Daybreakers

It is 2019, ten years after a plague turns most humans into vampires. Human blood is in short supply. The shortage of causing panic in vampire population Charles Bromley, CEO of pharmaceutic company Bromley Marks - the largest supplier of human blood in the United States- is intent on developing a viable blood substitute. When a cure that can transform vampires back into human...

Wear Next: An Exploration into the Future of Wearable Technology

Technology is increasingly infiltrating all aspects of our lives and the rapid uptake of devices that live near, on or in our bodies are facilitating radical new ways of working, relating and socialising. This distribution of technology into the very fabric of our everyday life creates new possibilities, but also raises questions regarding our future relationship with data and the quantified self. By embedding technology into the fabric of our clothes and accessories, it becomes ‘wearable’. Such ‘wearables’ enable the acquisition of and the connection to vast amounts of data about people and environments in order to provide life-augmenting levels of interactivity. Wearable sensors for example, offer the potential for significant benefits in the future management of our wellbeing. Fitness trackers such as ‘Fitbit’ and ‘Garmen’ provide wearers with the ability to monitor their personal fitness indicators while other wearables provide healthcare professionals with information that improves diagnosis. While the rapid uptake of wearables may offer unique and innovative opportunities, there are also concerns surrounding the high levels of data sharing that come as a consequence of these technologies. As more ‘smart’ devices connect to the Internet, and as technology becomes increasingly available (e.g. via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), more products, artefacts and things are becoming interconnected. This digital connection of devices is called The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT). IoT is spreading rapidly, with many traditionally non-online devices becoming increasingly connected; products such as mobile phones, fridges, pedometers, coffee machines, video cameras, cars and clothing. The IoT is growing at a rapid rate with estimates indicating that by 2020 there will be over 25 billion connected things globally. As the number of devices connected to the Internet increases, so too does the amount of data collected and type of information that is stored and potentially shared. The ability to collect massive amounts of data - known as ‘big data’ - can be used to better understand and predict behaviours across all areas of research from societal and economic to environmental and biological. With this kind of information at our disposal, we have a more powerful lens with which to perceive the world, and the resulting insights can be used to design more appropriate products, services and systems. It can however, also be used as a method of surveillance, suppression and coercion by governments or large organisations. This is becoming particularly apparent in advertising that targets audiences based on the individual preferences revealed by the data collected from social media and online devices such as GPS systems or pedometers. This type of technology also provides fertile ground for public debates around future fashion, identity and broader social issues such as culture, politics and the environment. The potential implications of these type of technological interactions via wearables, through and with the IoT, have never been more real or more accessible. But, as highlighted, this interconnectedness also brings with it complex technical, ethical and moral challenges. Data security and the protection of privacy and personal information will become ever more present in current and future ethical and moral debates of the 21st century. This type of technology is also a stepping-stone to a future that includes implantable technology, biotechnologies, interspecies communication and augmented humans (cyborgs). Technologies that live symbiotically and perpetually in our bodies, the built environment and the natural environment are no longer the stuff of science fiction; it is in fact a reality. So, where next?... The works exhibited in Wear Next_ provide a snapshot into the broad spectrum of wearables in design and in development internationally. This exhibition has been curated to serve as a platform for enhanced broader debate around future technology, our mediated future-selves and the evolution of human interactions. As you explore the exhibition, may we ask that you pause and think to yourself, what might we... Wear Next_? WEARNEXT ONLINE LISTINGS AND MEDIA COVERAGE: http://indulgemagazine.net/wear-next/ http://www.weekendnotes.com/wear-next-exhibition-gallery-artisan/ http://concreteplayground.com/brisbane/event/wear-next_/ http://www.nationalcraftinitiative.com.au/news_and_events/event/48/wear-next http://bneart.com/whats-on/wear-next_/ http://creativelysould.tumblr.com/post/124899079611/creative-weekend-art-edition http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/smartly-dressed-the-future-of-wearable-technology/6744374 http://couriermail.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx RADIO COVERAGE http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/wear-next-exhibition-whats-next-for-wearable-technology/6745986 TELEVISION COVERAGE http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/wear-next-exhibition-whats-next-for-wearable-technology/6745986 https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/29439742/how-you-could-soon-be-wearing-smart-clothes/#page1

Redeeming America's Fall from Grace between Utopian and Dystopian horizons: The case of George Lucas's Star Wars trilogy

Eterio Pajares, Raquel Merino y José Miguel Santamaría (eds.)

Heróis ex-cêntricos, gêneros retorcidos e discursos irreais: fantasia e ficção científica desconstruídos nas obras de Angela Carter e China Miéville

Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar pontos de convergência nas obras de dois autores britânicos, Angela Carter (1940-1992) e China Miéville (1972- ). Os romances a serem estudados são Nights at the circus (1984) e The infernal desire machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972), de Angela Carter, e Perdido Street Station (2000) e The city & the city (2009), de China Miéville, e, como ponto de partida, ambos demonstram elos representativos com a ficção de gênero, evidenciados pelas obras escolhidas. Ao esmiuçar paralelos entre os romances, busca-se em especial dissecar as interseções temáticas e estilísticas, bem como as divergências e contradições que despertem interesse. Entre os temas investigados está a alteridade e o hibridismo ambos autores fazem uso de personagens ex-cêntricos e usam o hibridismo de modo a acentuar a Alteridade reservada ao Outro. Também será examinada a abordagem dos autores à ficção de gênero e o tratamento reservado aos tropos e clichês da Ficção Científica e da Fantasia. Por fim, a pesquisa observará o conceito que ambos compartilham de que discursos podem não ser uma mera reflexão da realidade, mas também criar e moldar o que tomamos por real. A todos os temas são aplicadas a teoria e crítica do pós-modernismo, além do material específico que lida com a ficção especulativa, Fantasia e Ficção Científica

Viagens extraordinárias e ucronias ficcionais: uma possível arqueologia do steampunk em literatura

A presente dissertação procura examinar o fenômeno do subgênero steampunk na literatura de ficção científica contemporânea, rastreando suas origens e analisando suas definições. O steampunk, em sua forma mais comum, trabalha com projeções contrafactuais do passado vitoriano, criando ambientações retrofuturistas para narrar suas histórias. A partir de indícios levantados por pesquisadores sobre a marcante influência cinematográfica sobre esta vertente, em especial das releituras feitas por Hollywood dos scientific romances britânicos e das voyages extraordinaires de Júlio Verne, procurou-se fazer uma espécie de arqueologia do subgênero a partir do projeto editorial original de Júlio Verne e seu editor Pierre-Jules Hetzel, projeto que, desde o seu início, possuía um caráter interdisciplinar e intertextual e que vai permanecer influenciando a ficção científica desde o seu estabelecimento como gênero literário autônomo. Em seguida, tentou-se demonstrar a afinidade da arte cinematográfica, desde seus primórdios, com esse projeto e abordar suas experiências de tradução visual deste universo como um desdobramento natural do corpo textual. Por último, analisou-se os componentes do steampunk (viagens no tempo, história contrafactual, mundos paralelos, ucronias ficcionais) e contextualizamos a vertente brasileira do subgênero no advento do novo romance histórico e no aumento da demanda por livros de divulgação histórica em virtude da efeméride dos 500 anos do Descobrimento do Brasil.

William Hope Hodgson's borderlands: monstrosity, other worlds, and the future at the fin de siècle.

William Hope Hodgson has generally been understood as the author of several atmospheric sea-horror stories and two powerful but flawed horror science fiction novels. There has been no substantial study analysing the historical and cultural context of his fiction or its place in the Gothic, horror, and science fiction literary traditions. Through analysing the theme of borderlands, this thesis contextualises Hodgson’s novels and short stories within these traditions and within late Victorian cultural discourse. Liminal other world realms, boundaries of corporeal monstrosity, and the imagined future of the world form key elements of Hodgson’s fiction, reflecting the currents of anxiety and optimism characterising fin-de-siècle British society. Hodgson’s early career as a sailor and his interest in body-building and physical culture colour his fiction. Fin-de-siècle discourses of evolution, entropy, spiritualism, psychical research, and the occult also influence his ideas. In The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), the known world brushes against other forms of reality, exposing humanity to incomprehensible horrors. In The Ghost Pirates (1909), the sea forms a liminal region on the borderland of materiality and immateriality in which other world encounters can take place. In The Night Land and The Boats of the ‘Glen Carrig’ (1907), evolution gives rise to strange monstrous forms existing on the borderlines of species and identity. In Hodgson’s science fiction—The House on the Borderland and The Night Land—the future of the earth forms a temporal borderland of human existence shaped by fin-de-siècle fears of entropy and the heat-death of the sun. Alongside the work of other writers such as H. G. Wells and Arthur Machen, Hodgson’s four novels respond to the borderland discourses of the fin de siècle, better enabling us to understand the Gothic literature of the period as well as Hodgson’s position as a writer who offers a unique imaginative perspective on his contemporary culture.

A Cult Film by Proxy: Space is the Place and the Sun Ra Mythos

Sexton, J. (2006). A Cult Film by Proxy: Space is the Place and the Sun Ra Mythos. New Review of Film and Television Studies. 4(3), pp.197-215. RAE2008

Alien gosd in the new epics: Noah remythologised through the ancient astronaut hypothesis in Abel's Montagut's "La gesta d'Utnoa"

Modern scientific world-view has undermined traditional myths, the functional survival of which seems to depend today in the West on a positivist justification. This would place them in the field of real History, through their study and revitalization by pseudoscientific disciplines such as the Atlantis and the ancient astronaut hypotheses. These have inspired new epic poems in (regular) verse that combine classic and/or biblical myths with a (pseudo)scientific modern world-view. For example, the critical rewriting of Noah’s myth by using the ancient astronaut hypothesis as a fictional device to produce a contemporary kind of plausibility allowed Abel Montagut to renew epic poetry, updating it also by adopting science fiction chronotopes in order to structure his fictional construction and to generate a high ethical sense for our time. Thus, his Poemo de Utnoa (1993) / La gesta d’Utnoa (1996), which has become a major classic of the literature in Esperanto thanks to its original version in this language, is a landmark of both science fiction and neo-biblical epics. This poem is written from a secular and purely literary perspective.

Del Fichero supremo a la Biblioteca de Babel: Salaverría, precursor de Borges

A juzgar por alguna declaración más bien negativa de Borges sobre la literatura española, se podría creer que esta no influyó demasiado en él. Sin embargo, existen indicios de que pudo haberse inspirado también en determinados escritores españoles coetáneos hoy casi olvidados. Uno de ellos pudo ser José María Salaverría, entre cuyos relatos destaca “El fichero supremo” (1926), del que se ha dicho que “anticipa algunas de las preocupaciones características de un tipo de relato que Jorge Luis Borges elevará años después a la máxima categoría estética”. De hecho, recuerda a “La biblioteca de Babel” (1941) borgiana por su planteamiento hasta el punto de que podría pensarse que el maestro argentino pudo tener presente, a la hora de escribir esa obra maestra, ese cuento de Salaverría, el cual se publicó por primera vez en Caras y Caretas, una revista porteña que Borges reconoció “devorar” en su juventud. Sin embargo, el interés mayor de la comparación entre “El fichero supremo” y “La biblioteca de Babel” no radica tanto en el carácter de posible fuente del primero como en el contraste entre sus formas de presentación narrativa: desde fuera y en tercera persona en Salaverría, en un marco realista; y desde dentro y en primera persona, prácticamente sin marco, en Borges. Este parece desarrollar, en el registro propio de la “imaginación razonada” descrito por él mismo, una virtualidad presente en el relato de Salaverría, cuya comparación con “La biblioteca de Babel” puede suscitar también alguna reflexión sobre el enigma de la identidad y el carácter de la voz enunciadora de la biblioteca universal de Babel. Al menos, esta parece haber hecho realidad en cierto modo, de forma sublime, el patético sueño divino del archivero imaginado por Salaverría.

Form Follows Media::What is The Matrix as Film, Animation, Game and Comics?

In the digital age, the hyperspace of virtual reality systems stands out as a new spatial notion creating a parallel world to the space we live in. In this alternative realm, the body transforms into a hyperbody, and begins to follow the white rabbit. Not only in real world but also in the Matrix world. The Matrix project of Andy and Larry Wachowski started with a feature film released in 1999. However, The Matrix is not only a film (trilogy). It is a concept, a universe that brings real space and hyperspace together. It is a world represented not only in science fiction films but also in The Animatrix that includes nine animated Matrix films directed by Peter Chung, Andy Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri and others, four of which are written by the Wachowskis. The same universe is used in Enter the Matrix, a digital game whose script was written and directed by the brothers and a comic book, The Matrix Comics, which includes twelve different stories by artists like Neil Gaiman and Goef Darrow. The Wachowskis played an active role in the creation and realization of all these “products” of different media. The comic book came last (November 2003), however it is possible to argue that everything came out of comics – the storyboards of the original film. After all the Wachowskis have a background in comics.

In this study, I will focus on the formal analysis of the science fiction world of The Matrix - as a representation of hyperspace - in different media, feature film, animated film, digital game and comic book, focusing on diverse forms of space that come into being as a result of medium differences. To unfold the different formal characters of film, animation, game and comics, concepts and features including framing, flattening, continuity, movement, montage, sound/text, light and color will be discussed. An analysis of these products will help to open up a discussion on the relation of form, media and representation.

Living in Exospace: ISS and Discovery 1

The concept of exospace, as an alternative liveable structure, is discussed in this article to improve our comprehension of architectural space. Exospace is a man-made space designed for living beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Humankind has developed outerspace technologies to build the International Space Station as a significant experiment in exospace design. The ISS is a new building type for scientific experiments and for testing human existence in outerspace.

A fictional example of exospace, on the other hand, is Discovery 1 spaceship in Stanley Kubrick’s legendary science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It is a ship travelling to Jupiter with a crew of five astronauts and HAL9000, the artificial intelligence controlling the ship. I will first discuss the ISS, and the space stations built before, from a spatial point of view. A spatial study of Discovery 1 will follow. Finally, through an understanding of exospace, I will return to architectural space with a critical appraisal. The comparison of architectural space with exospace will add to the discussion of space theories from a technological approach.

Exospace creates an alternative reality to architectural space. Architects cannot consider exospaces without comparing them with the spaces they design on Earth. The different context of outerspace shows that a work of terrestrial architecture is very much dependent on its context. A building is not an ‘object’ that can be located anywhere; it is designed for its site. Architectural space is a real, material, continuous, static and extroverted habitable space designed for and used in the specific physical context of Earth. The existence of exospace in science opens a new discussion in architectural theory, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial.

Norberg-Schulz’ Elements of Space in Dark City

Alex Proyas' science fiction film Dark City (1998) puts forth questions about the building process of a city. The aliens in the film constantly alter each street, building and room to create the right environment for humans to dwell. The ‘strangers’ believe that they need to study humans in their spaces to understand human nature. They use bits and pieces of people's memories to reconstruct the city.

Christian Norberg-Schulz identifies four elements of space: physical, perceptual, existential and conceptual. Physical space is physical existence as it is. Perceptual space is the temporary space the user perceives. Existential space, for instance, the meaning of the concept of home, is abstract and permanent; it does not change with changing conditions. Finally, conceptual space, in his spatial philosophy, is the space concept of specialists like architects, economists and mathematicians.

This article analyses the future noir environment of Dark City from a spatial perspective. The notion of building is studied as to physical, perceptual, existential and conceptual spaces of Norberg-Schulz through concepts of home, identity, belonging, and alienation with reference to the architecture of the city.

'Strange Visitor From Another Planet': Genre, Corporate Identity and the Arrival of American Telefantasy on British Television

While the BBC had been broadcasting television Science Fiction productions from as early as 1938, and Horror since the start of television in 1936, American Telefantasy had no place on British television until ITV’s broadcast of Adventures of Superman (1952-1958) in 1956. It would be easy to assign this absence to the avoidance of popular American programming, but this would ignore the presence of Western and adventure serials imported from the US and Canada for monopoly British television. Similarly, it would be inaccurate to suggest that these imports were purely purchased as thrilling fare to appease a child audience, as it was the commercial ITV that was first to broadcast the more adult-orientated Science Fiction Theatre (1955-7) and Inner Sanctum (1954). This article builds on the work of Paul Rixon and Rob Leggott to argue that these imports were used primarily to supply relatively cheap broadcast material for the new channel, but that they also served to appeal to the notion of spectacular entertainment attached to the new channel through its own productions, such as The Invisible Man (1958-1959) and swashbucklers such as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-60). However, the appeal was not just to the exciting, but also to the transatlantic, with ITV embracing this conception of America as a modern place of adventure through its imports and its creation of productions for export, incorporating an American lead into The Invisible Man and drawing upon an (inexpensive) American talent pool of blacklisted screenwriters to provide a transatlantic style and relevance to its own adventure series. Where the BBC used its imported serials as filler directed at children, ITV embraced this transatlantic entertainment as part of its identity and differentiation from the BBC.