Students from BTK Berlin, Germany and Perestroika Porto Alegre, Brazil will engage in an exchange of research and predictions for the future of their cities in the year 2024.
Set in an alternate, dystopian present, Brazil brings together a number of assumptions to create the look and feel of its story world;
retro-futurism
police state control of civil society
enormous “papercratic” bureaucracy
automatic household appliances
ID scanning
megalopolis
robotic surveillance
cloning
extreme plastic surgery
electronic restaurant menus
molecular cuisine
mundane terrorism
renegade heating engineers
An interesting current fashion trend, inspired by Brazil and its ilk, is steampunk, characterized by this modified personal computer:
Set in an alternate reality in the near future of 2010, the primary conceit of District 9 is that aliens have been living in a refugee-camp-turned-militarized-ghetto in Johannesburg, South Africa since 1990.
Further assumptions which create the film world of District 9:
energy weapons
interstellar travel
human contact with extra terrestrials
ability of humans to understand extra terrestrial spoken language
specie-centric bigotry of humans towards aliens
possibility of inter-species transformation
mechanized battle armor
holographic gesture-controlled computing interfaces
DNA-controlled technology
interference of international weapons manufacturers in domestic policy
Set in an indeterminate time at the beginning of the 22nd century, the story world of Alien relies on numerous technological assumptions, including:
commercial space travel
interstellar travel
suspended animation / cryonics
alien higher intelligence
industrial or hazardous space ships
android in collusion with corporation
valuing human life less than scientific advances
See also this fascinating Alien fan’s analysis of the film’s fictional timeline.
Technological and cultural developments envisioned for the fictional year 2019 in Blade Runner as compared with a survey of current technologies in 2009 reveal the following:
While public videophone terminals exist, Skype has proven to become a virtually ubiquitous solution for videophoning on personal computers, and many mobile phones can also serve as videophones. This Wikipedia article sheds some light on the history of the videophone.
While the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, androids are still primarily mechanical not biological. For instance, there is an android of Philip K. Dick, the author of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep on which Blade Runner was based. Check also other advancements in humanoid robots on the android Wikipedia article.
Much of the drama in Blade Runner centers around Deckard’s complex feelings towards the android Rachel. This documentary called Guys and Dolls is available to watch in five episodes on YouTube. It explores the lives of men who have relationships with artificial female Real Dolls (note: this link contains explicit adult content).
While consumer grade document scanners and Adobe’s Photoshop software go above and beyond the image processing technologies in Blade Runner, research at Adobe shows promise for even further dimensionality and manipulation of traditional videos and photos:
http://www.vimeo.com/2345579 http://www.vimeo.com/5024379Private helicopters and jets have maintained luxury status and meanwhile Moller International claims to have created “the first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing vehicle”.
Renewed interest has been taken in the concept of media facades, spurred by developments in LED technology. Consider for instance last year’s Media Facades Festival in Berlin, Germany, or this T-Mobile facade in Cologne, Germany:
Colonizing other planets is not a reality yet, however organizations like the Mars Society are dedicated to advocating exploration and settlement. Here is the Mars Society’s Dr. Robert Zubrin giving his impassioned opinion on the future of humanity in relationship to space and freedom:
We’re open for additional comments on these themes:
voice identification
motion-activated interior lighting
squats
toy robots
epic skyscrapers
photo printers
evidence of widespread Asian cultural influence
omnipresent urban garbage
How does the process of visualization relate to actualization? Can we identify examples of real products and places whose design has been influenced by the fantastic technology in science fiction films? If “the future is now” how does that affect our ability to imagine the future? What constitutes science fiction in the first place?
Our team of researchers will collaborate with students at the Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule this winter semester 2009/2010 and explore these questions. We will use our collective intelligence to “fact-check” the assumptions and predictions made in science fiction films, analyzing today’s technology and culture to see how it compares to the fantasies in the films. At the conclusion of the class we will make our own predictions about the future.