Atompunk refers to ideas, concepts, styles and technologies rooted in the atomic/nuclear age from 1945-1986. It is defined by concepts like cheap nuclear energy, space exploration, robotics/automation, and advanced transportation/communication. The style is based on simplicity, efficiency and modern/geometric designs. While some works reference nuclear fears, atompunk is generally optimistic about science and technology liberating humanity. It is not a single retro genre but looks to the continually evolving potential futures enabled by science.

1. Guidelines to Atompunk 1.0
Pavel Vachtl & the Atompunk Czech group admins

2. What is atompunk / AP?
- It is a mixed cluster of ideas, concepts, styles, designs and technologies that have their roots in the so
called “Atomic space age” which emerged after the WWII. This age begins approximately around the
year 1945 (with the birth of the nuclear energy, cybernetics and rocket technology/astronautics) and
ends symbolically around the year 1986 (with the Challenger disaster, Chernobyl reactor 4 meltdown, the
ascent of cyberpunk and the digital/PC technology).
- most of them are closely related to modern science, fast postwar technological progress, technological
utopia and optimism, hard science fiction, straightforward futurism or mid-century modern styles
(geometrically refined or precise shapes or means of expression)
- the atompunk artifacts, works or events are not reduced to the previously mentioned era, as steampunk
works are not reduced to the Victorian era, the Gilded Age or 19th century. The main criteria for
something “to be atompunk” are connected with the continuity as for the ideas, concepts, specific
designs or styles. This cluster can be also called an AP environment. Atompunk is defined by its entire
mutually connected environment, not only by a few isolated things or concepts.

5. The atompunk core technologies or
concepts:
- Cheap nuclear energy. Plus the editing of matter within the range of atomic or molecular
scales
- Scientifically based space exploration, space colonies, undersea colonies, “terraforming” of
the wastelands or other planets
- Personal robotic helpers, infrastructure controlled and automated by powerful computers and
cybernetic systems
- Very fast/supersonic transport (jet liners, space gliders, maglevs, hyperloop, personal flying
machines - jetpacks, hovercrafts)
- Efficient and optimized production of everything, genetic engineering, molecular medicine,
cloning. Life strongly supported by science.
- Advanced and easy multimedial telecommunication (global or even interplanetary)

9. The atompunk style/design:
- Simple elegance, based on efficiency or function / mid century or later modern style(s)
- Sober or realistic artforms, influence of the (neo)cartesian philosophy or the Enlightenment era
- synthesis/fusion of science and art
- space and high-tech motives everywhere, positive futurism
- connection with straightforward but elegant geometrical shapes of curves (mostly without
dissections). Googie/populuxe/space design instead of previous so called “streamlined style” or art
deco)
- from the 60s onward also the light influence of the psychedelic culture or design elements but
mixed with rational/cartesian/regular structures

13. How can we say that something is atompunk?
- by ideas or concepts (realistic space exploration based on science, using plenty of cheap energy,
liberated humankind cultivates the Earth and its vicinity, rising quality of life, the routine operations
are executed by automated systems and robots, advancements of AI)
- by design (art&science symbiosis, mid-century modern design, simple elegance controlled by
efficiency or function, simple geometry, an elegant expression of dynamism and power)
- by time of the origin (but this criterion is the least reliable. A lot of stuff from the post war era is not
atompunk and many atompunk artifacts/works were created after the 80s).
- we must differ between the original roots of atompunk and the atompunk itself. The latter is a
contemporary look on the atomic space age stuff and hopes, their nowadays (re)interpretation and
timeless generalization (atompunk predictions are a matter of centuries rather than decades).

17. Atompunk writers and books - examples
Isaac Asimov - I, robot; Foundation
Arthur C. Clarke - Sentinel, A Fall of Moondust, The Fountains of Paradise
Robert Heinlein - The Moon is a harsh mistress
Stanislav Lem - Invincible, Magellanic Clouds, Fiasco, Solaris, Tales of Pirx the Pilot
Ivan Yefremov - Andromeda Nebula
Andy Weir - The Martian
Frederik Pohl - Man Plus
Michael Crichton - The Andromeda Strain
Harry Martinson - Aniara
Fred Hoyle - The Black Cloud
Kim Stanley Robinson - The Mars trilogy
Poul Anderson - Tau Zero
Carl Sagan - Contact

19. Atompunk movies and TV series - examples
Conquest of space (1955)
Playtime (1967), James Bond franchise
Solaris (1972)
Silent Running (1972), Ikárie XB-1 (1963)
The Martian (2015), Jetsons (1960s)
Interstellar (2014) , Passengers (2016), The Wandering Earth (2019)
Aniara (2018), Ascension TV series (2014)
Tomorrowland (2015), Pan Am TV series (2011)
Star Trek + Space 1999 (human technology), Thunderbirds
Disney/von Braun collaboration (Tomorrowland), Pavel Klushantsev´s movies (1950s - 1970s)
2001: Space Odyssey (1968) and sequels (except of alien technology)
Europa Report (2013)
Moon (2009), Space Station 76 (2014)

22. Atompunk visual artists - examples
Syd Mead
Chesley Bonestell
Robert McCall
Klaus Bürgle
Kurt Röschl
Frank Malina
Teodor Rotrekl
Andrei Sokolov
Shigeru Komatsuzaki
Shusei Nagaoka
El Gato Gomez
Oscar Niemeyer, Norman Foster, Vincent Callebaut (architects)

24. Is nuclear war/apocalypse atompunk?
- yes, as everything nuclear, but it is rather a subsidiary theme here. The global nuclear war fortunately never
occured, probably thanks to the M. A. D. (mutually assured destruction) doctrine.
- nuclear war is not more important for atompunk than Franco-Prussian War or American Civil War are
important for steampunk. The main steampunk highlights are its specific style, spirit and atmosphere. The
same thing holds for atompunk. Atompunk is more connected with technological progress and utopia than
with nuclear apocalypse, radiation fears or dystopia. In fact, atompunk as a whole is a much more optimistic
“complex/cluster/environment” than steampunk, cyberpunk or dieselpunk.
- this cannot prevent the Fallout (or nuclear vaults) fans, survivalists or preppers from emphasising their
special interests :-) and thinking wrongly that atompunk means destruction in the first place. But mostly, it
doesn´t. Furthermore, the Fallout games are not pure atompunk in style. They are hybrid mixes containing
also many dieselpunk (prewar) or raypunk (alien, surreal) elements.

26. What about some atompunk dystopia or
post-apocalyptic option (postapo)?
Yes, it is possible and thinkable.
- An example of atompunk dystopias: Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel by American
writer Ray Bradbury, first published in 1953. Also “Soylent Green” (1973 movie), “A
Clockwork Orange” (1971 movie).
- Atompunk postapo or nuclear war themed movies: Aniara, a science fiction poem
written by Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson in 1956. (2018 movie). Also “On the
beach” (1959, 2000 movies) or “Dr. Strangelove...” a military dark comedy (1964)

28. Do aliens belong (exclusively) to atompunk?
- partly yes (but rather marginally and not very specifically) as the alien fantasies were/are sometimes an
inherent part of the atomic space age culture. But aliens, weird technologies, strange beings or strange
worlds in general have nothing (or a little) to do with the atompunk rational or modern stuff/style in the
proper sense. Furthermore, aliens or superterrestrial/xenomorphic phenomena were an implicite cultural
“thing” tens or hundreds years before the atomic era began (let´s remind Hindu mythology, Gulliver´s travels
by Swift, Micromegas by Voltaire, many sci-fi books from H. G. Wells, Cthulhu mythos, paintings by
Hieronymus Bosch etc.). So there is nothing very special as for the aliens in atompunk (except of flying
saucers or Area 51 myths). Furthermore, it is only natural to explore them as a separated conceptual and
stylistic/artistic cluster/environment. This cluster is newly called raypunk and it is not related to any specific
human time era. Raypunk also features very different conceptual package/set and completely different
aesthetics.
- regardless of that, we can explore some atomic era alien or UFO related cultural themes or phenomena, as
occured e. g. in the Close encounters of the third kind or Contact movies. The human technology,
atmosphere and exploration approach presented by these movies are perfectly atompunk :-)

30. What was the first atompunk contemporary
event?
- The Gogbot atompunk festival that took place in 2009 in the town of Entschede, Netherlands
- It was an important meeting of the atomic space age enthusiasts. One of the main
participants and speakers was Bruce Sterling, the godfather of cyberpunk and steampunk.
- The Gogbot atompunk festival 2009 together with Bruce Sterling put down the first founding
stones (or starting points) for the atompunk genre/style/movement.
- After several years, the atompunk theme continued to live within some retrofuturistic blogs
and atompunk facebook groups or pages (the major ones were founded around 2012-2013)

33. Can every artwork be denoted/categorized as pure
atompunk, pure cyberpunk, pure raypunk etc?
- off course not! while some almost genre homogenous artworks exist (Gerry Anderson´s Thunderbirds or
Pavel Klushantsev´s movies are almost pure atompunk), many movies, books, games or visual art can be
described as impure genre hybrids, crossovers or sandwiches, containing several different genre layers
- The Alien franchise contains the blend of cyberpunk, atompunk and raypunk elements altogether.
Notable TV shows as Star Trek or Space: 1999 were atompunk/raypunk hybrids
- there is some special phenomenological intersection of both atompunk and raypunk domains together with
the elements of the previous art deco (dieselpunk) design. It´s called raygun gothic, it´s a special hybrid
visual style inspired by the American sci-fi created around 1930-1950 and it was described by William
Gibson back in the year 1981 within his story “Gernsbacks continuum”. Today it seems as rather
archaic/obsolete/time or place limited concept as it cannot cope with the diversity, deepness and different
roots of all existing phenomena within.

35. Raygun gothic - an archaic and temporary hybrid genre, the precursor for atompunk

36. Is atompunk a subgenre of science fiction only?
- No, it´s not. It´s rather an interconnection or synthesis of some hard sci-fi, postwar
high-tech, modern aesthetics and the elements of the contemporary everyday´s
real life during the atomic space age. Atompunk hits many different domains or
contexts at once.
- some atompunk artworks/artifacts belong to sci-fi or high-tech, others are an
organic part of contemporary life and common design, fashion, architecture etc. And
some lay somewhere in between them, in a melting pot of various influences. It´s
always about the concepts, ideas, design or style at first.

39. Atompunk superheroes & their high-tech / futuristic gadgets

40. Is atompunk a closed “retro” or pure nostalgic
chapter for us?
- no, it´s not. When comparing with the apparently historical “retrofuturistic genres” including steampunk
or dieselpunk that are depicting something like an alternative history (sometimes blended with unreal or
fantasy elements), atompunk and cyberpunk deal with our always potential and possible future. It´s
about the human environment(s) that can continuously evolve from our nowadays reality.
- the atompunk themes as realistic/scientifically plausible but almost unlimited space exploration,
thermonuclear fusion and fully robotized society are actual even now and can become reality, although
we don´t know exactly when they will come true.
- Maybe that´s why Bruce Sterling in 2008-9 said that “atompunk (culture) is cosmotemporal”and it can
repeat itself many times. Maybe it´s because its essence, philosophy and aesthetics is derived from
efficiency or functionality, objective modern science and time-independent natural laws. Starships and
space colonization themselves are themes for some “long run”... and this long run has to be measured in
centuries, at least.

43. Is atompunk connected with some single or
strictly uniform style?
- No, it´s not. The unity in atompunk lays rather in the conceptual or philosophical domain/layer. And
it´s not much about the nuclear weapons/bombs fear/fascination/fetishism. Nuclear energy is a basic
underlying tool of liberation in atompunk rather than a means of destruction.
- In architecture, we have several atompunk styles that are very different from each other (Googie,
populuxe, brutalism, space themed architecture).
- In music, it is not connected with any single musical genre/style, it´s not even related to the punk rock
movement. Atompunk is not about the punks with nuclear weapons :-). It is not literally some “atomic
punk”. Atompunk is a brand new elementary and indivisible term, covering the phenomena of the whole
Atomic space age; as steampunk covers the whole Age of steam, not only steam engines, controlled by
some 19th century crazy punks :-). Atompunkers are astronauts and pioneers of scientific exploration,
technology enthusiasts and optimists.

48. Main conflicts in atompunk
- humanity against the universe (the outer space), man against nature, Earth versus
space colonies, humankind against aliens, robots, cyborgs, individual villains
- (in cyberpunk it is mostly corporation against corporation, corporation against
outlaws or independent hackers, humans against machines/AI, battles within the
inner-space/cyberspace, problems with body implants, drugs manipulating or
augmenting body and mind possibilities)
- in atompunk the stories are oftenly concerning planet Earth as a whole… they
have a cosmic dimension. In cyberpunk almost everything is private and
“innerspace bound”.

50. What is not atompunk?
- Prewar Art Deco or Streamline moderne / older dieselpunk designed things, as Iron sky, Captain America,
Sky Captain, Metropolis, most stuff created before 1940. This stuff belongs mostly to the 20s or 30s by
style or by time of origin. Atompunk stuff is much more modern, newer, lighter, brighter.
- Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Star Wars, Radar Men from the Moon, The Thing, 5th element, Barbarella,
Dune, Superman, illustrations by Frank R. Paul and other raypunk-styled “fairy tales” containing
non-realistic/surreal or unscientific/unreal “space elements”. Also alien/xenomorphic worlds, strange
mutants or monsters, non-laser or physically unplausible rayguns (shrinking rays, disintegration rays and
similar).
- Blade Runner and most of the 80s - 90s futurism concerning highly cybernetised or networked (urban)
society or people, neon dystopia, tech noir environment/atmosphere, virtual worlds as were depicted in
Tron or Matrix. Cyberpunk, for short.

51. NOT ATOMPUNK

52. Has atompunk some future?
- It certainly has and always had
- We may have hundreds or thousand years of a positive evolution of
mankind, of an improvement of our technological base before us...

54. VISIT THE ATOMPUNK CZECH GROUP :-)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AtompunkCZ/