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The future designs itself

“Amazing stories today, cold facts tomorrow”: The birth of futuristic design

From the start of the Industrial Revolution, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the scientific adventures of Jules Verne, or the philosophical novels of H.G. Wells place science, for better or for worse, at the heart of a new style of fiction: the scientific marvel.
We dedicate this second room to a later figure in futuristic projection: Hugo Gernsback. He is often recognized as the father of science fiction as a literary genre; in any case, he certainly invented its terminology.

Science fiction, as he understood it, served three purposes: a narrative to draw readers in, scientific information for their education, and a description of new uses and applications to inspire inventors to design new technological systems.
From then on, Hugo Gernsback, using all the media at his disposal, created an abundant reservoir of technological innovations and new, connected applications, all of them narrated and widely publicized through popular publications. In this way, he leveraged the enchanting power of the technosciences.

The life of Hugo Gernsback

America and Technology: Two Children’s Dreams

The young Hugo Gernsbacher (he would later Americanize his name) came from a prosperous family of German wine merchants. This young boy developed a passion for electricity from an early age, and transformed the family home, and even the neighborhood (where he set up several electric doorbells in the neighboring convent), into an electrical workshop.

Another passionate interest marked his youth: the United States. He devoured cowboy novels and Mark Twain’s stories. On January 31st, 1904, he boarded the S.S. Pennsylvania at Boulogne-sur-mer, headed for New York.

Gernsback, the inventor

It was as an inventor that he wanted to live the American Dream. This era was infused with the triumphs of technological innovation, enabled, in particular, by the development of electricity. He rapidly connected with Nikola Tesla, whom he would always admire. Upon his arrival, Gernsback registered a first trademark for an electrical battery, and attempted to produce it, though this would soon come to a halt. Over 25 years, he would register nearly 80 other trademarks, 40 of which are listed at the United States Patent and Trademarks Office.

Gernsback, the entrepreneur

Some of these trademarks were registered on behalf of the company he founded upon his arrival in New York in 1904, the Electro Importing Company (E.I.Co). His firm distributed electrical components imported from Europe, as well as complete technological objects such as the Telimco Wireless Outfit, an inexpensive radio-telegraphy system. The wireless transmission of sound and images would remain Hugo’s true passions throughout his entire life.

Pulp Magazines

The end of the 19th century saw the appearance of the first pulp magazines, inexpensive publications made using low-quality materials. They would become extremely popular during the first half of the 20th century.

Hugo used this tool to publicize E.I.Co catalogues, enhanced with theoretical articles and instructions for assembly.

Gernsback publisher

In 1908, Hugo Gernsback launched into popular-science publishing; his first monthly magazine was Modern Electrics.

In 1911, according to legend, he found himself staring at blank pages, and thus would emerge the first episode of the serial Ralph 124C 41, A Romance of the Year 2660, a technology-based fictional tale.

Though the literary quality of this serial, which some consider a catalogue of gadgets, is widely disputed by literary critics, it nevertheless opened the way toward scientific fiction.

Now persuaded by the strength of conviction in his stories, his editorial approach opened up to fiction. The August 1923 Special Issue of Science and Invention entitled “Scientific Fiction Special” is considered to be Gernsback’s first attempt to publish a magazine entirely devoted to science fiction.

The inventor of science fiction

From then on, many tales would be included in his publications Science and Invention and Radio News. Though many of these stories were commissioned by the publisher, these publications also included reprints of the short stories of H.G. Wells or a serialized adaptation of Metal Emperor by Abraham Merrit.

1911

First novel of a wonderful scientist written by Hugo Gernsback

1923

Scientific fiction

1928

Scientifiction

Scienti-fiction

In 1926, the first pulp magazine from Hugo Gernsback entirely devoted to Science Fiction saw the light of day: Amazing Stories. Its first issue republished tales from Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.G. Wells, among others. This magazine rapidly became quite successful, with 100,000 copies sold, and content was soon needed.


And so, in 1926, the publisher launched a reader contest: Write a short story based on an illustration by Frank R. Paul. Seven of these stories were subsequently published.


Often a delinquent payer, Gernsback had many famous authors refuse to work with him. The magazine went bankrupt when the market crashed in 1929. He then created the serial magazine Wonder Stories, which was not successful, thus prompting him to part with it in 1936.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine

Telemedicine

In Gernsback’s time, many technical applications that emerged from radio had the potential to profoundly change everyday habits, for many aspects of everyday life. Here we have a useful machine, the “teledactyl”, operated by a practitioner who is assisted by a nurse and makes this “diagnosis by radio” possible for a patient in-hospital, who is also equipped with a teledactyl. In the real world, very first telemedical procedure took place only in 1994. Notice the detailed view of the long-distance directional instrument, whose identical reproduction can be seen on the other side of the mirror.

“Diagnosis by radio” in Science and Invention (Illustration Howard V. Brown, February 1925).   

© Agence Martienne

The

The “Telephot” or the birth of video-calling

The “Telephot” or the birth of video-calling

Here with the “Telephot”, Gernsback presents video-calling to his readers. This amazing device features an ingenious lighting system at the top that illuminates the user’s face and projects it into the oval “mirror”. A system of microphones captures the sound of the voice and triggers the system, thus making the other speaker’s face appear. All that remains is to use the earpiece…In his novel “Ralph 124C41+”, published in 1911, it’s this device that brings the two protagonists together. The concept of long-distance image transmission had already been envisioned in 1883 by Albert Robida, in the The Twentieth Century, with his “telephonoscopic booth”, a sort of telephone lounge that allowed users to speak with and see each other as projections on a screen. In 1907, Edouard Belin built the “bélinographe”, an instrument able to transmit photographic images remotely, using electricity.                                                                                                                        With Hugo Gernsback, the previous century’s literary intuitions, made credible through the technical inventions of the early 20th century, gave way to a stunning futuristic vision, foreshadowing the digital conventions of the following century.  

Electrical Experimenter, May 1918, Illustration by Vincent Lynch for “Television and the Telephot” by Hugo Gernsback.   

© Agence Martienne

The visualization of thoughts and subconscious memory from this mad scientist

The visualization of thoughts and subconscious memory from this mad scientist

The visualization of thoughts and subconscious memory from this mad scientist

A dream-catching, or even thought and subconscious memory-catching machine (in the form of images), during the very first, ground-breaking tests conducted at the laboratory by the scientists of the future. Like any good tinkerers, they have clearly recycled old diving helmets from the early 20th century, adding on soft electrodes at the temples, in order to “capture thought waves leaving the brain”. Notice the foreshadowing, though for other uses, of virtual reality artifacts.

Science Wonder Stories, October 1929 (Illustration by Frank R. Paul for “Into the Subconscious” by Ray Avery Myers).

© Agence Martienne

Tele-vision by radio

Tele-vision by radio

Tele-vision by radio

Radio” system in its elegant wood case, with an antenna and base. In 1922, TV had yet to be invented, but it became possible to send still images by radio. Gernsback needed no more further encouragement to imagine the next phase. Indeed, he filed for a patent on it in 1925, and would be one of the first to send images through waves using his WRNY radio in 1928. The gradual inclusion of this appliance in every home, starting in the 1940s, would transform family life.

Science and Invention, July 1922, illustration by Howard V. Brown, “Television by Radio”. Part of the series Coming Inventions, #7, by Hugo Gernsback.

© Agence Martienne

Technical apparatus for viewing the human aura

Technical apparatus for viewing the human aura

Technical apparatus for viewing the human aura

Early 20th century was the great era of radio and wireless, in a very different way to how we see it in the 21st century: with the transmission of text, images, and sounds through waves, it became possible to hear a speaker from a distance, without having to be physically present in the same place. There was also great interest in the waves emitted by the brain and the body, and in the manifestations of all things invisible, a new field of investigation for science. It was within this context that Gernsback, a member of the American Physical Society (and founder of the magazine), took an interest in the human aura. There’s nothing occult about the aura, he stated; it’s more a matter of waves (as a manifestation of the soul and spirit…?!). Notice here the perfect prediction of augmented reality using a tablet computer. For the cycle begun in 1921 to be complete, now all we need in 2021 is a smartphone app that allows us to view our fellow humans’ auras in real time.

“Human Aura can now be seen”, illustration by Howard V. Brown in Science and Invention, May 1921   

© Agence Martienne

The thought recorder

The thought recorder

The thought recorder

Ever since the discovery of electricity and the measurement of brain activity, many fantasies have appeared over the space of time and technologies around the concept of recording human thought. The quantification of data as illustrated by the strip diagram has echoes of today’s connected self-measurement system interfaces. Transhumanist fantasies now extend this vision into the survival of thoughts beyond the body, into a machine.
                                                                                                                         
“The Thought Recorder”, an illustration by Howard V. Brown, for Electrical Experimenter, May 1919. The article was written by Hugo Gernsback.

© Agence Martienne

A precursor of the fax machine.

A precursor of the fax machine

A precursor of the fax machine

Also described in his novel “Ralph 124C41+”, published in 1911, the precursor of the fax machine, shown on the cover of this pulp magazine devoted to the promotion of scientific future visions, is extremely detailed. All the elements are already present: the keyboard, printers, various settings, and, in particular, the network that foreshadows the transformation into a connected world.

“Letters now sent by Radio”, the article entitled “Radio Typewriter Here” was written by H. Winfield Secor for Science and Innovation (illustration by Howard V. Brown, October 1922).

© Agence Martienne

Forecast

Though Hugo gave up publishing pulp magazines, he never stopped publicizing his predictions. Once a year, as part of his year-end greetings, he would share his prophetic visions of technological progress in various industries: conveniences, education, transportation, communications, health, and sexology, a field that was close to his heart for many years.

These publications, often quite humorous, initially took the form of parodies of existing magazines, notably Quick and Time Magazine. Eventually, they were entitled Forecast in the 1950s and would be sent out each year, until his death, for free, to a limited list of contacts.

All its content was entirely written by Hugo himself, and was often illustrated by his faithful illustrator Frank R. Paul.

A public figure

Hugo Gernsback, well beyond the world of publishing, used all means at his disposal to convince as many people as possible of the benefits of technology. He would lead radio programs, create influence clubs for a number of subjects (radio, television, science fiction, etc.), and would finally suc- ceed in making his voice heard. Toward the end of his career, Life magazine devoted a number of lovely pages to him, edited by Paul O’Neill.

Hugo Gernsback et Forrest J. Ackerman, dit Mr Science Fiction, écrivain, produc- teur de cinéma, éditeur et scénariste américain de science-fiction et horreur

The Hugo Prize

The first Science Fiction convention took place in New York in 1939, alongside the World’s Fair. Initially sparsely attended, these conventions, after the war, drew bigger crowds each year. In 1952, Hugo Gernsback was the guest of honor. It was at this convention that the idea of an annual prize emerged, to recognize the best in Science-Fiction writing: The annual Science Fiction Awards. The nickname of “Hugo Awards”, adopted from the start of this prize, was made official through a vote in 1993.

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Design & Fiction
An exploration of futuristic visions in the 20th century

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Elise Durand
Marie Cordier

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Scott Longfellow
Johnny Rabines
Nicolas Tsan
Laura de Filippo

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Emma Redkine

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Fanny Roisin

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Ugo Bienvenu

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Adorable Studio

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Hey Low

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Nicolas Weyrich

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Antoine Meissonnier

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Nicolas Weyrich

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Antoine Meissonnier

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Yves Bosson – Agence Martienne

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