One of the most unexpected & interesting "history of space aesthetics" to me came from the recent documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune" (which is awesome!). The film

One of the most unexpected & interesting "history of space aesthetics" to me came from the recent documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune" (which is awesome!). The film recounts the attempt by avant-garde director Alejandro Jodorowsky to turn Dune into an epic, 12 hour film in the mid 70s. He assembled an incredible cast of conceptual artists and designers including Moebius (jean giraud), Chris Foss, HR Giger , and others and designed a giant illustrated tome laying out the shot-by-shot epic, largely penciled by Moebius and filled in with art from the other contributors. Producers scoffed at the scope of the vision but ultimately the team of people that Jodorowsky got together went on to design the art & aesthetic for seminal credited films including Alien, AI, Gaurdian's of the Galaxy, Tron, etc. And even more broadly this group is credited with the inspiration behind the aesthetic of Star Wars(1), Blade Runner(2), and more recently Fifth Element.(3) as their giant tome of incredible, outstanding sci-fi conceptual art was passed through Hollywood in the giant, fabled Tome. As a nod to the importance of Moebius' designs in particular, the imperial probe droid in Empire Strikes Back is a direct copy transfer of one of his creations (4) I was already a hopeless fan-boy of Moebius & Jodorowsky thanks to "The Incal" - which in and of itself is one of the most inspiring pieces of storytelling and graphic art I've come across, but Jodorowsky's Dune cemented to me that the early works by these teams are the true inspiration for much of the visual sci-fi aesthetic that has predominated 50+ years of pop culture. (1) https://kitbashed.com/blog/chris-foss-and-the-triangular-totalitarianism https://kitbashed.com/blog/chris-foss-and-the-triangular-tot... & http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/7-famous-sci-fi-movies-influenced-by-jodorowskys-dune/ http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/7-famous-sci-fi-movies-inf... (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tomorrow_(comics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tomorrow_(comics) (3) https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=376571 https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=376571 (4) https://kitbashed.com/blog/moebius https://kitbashed.com/blog/moebius