’m currently working my way through the Mercury Prize nominations so I can’t give a fair comment on this point but I should have finished by tomorrow so I shall offer my musings then.
For today I wanted to show a little bit of my geek prowess. Triggered by the coverage of the end of the 30-year shuttle program, I started thinking about space, science-fiction and its impact upon the present-day products, fashion etc. Now I don’t want to dwell on the technicalities, I’m pretty sure that research and development done by NASA has filtered onto the high street. I want to look how science fiction e.g. 70’s TV shows/films have resulted in style and product development that is now in use.
Let’s kick things off with some Star Wars disco music and then read on.
I want to start with a couple of obvious examples the PADD that was used in Star Trek: The Next Generation (and subsequent series) has obviously inspired the ipad and consequently the Kindle.
Below is a screen cap from Star Trek: Voyager with some of the crew using a tricorder. In effect, a tricorder is mainly used to increase the pace of an episode. So when a team lands on a planet they scan all types of stuff and all of a sudden the crew know the exact location of the bad guys and can find a solution (all within the 44min runtime of the show). My point is the tricorder scans objects you know nothing about and presents you with information. This is now possible through Google goggles and the use of QR codes.
Not all advancements are cool. Below you have Lieutenant Uhura looking amazing while she interprets communications from, well whoever she wants (hopefully not phone hacking). Not all users can look this good though as hands free communication device is now used mainly by idiots who walk around thinking that they are riding the crest of the technological wave.
Fashion has also been influenced by sci-fi with varying degrees of success. Firstly let’s have a fail. Fern Britton doing a Princess Leia, granted she could have attempted the ‘Return of the Jedi’ bikini which would have been a shambles but the dress was not a great idea.
Secondly we look at an amazing film, Fifth Element. Not exactly quotable (Leeloo Dallas, multi-pass) but the Jean Paul Gaultier costume design is iconic. Mila Jovovic looks incredible too. Rihanna (or her stylist) obviously appreciated the style and adopted it for the 2009 American Music Awards. Excellent work all round.
We would be in error not to mention Lady Gaga, the easiest parallel to draw is Locutus of Borg (Star Trek: Nest Generation) and her outfit from the Alejandro video.
It just goes to show that fashion really does take inspiration from all places as with all things in life there will be some successes and fails but I'm just glad that geekdom is a source at all!
If the trend continues I’d like to see where we are in 20years time perhaps we’ll be adopting trends and styles that shows are championing now. If so, I would like a giant boxing robot from Real Steel.
I’m going to sign off with a cute piece of artwork of R2-D2 doing a Banksy.
Back Soon
O
x
No comments:
Post a Comment