Neon visions: from techno-optimism to urban vice

Abstract

In the first quarter of the 20th century, luminous neon signs paved the way for the multiscreen aesthetics now punctuating major intersections in metropolises around the world. And yet, these epicenters of spectacle currently bear little or no neon themselves. This article draws from visual studies and histories of electricity to chart a unique material history of neon from novelty to norm, to obsolescence. The article begins with neon’s introduction in France in 1910, followed by its travels across the Atlantic in 1923, when novel neon quickly became definitive of a new urban aesthetic. The best illustration of this is 1940s Las Vegas, where neon flourished as a symbol of glamour and modern progress until, less than a decade later, it lost ground to cheaper and more efficient backlit plastic, fluorescent, and eventually, LED lighting systems. By the 1960s, neon was abandoned to inner cities, noire film, and New Wave journalism, and yet, we still refer to the mega-screen spectacles in numerous cities around the world as bearing this same ‘neon aesthetic’. This article charts this visual journey, demonstrating how neon holds a special significance to urban visual cultures that extends beyond survey histories of electricity and basic light and color theories heralded in traditional visual communications courses.