Dystopia may be all the rage in 2014 — especially in YA literature — but the multimedia artist Todd Baxter and his wife, the writer and designer Aubrey Videtto, are exploring a somewhat different vision of the future. Their sci-fi collaboration, Project Astoria, depicts a failed late-1960s attempt to colonize an Earth-like planet and transform it into a utopia. As Baxter writes at Bleek Magazine, the project is most interested in “the kids who grow up in the Astoria System and are coming of age just as the whole thing is really falling apart.” The images below, spotted via Beautiful/Decay, are from “Project Astoria: Test 01,” the first installment of the long-term endeavor. Baxter describes this series — which many have noticed could be a stylistic cousin to Wes Anderson’s films — as “an introduction to the people, animals, and objects of the Astoria System, the retro-futuristic backdrop for this new project.”
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter
Image credit: Todd Baxter