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More on past futures imagined by artists. Since May 30, How We Get To Next has been posting a series of episodes with “A Visual History of the Future”. It is an absolute must read if you are interested in the future!

“A Visual History of the Future” will explore how imagery in advertising, magazines, and other media has been used to inspire, sell, and build our ideas of the future. We’ll look at everything from the home to infrastructure to the cities we live in — at ideas that ranged from the insightful to the absurd. And we’ll be looking at the times in which these images were created: what was happening in the world that formed “the future” of that time?

When we celebrate progress, we often talk about scientists, engineers, and designers who developed theories or built tangible things. Artists are often overlooked, and their contributions — the production, visualization and distribution of ideas — are less tangible. This series will shine a light on these creators and how they reached the audiences of the day.

You know I am very fond of these dives into the future from the past, because they allow us to put progress in a better perspective… from smart cities and self driving cars to robots and the Hyperloop.

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Featured Images: “Magnets Drive High Speed Suspension Trains Through Air.” Norman Saunders, Modern Mechanics and Inventions, 1931 (detail) All other Images from “A visual history of the future” by How we get to NEXT, where you can find more details about the original author(s), publishing dates and more images!! You can republish this post or even adapt it under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.