the future that never happened, rendered in chrome, formica, and confident nuclear optimism.
means a retro-futurist aesthetic and genre celebrating mid-20th-century visions of an atomic-powered utopia, all rockets, robots, and ray guns.
from coined as sibling to steampunk and cyberpunk, atompunk crystallizes the 1945-1965 techno-optimism of world's fairs, sci-fi pulp covers, and cold war propaganda promising nuclear cars and moon colonies by 1975.
fallout series — bethesda's 1997-2024 games built entirely on 1950s nuclear kitsch gone wrong
tomorrowland disneyland — 1955 disney attraction selling atomic-age domestic bliss
the jetsons — 1962 cartoon imagining flying cars and push-button households
atomium brussels — 1958 world's fair structure shaped like an iron crystal, 165 feet tall