In contrast to the modest statement made by Solaris last week, we look at 2001 A Space Odyssey and cannot help but observe stark contrasts between the outlooks of Tarkovsky and Kubrick on the aesthetics of outer space. Key assumptions which make up the storyworld aesthetics in Kubrick’s film include:

voice identification
interplanetary travel
“portait-oriented” video phone
international space station
cryogenic hibernation
luxury space travel
scientific outpost on another planet
monolith
HAL 9000 – artificial intelligence / ubiquitous computing
transparent optical computer memory cards
lightweight space suits
artificial gravity

Solaris is a meditation on humanity and its attempt to connect with the cosmic. Particularly haunting is the notion of our inability to establish contact with other worlds because of our desire to see ourselves reflected.

Some of the characteristic visual decisions include filming paintings as symbols for earthly nostalgia;

Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Brueghel

… as well as constructing a space station which is in disrepair …

… Akasaka, Tokyo is used as a setting for scenes depicting the city of the future …

As much a psychological thriller as a science fiction film, Solaris builds its story world on fantastic assumptions depicted in a starkly realistic manner;

interstellar travel
space stations on other planets
disembodied alien intelligence

Our brainstorm reveals the distopic and non-specific future world of THX 1138 to be composed of many assumptions;

neurological and biochemical surveillance
biochemical conditioning
torture
brainwashing
androids subject to malfunction
nuclear powered androids
cyber religion
obilgatory sedation
obilgatory abstinence
sterile environment
stimulus neutral
underground city
references to a “superstructure”
artificial light
persecution of criminals is limited by fixed budgetary constraints
gunless society
energy weapons
mass conformity
heirarchical social structure
automated mating
artificial births
molecular cuisine

The animated universe of Tron depicts the fantastic interior world of a computer system contemporary to the early 1980s era of the film’s release. Some of the assumptions which constitute the film’s look and feel:

artificial intelligence
virtual reality
teleportation
translation of atoms to bits
computer system with many separate programs
computer voice synthesis
text to speech interface
touch screen interface
computer is 2415 times faster than human
terminal results from videogame play

Next year’s Tron sequel looks like it may take the original film’s aesthetics to another dimension with a fully digital process:

Set in 1999, The Matrix presents an alternate reality for the present, which — incidentally — is now 10 years in the past!

Kevin Kelly gives some insights into the future of the Internet and what he calls the “one machine”.

Here are the assumptions we’ve identified for the story-world of The Matrix:

machines depending on humans / humans depending on machines
machines / artificial intelligence (AI) rules the world
machine can simulate sensory stimulation (dominance of virtual reality)
the neural/silicon barrier has been broken
human being as source of electrical power
AI is hostile
AI has emotions
thin line between humans and AI
AI lacks intuition
human colonies under the surface of the earth
advanced hovercraft vehicles
sentient robotic lifeforms