Science Fiction Design and the Imminence of Space Blimps

Terrifying bat-winged firefighters from a 1910 French post card

The future is so notoriously difficult to foresee that looking back on what was predicted by generations past more often than not looks absurd than clairvoyant. Science fiction authors and designers know this, yet plunge nevertheless into imagining the aesthetics of our future, with varying degrees of predictive success. But as time goes on, history tends to demolish even the tamest predictions, and one small technological development can render an entire potential future impossible - just look at what the internet has done to the clunky future-worlds of Alien or The Terminator.

Tonträger: 60's Rock and Roll goes Krautward

The Berlin Wall performed more than just the geographical slicing of Berlin, it also neatly divided two distinct cultures, philosophies, and political ideologies for almost 30 years. During the Soviet stranglehold of the East, counter-cultural punk and rock bands rose, influenced by their Western counterparts, whom they viewed illicitly on banned radio and TV stations - and with more to fight against, namely the systematic pulverization of privacy by the government, they were arguably more authentic. After the Wall fell, the cultural vacuum kicked in. German punk became so ubiquitous it is now a tired cultural cliché.

America's powerful cultural influence on Germany continues to this day, but with Tonträger, a Berlin-based indie classic rock 'n' roll band, that inspiration reaches way back to rock's roots: