Archite ctural futurit y
& sCIENCE Fiction Nick boer Architectural theory section Spring 2018
Nick Boer, 4286766
Architectural futurity & Science Fiction How science fiction supports visualizing and shaping futures of the built environment Architecture Theory Section MSc 2 Theory Thesis Spring 2018. Author: Nick Boer Student number: 4286766 Keywords: Architecture, futures, science fiction Abstract: Science-Fiction plays an important role in the way people think about urban life and development in the future. It is not only to be seen as a prediction of the future, but also as a framework for critical reflections about the past and the present. The article describes how science-fiction is used as a tool to create and consider future urban scenarios. First it describes what defines science fiction as a genre and how it is applied to speculate about future scenarios. Secondly it discusses how the approach influences the field of architecture and explores its integration. Thirdly the article describes how science fiction speculates about long-range future developments of the city, considering the demands and constraints of present societal matters and the built environment. This is further elaborated with the focus on the subgenre of science fiction, cyberpunk, which is particularly relevant to the present age of technology and digitalization.
1
Nick Boer, 4286766
CONTENT 1. Introduction 1.1 Contextual framework 1.2 Approach 2 Definition 2.1 History 2.2 Structure and value 2.3 Science fiction or extro-science fiction? 3 Between science fiction and architecture 3.1 Science fiction approach for architecture 3.2 Science fiction, perception and emotional affects 4. Science fiction styles and architecture: cyberpunk 4.1 Urban space 4.2 Technology 4.3 Society 5. Speculation Bibliography Content Images
3 4 5 6 6 6 8 10 10 12 14 14 15 15 17 18 18 19
2
Nick Boer, 4286766
1. introduction The start of the digitalization of the western world at the end of the 20th century marked a new era for science fiction. With the rise of the internet, smartphones and social media, communicating through images becomes more and more popular. The western world’s dependency on visual culture is growing. Visual culture engages visual events in which consumers search for information, meaning and pleasure in an interface with visual technology. This system is strongly dependent on the modern tendency to have pictures or visualizations of existence, which are often reproductive and indistinguishable. Throughout the years, this visual culture introduced new forms of perception of architecture. With the rise of science fiction the first attempts were made to visualize speculations about future cities and the built environment. The historical context of various interrelated crises point out a broad concern and interest about what the future will bring. The way that society approaches challenges strongly depends on how futures are framed at that present moment 1. In 1927, the film Metropolis depicted a future world set in 2026 inspired by art deco and modernism. In the 1960’s on the other hand, concepts and representation techniques were mostly based on the postwar pulp science fiction. More recently various designs from international architectural offices have shown resemblance to science fiction icons such as the Death Star from Star Wars. Although every generation has its own time-bound perception of a future built environment, one could say that on the long term architecture and science fiction have always been interrelated. Both fields have always been influencing each other on an artistic level. There has been a strong dialogue between both imagined worlds: architecture inspired by ambitious future impressions and images and on the other hand science fiction worlds in both utopian and dystopian form, that react to contemporary architectural design issues. But as a result of the technical innovation and digitalization of the contemporary world in the last decades, the gap between architecture and science fiction seems to become smaller. From the perspective of the field of architecture, technological innovation provides new building techniques and materials which bring the present appearance of the built environment closer to the science fictional images presented in visual culture. One could think of the gigantic scale of recent skyscrapers or the speed with which 3D printing is currently developing, as typical themes from the science fiction genre. On the other hand, visual representations of these science fiction scenarios are also experiencing rapid growth as a benefit from the present times of technological innovation. The development of sophisticated CGI and animation techniques in the present movie and gaming industry made the boundaries between the actual and the fictional in images less and less obvious. Science fiction writers are able to give increasingly plausible representations of the scenario they bring forward.
Bina et al., The Future Imagined: Exploring Fiction as a Means of Reflecting on Today’s Grand Societal Challenges and Tomorrow’s Options. 1
3
Nick Boer, 4286766
1.1. theoretical framework In science fiction the relation between fiction and science is a matter of creating a fictional future of science, that changes and often expands the possibilities of our knowledge of reality. “Man’s relation to the world undergoes a change by virtue of a modification to scientific knowledge, which opens up unheard-of possibilities for him” (Meillassoux et al. 2015: 5). Every science fiction assumes that in any particular future it will still be possible to relate the world to a scientific knowledge. Although it could be altered by its new power (sometimes even to an unrecognizable form), the scientific framework will always exist. Around this framework, fiction can produce extreme variations of contexts. In general, speculations about futures in twenty-first century literature and visual culture are dominated by a series of disjunctions. A strong motive can be found at the presentation of anti-human worlds where the human race is responsible for its destruction, but at the same time it intensively pursues the justification of human existence. The ideas are either highly human, romanticizing a world with justice and happiness for all, or highly counter-human presenting the world of technology and expansion as solely violent 2. Speculations about the future are based on both experience and logic. Any idea, dream or hope of the future is constructed by materials, networks and figures of the present. Therefore, one always thinks of the true future from the relative context in that specific presence. The framework of these elements is used to create a feeling of certainty, trust and feeling of continuity for the future. Because of scientific laws we are able to predict certain future phenomena in nature, and to develop a trust that it will obey the same rules tomorrow as it obeys today. These predictions have been confirmed multiple times under varying circumstances, which generates the certainty about predictions that have yet to be confirmed. Such predictions have always been grounded on the idea that current laws will be the same as the laws to come. But in reality this reasoning is questionable. Whatever the number of verifications may be, every event is compatible with the present or future state of science, no matter how unlikely they seem to be. Therefore, no event can be regarded as impossible grounded on logic or experimental science 3. Chapter 3.2 will explore this topic further. This paper does not intend to describe the “true” future. It serves rather as an explanation of the way science fiction speculates about futurity of architecture, cities and societies. Further it elaborates on the reason why science fiction speculates in these ways, and what value it adds to architecture. Furthermore it is important to note that this paper reasons from the idea that architecture is not an autonomous field and always has a strong relation with an unique context. These contexts consist of ever changing fields, operating as a heterogeneous network to work with. This idea is taken as implicit and it is not within the scope of the research.
2 3
Colebrook, Futures. Meillassoux and Edlebi, Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction. 4
Nick Boer, 4286766
1.2 Approach The main research question of this essay is: “What is the relation between the future of built environments and science fiction in the contemporary age of digitalization and technology?�. The main research question will be discussed by dividing it into three subquestions: 1. How can we define science fiction? 2. How does science fiction effect architecture? 3. How does science fiction relate to actual societal issues in the age of technology and digitalization? The first sub-question will be discussed in chapter two, where a definition will be given of science fiction to create a general understanding of the term. Furthermore, this section elaborates on the way science fiction approaches the reality and constructs speculations and extrapolations. To use an accurate and integral framework for science fiction, this research considers both literature and visual culture for this research. The second subquestion will be discussed in chapter three. Here the effects of the science fictional approach to architecture will be discussed, and why it is relevant to the field. The fourth chapter of this thesis discusses architectural trends in recent science fiction movies and literature. This topic is important because these trends derive from concerns and experiences from the present society, which the architectural field has to consider. In the final conclusion an answer on the main research question will be formulated.
5
Nick Boer, 4286766
2. Definition Science-Fiction 2.1 HISTORY Until today science fiction seems to be an undefined term, since there is still no generally accepted definition yet. There have been many individuals with their own perspectives on what science fiction defines. These widely varying interpretations of science fiction have a direct impact on the understanding of other individuals, which results in an even more subjective definition 4. A short explanation of science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein reads: “realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method” (Rieder 2010, P194). In other words, by the ability to depict a plausible situation, science fiction is capable of using this as a starting point for extrapolation. The origin of science fiction can only be traced back as far as the moment that the Western world became conscious of the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the established environment. After that moment it was often times dangerous to analyze and radically question the established society. A far safer method was showing the reader a distorted reflection of his own image, hoping that at a certain moment, he would actually believe that this grotesque reflection was not so different from himself. Until the middle of the eighteenth century ‘changes’ described in the history books were not radically experienced in the lives of the average individual. Men for example mostly followed the footsteps of their fathers, like all the generations of fathers did before them. This ‘natural order’ was imposed mostly by either the believe in the congenital skills of the human being or by the wisdom from a supernatural being. Although science might have existed in this era, its potential to effectuate major social change could hardly be understood on a wider scale back then 5. When science fiction emerged, it did not arrive in the form of a certain formal type and it was not immediately labeled as “the science fiction genre”. It appeared rather as a system of generic identities that articulated the different terms that cluster around the genre. One could think of example themes like scientific romance, horror fiction and detective fiction. The rise of the mass culture was one of the historical conditions which led to the increasing use of these identities in periodical publications, ultimately leading to the emergence of science fiction as a distinctive genre 6. In 1927, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis introduced a future city that would become a monstrous machine as a product of the mass culture. The movie became an important example of how science fiction movies could speculate about the future. 2.2 STRUCTURE AND VALUE The structure of science fiction is fundamentally different from other genres. Some might say that science fiction is similar to fantasy because the future is not “actual” since it hasn’t happened (yet), but that is not entirely accurate. Our present decisions are closely related to the future because everything what we do always has to be carried out to a near or distant future. Every simple short term task derives from a past thought that is constructed to execute that specific future action. Furthermore, we constantly make decisions Knight, Turning Points: Essays on the Art of Science Fiction. Knight. 6 Rieder, “On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History.” 4 5
6
Nick Boer, 4286766
throughout our lives after considering the consequences for the long-term future. An often returning misconception is called inductivism, “which claims to establish the definitive truth of a theory by multiplying its empirical verifications” (Meillassoux 2013: 12). But actually, whatever the amount of experimental verifications to which a theory is accepted, it can always be rebutted or surpassed by a new, stronger theory that sets a new standard for physical possibilities. Therefore, affirming that such an event is impossible according to physics is inaccurate: it is merely impossible in the current state of science, without us being able to anticipate the future. Consequently all events are compatible with the present state of science: as unusual one might be, no event can be excluded based on logic or experimental science 7. For this reason the approach of science fiction to the world is powerful because it does not assume that what is now will be forever: it is an extrapolation from the “what is” to the “what might be”, also called speculative extrapolation 8. Writing science fiction, one is not limited by currently accepted theory or popular opinion, and only needs to respect the established fact in science 9. Secondly an important difference between science fiction and the fantasy genre is the fact that the imaginative worlds have generally different characters. Fantasy worlds are mostly constructed of exotic and surreal landscapes which are forged by nature. In science fiction, the worlds are normally man-made environments or intensively affected by humans. Here the focus is not on the wondrous world anymore, but rather on the way humanity has an impact on it 10. To think that science fiction is solely about predicting the future is a misconception. More importantly it serves as a format for reflections about the past and the present. Science fiction writers hold up mirrors to their own experiences and social surroundings. The difference with other imaginative writers is that these mirrors are distorted with extrapolation and speculation. The reflections of various aspects of reality are partly obscured and partly highlighted. ‘Science fiction writers utilize accepted narratives of the past and common understandings of the present to frame their visions of the future, but they do so in extreme forms’ (Abbott 2017: 125). These visions reach far ahead of their time and consist of speculations about new technology and satirical extrapolations of social trends. Science fiction is a very effective tool to surface various implicit understandings that are hidden in our society. Thinking and speculating about the future is most relevant through our critical understanding of the past and the present situation 11. This can be traced back in the field of architecture as well. A building or a type of architecture can also be interpreted as a projection of some aspect of human history and experience. With this in mind, it would be very relevant for architects to engage with such an approach. Whether it is the prediction of tomorrow’s weather, or a speculation about future built environments: in every case the concepts we apply derive from our experiences of the present and our knowledge and understanding of the past. Technology as the solution for the great depression in the ‘30s, reactions to the Vietnam war in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and the environmental disaster scenarios from nowadays: every period points out the pursuit of
Meillassoux and Edlebi, Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction. Shaviro, Discognition. 9 Knight, Turning Points: Essays on the Art of Science Fiction. 10 Clear, “A Strange Newness Architecture as Science Fiction.” 11 Abbott, “Cyberpunk Cities.” 7 8
7
Nick Boer, 4286766
the argument among politics, social change and fictions for the future as fuel for science fiction criticism 12. The major force for social and cultural change within science fiction is technological determinism in utopian or dystopian form 13. Considering the way science fictional discourse is enframed by technology, writer Anna Roberts argues that instead of using the term science fiction we should define it as technology fiction. But this term would be misleading, because science fiction does not particularly argue about new technology, but Figure 1: Photorealistic painting of Imperial Hotel Tokyo focusses rather on different ways to represent technology. It is used to create the overall world in which the story takes place 14. Likewise this is to be seen in the field of architecture. Mostly when we talk about technology in architecture, it is about representations of representations. The visual culture in the age of technology and digitalization causes that interaction with architecture is increasingly based on representations of the actual building, or even representation of an image of the building. In both science fiction and architecture there is no claim that these are accurate representations of objective circumstances but they do engage with the public imagination, contributing to the construction of the environment that shapes our cities 15. Rather than being merely a set of texts (or images), science fiction is a way of using these texts and drawing relationships between them. The genre is constructed not only by defining, categorizing, including and excluding but also by using the unique protocols and rhetorical strategies that differentiate science fiction from other methods. “Instead of approaching its issues abstractly, as philosophy does, or breaking them down into empirically testable propositions, as physical science does, science fiction embodies these issues in characters and narratives” (Shaviro 2016, 6). Important is the fact that both the writer and the reader use science fiction to actively create their own understanding of the world which is depicted in the text or movie, but also its relation to an empirical environment and other constructed worlds 16. 2.3 SCIENCE FICTION or EXTRO-SCIENCE FICTION? As mentioned before, science fiction describes abductions (by bringing the future to the present) in which scientific rules are altered from what we know by today. It imagines a fictional future of science in which the knowledge and mastery of the actual are often distorted and expanded, to expose yet unknown possibilities. But what if we picture a future in which the world cannot be subjected to a scientific knowledge? This is the difference between science fiction and extro-science fiction. Imaginary worlds created by the idea of Abbott. Fortin, “Indigenous Architectural Futures: Potentials for Post-Apocalyptic Spatial Speculation.” 14 Clear, “A Strange Newness Architecture as Science Fiction.” 15 Abbott, “Cyberpunk Cities.” 16 Rieder, “On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History.” 12 13
8
Nick Boer, 4286766
extro-science fiction are conceived in such a way that experimental scientific theory does not work and is unable to compile objects within them. The main aim is to discuss what a world should be and resemble in order to become inaccessible to a scientific knowledge, meaning it is not an object of a natural science 17. The value of extro-science fiction lays in the fact that it opposes inductivism because it lets go of the necessity of the laws of nature. Instead of showing objective representations based on experience and causal order, it describes chimerical representations based on imagination and arbitrariness. There is no logical contradiction which holds us from imagining that the laws of nature will be changed in the future. Secondly, experience of past constancy does not imply the same for the future. It can only tell what has been experienced, or what is currently being experienced, but an “experience� of the future does not exist. Following this reasoning, a world of extro-science fiction has become too chaotic too apply scientific theory to reality. Therefore, there is no clear and coherent construction of a storyline or narration since anything can happen randomly and at any moment. Science fiction has the ability to narrate since the distorted world still knows ordered totalities, but in extro-science fiction story telling is eliminated because there is no reasonable order of any sort. If order would ultimately appear, it would be created in an arbitrary way. It is even questionable if one could still define a world if it is not capable of involving science: there is purely chaos and diversity 18.
17 18
Meillassoux and Edlebi, Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction. Meillassoux and Edlebi. 9
Nick Boer, 4286766
3. BETWEEN science fiction and architecture 3.1 science fiction approach for architecture The architecture in a science fiction world follows from a combination between the concerns, fascinations and desires of both the actual and the imaginary world of a society. By converging these elements it is made systematic and substantial. In science fiction movies, the imaginary architectural language is made tangible in the visible spectacle of a concrete image. It functions as an essential part for the narrative path, giving dimension and shape to the extrapolative urban environment 19. This speculative environment is often characterized by: “1. Conflict between utopian and dystopian potentials; 2. The alienation produced in subjects in and by built environments; 3. The relationship between built environments and nature; 4. The effects of a centralization of oppressive or controlling power upon individual freedoms 5. relations between space and time; and 6. The role of technology in future and futuristic visions of the metropolis and urban life” (Collie 2011: 428). The most important contribution that science fiction could have in the field of architecture is related to the way it approaches the future. Architects are always designing a building for a future which is to come, considering its new generations, values and trends within society. I believe that architects are in general too easily dismissive about their ideas for these futures. This is why science fiction should be more embedded in architecture. It has the capacity to engage with our intuition in considering problems and challenges of the future, with willingness to take economic, social and cultural patterns a step beyond the constraints of common sense 20. Intuition is considered here as an singular representation which is consciously referred to an object 21. Another reason which makes science fiction a very powerful tool is that it is able to communicate ideas to a larger public with no professional or academic experience in architecture, through the media of movie and literature. On the other hand, architectural futurity has been represented and discussed almost been exclusively in the field of western science fiction. Therefore, the technological and social projections are largely framed by a western heroic and futuristic lens. Here is where science fiction is criticized: not only the futuristic narratives, but also the spatial visions of the future experience a western frame. While western architects earlier still created utopian images of the built environment, we can see now that the conditions during the post-recession have pointed out that these images were just an illusion. The architectural world turned out to be completely wrong about the idea of what the future built environment may hold because of the continuous focus on large scale corporate development and consumerism 22. As a result of these developments, science fiction experiences two contrasting ways of imagining the future built environment. On one hand, dystopian images that illustrate the dangers of continuing on a current course, and on the Collie, Cities of the Imagination: Science Fiction, Urban Space, and Community Engagement in Urban Planning. 19
Abbott, “Cyberpunk Cities.” Wilson, Kant on Intuition. 22 Fortin, “Indigenous Architectural Futures: Potentials for Post-Apocalyptic Spatial Speculation.” 20 21
10
Nick Boer, 4286766
other hand the utopian images that suggest how future solutions could be reached to create a world of beatitude . Considering the ‘depiction’ of the future as important characterizes the age of digitalization and technology. Present society is becoming more and more aware of the futurity of continual technological innovation and turnover of goods. We are increasingly bothered by consuming the newest products of the market because we are obsessed by trends which seem to follow up on each other infinitely. Every cycle the products are new but not differentiated from its predecessors. This phenomenon derives from the commercial product cycle that dominates all aspects of our lives. As a consequence of this progression, power can be obtained with the depiction, management and delivery of reliable futures. Corporate leaders claim that the disempowered live in the past, after drawing more power towards themselves from futures created by the futurists they employ. As capital generators, these futures are implemented to promote capitalism’s own continued growth. “Science fiction is now a research and development department within a futures industry that dreams of the prediction and control of tomorrow”(Eshun; in Shaviro 2010: 32). Capitalism can be seen as a way of monetizing the future, as it always relies on the accelerating amplification of credit. This stockpiling of the future has become so popular that it mostly has already been preplanned for us by the counting and discounting of strategical financial systems 23.
Figure 2: Barozzi Veiga's unbuilt Neanderthaler museum (Right) and Wallace Corporation in "Bladerunner 2049" (left)
23
Shaviro, Post-Cinematic Affect. 11
Nick Boer, 4286766
3.2 Science fiction, perception and emotional affects In the present built environment we can increasingly recognize phenomena that are generally important motives in the imaginative science fiction world. Important themes are the presence of gigantic scale and height. Metropoles like London or New York demonstrate how the experience of living on great height and vertical urbanism becomes generally normal or even prevalent in everyday urban reality. Next to criticism on spatial segregation and inequality regarding the Highrise, also the emotional effect of these spaces should be highlighted. Science fiction plays a critical role in the discussions here to argue the emotional impact of the future city. Science fiction is able to provide a critical reimagination of the impact of vertical cities under construction by radically speculating about urban change 24. Science fiction literature has shown numerous examples of the perception of the vertical city, of which the most emerged during the period from the 1960s till the end of the 1970s. These texts had a specific aim on the emotional effects of the vertical city. The “New Wave” was a movement within science fiction following the wider counter-cultural development in the UK and US during the 1960s. They believed that the role of science fiction was the exploration of the “inner space” rather than “outer space”. In other words, instead of discussing unexplored milky ways, discovery of new planets and alien invasion they Figure 3: Diagrammatic speculation by Superstudio focused on shaping external worlds transformed and concealed by individual consciousness. The texts reflect a broad concern for social structures and individual perception, exploring the effects of the built environment on the people and its imagined development. They criticized not only their society, but also the utopian alternatives which derived from it. The prevalence of high-rise futures within the genre could be understood as an extrapolation of the world in which they wrote, as well as a base which allowed them to criticize alternatives 25. The distorted worlds of science fiction movies and novels provide ways to critically reimagine the impact of vertical cities. Exploration of the use of estranged perspectives offers opportunities to reflect on the emotional effect of place, because they provide a shared language and narrative which create a common point of departure for design discussion. Science fiction movies communicate this impact of the city through the combination of scenography and showing the responses and expressions of the protagonist. The viewer witnesses the protagonist’s experience of psychological 24 25
Butt, “Vicarious Vertigo: The Emotional Experience of Height in the Science Fiction City.” Butt. 12
Nick Boer, 4286766
sensations, and empathically shares the same emotions that are connected to these sensations. In science fiction novels the effect on the reader is different. Written descriptions of experiences cause the novels to be imaginatively “lived” by the reader. Reading about the imaginary world causes the reader to relate to the protagonist’s emotions, but also to perceive an imaginative recreation of that experience. As the space is radically different, they have the potential to encourage creativity and alternative conceptions of development within spaces whose narratives are based on an awareness for the emotional effect of place 26. The importance of this experience for our society can be motivated by Kant’s approach of transcendental idealism. This critical approach was opposed to realism, the view that human experience is fundamentally accurate and corresponds to the external word. But Kant implies that the external world is not important, but rather the way it is perceived. He makes the distinction between “things in themselves” from things as they appear to humans. The human experience, the phenomena, is fundamentally different from the world as it actually is, the noumena. Since the human mind will never experience the noumena, it is more important to explore new ways of perceiving this world, and science fiction movies and literature are destined tools to accomplish this 27. Kant believes that time and space are mental phenomena since they are always produced in a relative experience from somebody’s mind. Therefore, he denies that space exists apart from our experience. To be located in space is the property of an experience of something, and not a property of the thing we experience. These mental phenomena are perceived by the noumenal self, the mind, by two different components: understanding and sensibility. Each of the components organizes the phenomena into universal pure categories. Understanding consists of categories like totality, plurality and unity. In addition, sensibility absorbs the unorganized and unexperienced noumena world and consequently translates this into our phenomenal organized world within the categories of time and space. So the mind does not record an outside reality, but is rather the actively constructing reality. Nevertheless Kant refutes what he calls “problematic realism”: the believe that the existence of objects in space outside us is doubtful and cannot be demonstrated. He believes the noumenal world is there but can never be described or discussed. Kant tries to proof that even our inner experience is only possible with the existence of the outer experience. 28
Butt. Bird, A Companion to Kant. 28 Brown, Kant 2: Transcendental Idealism. 26 27
13
Nick Boer, 4286766
4. Science fiction styles and architecture: cyberpunk The rise of the age of technology and digitalization brings its own new concerns, issues and societal discussions for the field of science fiction. The escalation of the increasing role of technology in modern society asks for critical reflection on ethics for a so called “post-human age”. Post-humanism assumes that new technologies will lead to new species above and beyond the human race. It can be seen as a shift away for considering humans as the center of the universe. Post-human ethics describes worlds as such, considering the interests of the planet and universe, but also of these new species 29. This chapter demonstrates how science fiction engages these actual developments with the help of a case study in cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is an important example of how these post-human universes can be explored, as it provides critical visions for the geography of future urban environments 30. Its theorization is recognizable by the demonstration of the increasingly blurred lines between fiction and fact 31. In the 1980’s it started as a subgenre of science fiction and came forth from the noir detective genre. Throughout the years, the themes, insights and images of early cyberpunk have been spread out and explored across the science fiction genre. There are three important themes that define the approach of cyberpunk 32. 4.1 Urban Space Urban space is a central theme in cyberpunk as it functions as setting as well as figure. The cyberpunk cities apply postmodern mapping of high complexity, density and compatibility, which can be used for the future metropoles. As its vision of the future is often closely related to formal urban theory, it highlights the important position of global cities in the world economic and social change 33: - The dominant role of Pacific Rim economies and culture. - The city becomes more and more a system of communication and information. - The absent/endangered middle class. The architecture within these cities has lost every relevance to uniqueness for specific places, cultures and times. Because the logic of the city is now based on a system of information, the built environment becomes rather a radical eclecticism or a form of ad hoc 34. It becomes a system of high flexibility, because plans are considered as reflexive processes intended to respond to the inherent instability of the city 35. The envisioning of these world cities shows four main characteristics. Firstly, the urban environment pictured in cyberpunk is familiar to that what world theorists describe. This ideology arose within the field of urbanism as there has been a significant response to the growing scale of global trade flows. It claims that the world economy is revolved around a small amount of world cities, characterized by large presence of international banks and multinationals. These organizations have the power to decide about the allocation and use of capital, being able to impact societies on a global scale. Roduit, “Science Fiction Enriches Ethical Discourse.” Bennett, Scientific Eventuality or Science Fiction: The Future of People with Different Abilities. 31 Collie, Cities of the Imagination: Science Fiction, Urban Space, and Community Engagement in Urban Planning. 32 Collie. 33 Collie. 34 Giuliana, “Ramble City: Postmodernism and ‘Blade Runner.’” 35 Abbott, “Cyberpunk Cities.” 29 30
14
Nick Boer, 4286766
Governmental authorities have lost their main authorial position within society. For the companies applies: the better the accessibility to telecommunications, the greater their control and power. The city is the world’s beating heart of economic and social change, although it is a dangerous place for individuals. Within cyberpunk the stories are mostly set in cities like Tokyo, New York and London 36. But more recently the cyberpunk science fiction widely accepts that China and South Asia will be the core of the world economy of the coming century. The rise of the Asian “tiger economies” and China is seen as the natural rebalance of the world system 37. 4.2 teCHNOLOGY Cyberpunk considers the high risks of technology related to privacy and control from a highly dystopian perspective. It functions as a contrasting counteract towards the utopian impulse occurring in new media studies around topics of democratic engagement and localization. The main focus in the narrative lays at the interaction between information technology and society, occurring in the “parallel realms of the future mega-city and the virtual city of cyberspace" (Collie 2011: 428). Cyberspace can be seen as the simulation of the city’s information network through which the city redoubles itself 38. Therefore it is closely related to its exploration of the urban spaces in the subgenre. The fabric of the buildings and infrastructure is dominated and driven by communication technologies. Both the mega city in cyberpunk and the cyberspace work as metaphor for the other, and they have similar structures in flows of capital and information. On top of both structures, large corporations dominate society with their far-reaching power obtained from technological change and global capitalism 39. 4.3 society In general cyberpunk worlds tend to have a dystopian rather than utopian setting in which the main protagonists do often come from the margins of society. The ever expanding gap between the rich and poor has escalated to a point that there is a protected elite, an endangered and struggling middle class and a vast amount of forgotten poor. Same as for the architecture, the people in this city have lost their individuality and identity and are merely a of the mass system. The origins of this extrapolation are strongly related to the developments of mass cities and technologies of the present, in which direct social interaction in public space is already decreasing dramatically. When cyberpunk emerged in the 1980s the storytelling was mostly about direct machine-brain interactions leading to experiences in virtual realities. Initially the subgenre was mostly picturing a development in which machines become human, or machines expressing human behavior. Throughout the years this shifted to exact the opposite: the picturing of humans becoming more and more machinelike. In other words, the organic is being automated, rather than the inorganic being organized 40. The people in a cyberpunk world can be seen as a strong community but cannot be considered as part of a society. A Abbott. Abbott. 38 Collie, Cities of the Imagination: Science Fiction, Urban Space, and Community Engagement in Urban Planning. 39 Abbott, “Cyberpunk Cities.” 40 Vetter and Grant, Architecture of Control : A Contribution to the Critique of the Science of Apparatuses. 36 37
15
Nick Boer, 4286766
strong groupmind is present but without social encounter. The old forms of solidarity and community are preserved through the virtual city of cyberspace. This online world is not an alternative society but an alternative to society. Participating in this world encourages people to identify and symmetrize with other individuals. This sense of community is idealized until such extend that differences are denied, until such extend that “the community” is idealized by denying all differences amongst related individuals. “This sense of unity and mutuality in a shared whole is ‘artificially’ created through the institution of technology.”(Featherstone 1996, 150). The opportunities for social encounter in urban space are solely created by informal social institutions that emerge in public space, enabled by loosened building regulations and cheap information infrastructures 41.
41
Abbott, “Cyberpunk Cities.” 16
Nick Boer, 4286766
5. speculation Science fiction describes future scenarios in which the scientific rules are altered from what we know by today. Different abductions are explored in often extreme ways, and to make this plausible and engaging, certain scientific rules will be let go of as well. This is what architecture could learn from science fiction: if architects come up with extreme concepts, sometimes the basic rules we value so much in present life have to be abandoned in order to maintain the strength of the very concept. After exploring the value of science fiction to architecture in this paper new questions are arising, rather than conclusions. This is then also an essential part of the science fiction framework: the continuous exploration with extrapolations and speculations that result again in new grounds to explore. Therefore, this chapter discusses and speculates on the questions that emerged from this paper that are in need of further research. The first question deriving from this paper is: “will science fiction become more and more accurate?”. As this paper describes, the commercialization of the depiction of the future is a current development. Society could find itself in a future situation in which large companies or governments develop the demand for depictions about “futures” until such extend that they start to pay large amounts of money for them. The higher profit for science fiction results in significantly higher quantities of extrapolations which could potentially lead to a stronger general framework for futurity. Consequently, this extreme increase of depictions have a higher chance of giving accurate speculations and extrapolations regarding to architectural futurity. The second question follows: “What can we conclude about current society based on science fiction movies and literature?”. Since this paper discussed mainly the subgenre of cyberpunk, relevant speculations about this matter can only be made when others are excluded. From the main themes of cyberpunk, a three major current societal issues can be derived. A first major concern in current society is the extreme growth of technology. From the perspective of cyberpunk, this growth could potentially have catastrophic consequences. Machines are not only dominating more of our time, but also start gaining control over social structures and replacing parts of the human body. The boundaries between human and machine become more and more unclear. Secondly, the extreme differences between the rich elite, the struggling middle class and the poor is the result described in cyberpunk of the current worldwide developments which dramatically widens the gap between them. Thirdly, a major issue is the increasing demand of humanity towards the earth caused by extreme population growth, increased consumption and higher emission rates. It seems that the urge and capacity of societies to grow and consume is still significantly bigger than the resilience of earth can handle. Ultimately these factors will result in the complete depletion of earth as we currently know it. The final question is: “What characterizes spatial design in a science fiction world?”. Relating this topic back to the world of cyberpunk, spatial design will be much more based on flexibility. Designing space is no longer defined by currently used parameters like light and comfort, but will be based on different logic: communication and information technology. Because these are variable, designed spaces in and around buildings might not know a fixed form anymore. They will have the ability to change and grow based on constantly varying data trees. The cities will be constructed even more by process based design, since the built environment excludes all fixed elements from the urban system.
17
Nick Boer, 4286766
Bibliography content Abbott, Carl. “Cyberpunk Cities,” Science Fiction Meets Urban Theory, volume 27, no. issue 2 (December 1, 2017): 122–31. Bennett, DeeDee. Scientific Eventuality or Science Fiction: The Future of People with Different Abilities. 87. Atlanta: Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328716300131. Bina, O, S Mateus, L Pereira, and A Caffa. The Future Imagined: Exploring Fiction as a
Means of Reflecting on Today’s Grand Societal Challenges and Tomorrow’s Options. Futures, 2017. Bird, G. A Companion to Kant. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
https://books.google.nl/books?id=dawtCKADHwC&dq=kant+transcendental+idealism+&lr=&hl=nl&source=gbs_navlin ks_s. Brown, Richard. Kant 2: Transcendental Idealism, n.d. https://www.youtube.com/user/ConsciousnessOnline/about. Butt, Amy. “Vicarious Vertigo: The Emotional Experience of Height in the Science Fiction City.” Emotion, Space and Society, April 15, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2017.04.001. Clear, Nic. “A Strange Newness Architecture as Science Fiction.” BFI Southbank, n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGtkPTgRzuE. Colebrook, C. Futures, 2015. Collie, Natalie. Cities of the Imagination: Science Fiction, Urban Space, and Community Engagement in Urban Planning. Vol. 4. Futures 43. Queensland University of Technology, Creati, 2011. Fortin, David T. “Indigenous Architectural Futures: Potentials for Post-Apocalyptic Spatial Speculation.” Laurentian University. Accessed April 12, 2018. http://www.arccjournal.org/index.php/repository/article/download/301/237. Giuliana, Bruno. “Ramble City: Postmodernism and ‘Blade Runner,’” no. 41 (1987): 61–74. Knight, Damon. Turning Points: Essays on the Art of Science Fiction. Hachette: Gateway, 2014. Meillassoux, Q, and A Edlebi. Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction. University of Minnesota Press, n.d. Rieder, John. “On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History” Vol. 37, no. 2 (July 2010): 191–209. Roduit, Johann. “Science Fiction Enriches Ethical Discourse.” University of Zurich, February 22, 2018. https://www.academia.edu/35993218/Science_Fiction_Enriches_Ethical_Disco urse. Shaviro, Steven. Discognition. London: Repeater Books, 2016. ———. Post-Cinematic Affect. Winchester: O-Books, 2010. Vetter, and Grant. Architecture of Control : A Contribution to the Critique of the Science of Apparatuses. John Hunt Publishing, 2012. Wilson, Kirk Dallas. Kant on Intuition. Vol. 25. 100. The philosophical Quarterly, 1950. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2217756?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
18
Nick Boer, 4286766
images Figure 1: Johnson, B. “Tokyo Pool� Acryl on Canvas, 2006. Digital image. Yatzer. Accessed on 12-04-2018 from: https://www.yatzer.com/sites/default/files/media/slideshow/f5_ben_johnson_tokyo_po ol_2006_yatzer.jpg Figure 2: AD Editorial Team. "Barozzi Veiga's Unbuilt Museum Project Immortalized In Blade Runner 2049" 10 Oct 2017. ArchDaily. Accessed 22-052018. https://www.archdaily.com/881356/barozzi-veigas-unbuilt-museum-projectimmortalized-in-blade-runner-2049 Figure 3: Victor Delaqua. "Arte e Arquitetura: "Superstudio Revisitado" por Nitsche Arquitetos + Jorn Konijn" 28-08-2016. ArchDaily Brasil. Accessed 25-05-2018 from: https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/794139/arte-e-arquitetura-superstudio-revisitadopor-nitsche-arquitetos-plus-jorn-konijn
19