1930's Androids

[ArrowCollarMan]

I was checking out a thread in an art forum I often go on and I thought it was worth showing the people of the Fedora Lounge.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72648

It's obvious most of these drawings wern't well-researched, but I don't know what would really make an android look like it's from the 1930's. [huh] Any basic designs or something that would really make it look 1930's? I'm sure some of you understand the architecture, style and so on.

 

[Matthew Dalton]

That reminds me... I never did get a copy of Metropolis.

 

[Story]

An older thread with the revelation that The word robot was coined by Czech writer Karel Capek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)*, first performed in 1921.
http://thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=8750&highlight=robots

And this article
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/06/15/1684630.htm
Anne Balsamo, professor of interactive media and gender studies at the University of Southern California, will welcome Maria of Fritz Lang's Metropolis to the hall of fame. The transformation of human to robot - in this case, making the robot resemble the film's human heroine - has been repeated often in science fiction and the influence of Maria's art deco design can be seen in robots such as C-3PO.

Although in keeping with this forum's name, there's always the Lush Robot -
http://www.mantiquesmodern.1stdibs.com/itemdetails.php?id=95672

Photo of R.U.R. and spanish text here
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/futuro/13-634.html

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I would look at all the tech stuff that was made then and take my cues from it. Cars, aircraft, appliances and household items in general are an inspiration,...hmmm,...now I'm getting ideas for a new art project.

 

[Story]

Check out the "Faithful Robot Companion" poster at Retropolis -

http://shop.webomator.com/cgi-bin/cpshop.cgi?i=rp/bws01.8149692/-/3

and others
http://shop.webomator.com/RetroPrints.shtml

Note that the site also features 'guest artists'
http://shop.webomator.com/Guest_Artists.shtml

 

[CharlieH.]

Ever seen Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow? I recall seeing some pretty good ideas for streamlined mechanical men.

There's also the art of Radebaugh:
http://www.palaceofculture.org/radebaugh.html
No androids therein, but plenty of great looking machinery.