How SciFi Authors Use Architecture To Visualize Their World Making The Connection How do science fiction authors use architecture to better illustrate the world they describe Are words just enough ID: 744306
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Slide1
Into The Mind Of Science Fiction Writers:
How Sci-Fi Authors Use Architecture To Visualize Their WorldSlide2
Making The Connection
How do science fiction authors use architecture to better illustrate the world they describe? Are words just enough?
Many science fiction writers want to find a way other than using descriptors to show their readers the world they are talking aboutThe use of illustrations/art work are the perfect medium for thisSometimes, an author might be talking about a world that is hard to understand and it is left up to the reader’s imagination to piece it together
This can be both a good thing and a bad thing. This challenges the reader’s use of context clues and comparisons to get a grasp on the author’s idea of a setting. However, sometimes the reader could be thinking something vastly different from what the author had in mind.Key Words: Architecture, Visualization, Metaphors, Descriptors, Progression, Speculation, RealismSlide3
A
SMall Experiment
“The Ministry of Truth –Minitrue, in Newspeak—was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 meters into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” – George Orwell, 1984Slide4
Artist Rendition
("Project 1984")Slide5
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
“Sci-fi movies need to make their audience believe the story they tell (when talking about this world, directly or indirectly and its future or strange alien worlds) and they employ different means, one of them is the built environment; by making these architectural features believable they use elements that audiences can relate to” –
Oana Caplescu
(Caplescu 2015)In many pieces of art work dedicated to science fiction works the key seems to be about
realism as one of the major criteria that make something more believableAfter all, don’t we want to see for ourselves the twisted reality the author sees?
Scaling the different sub-categorical themes in science fiction and the associated architecture, this trend emerges with the design elements and most notably the author’s use of similes and metaphors to jog the reader/viewer’s mind to compare the things we know to things of the unknownBy using descriptors in a text can really force a reader to think about what the case is with respect to progression in a futuristic society, and what influences became a part of the world in the storySlide6
What Architecture does For Science Fiction
Architecture
in its most literal meaning according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary is: “the art or practice of designing and building structures, specifically habitable ones” (“Architecture”)
Attention to detail about a setting’s architecture can help build a scene, or a world and even evoke emotion through comparison of our current world with the one describedIn a 2011 web article by Sam Jacob, “Architecture, Philip K. Dick and Science Fiction Film” he states “Architecture sees modernity and technology as a way of delivering comfort and freedom from domestic chores, and as such are seen as solutions” (Jacob 2011)Not only does the realization of architecture and its role in science fiction that serves as a development tool for authors, but it also looks at how technological advancements to improve humanity’s livelihood make rudimentary things effortless
A good example of this is the houses in Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” we looked at earlier in the semester (Bradbury 1950)Slide7
what Architecture Does For Science Fiction
In a text “Architecture, Philip K. Dick and Science Fiction Film”, written by David Fortin, notes that “one of
sci-fi’s key themes is also a fundamental architectural concern: the idea, the question and the identity of ‘home’” (Fortin 2012)In another trope on architecture in science fiction we see that there is the relationship that the architecture in science fiction has with what one calls home, although in most cases is never really the main objective– with the exception of stories involving colonization or resettlement
One thing to think about: How do visions of the future from science fiction films obscure what we call home?I personally think that in most visions of a post-apocalyptic earth really render home to be an uninhabitable place and challenges the idea of restarting a new populationSlide8
Recap
Science Fiction writers like to use artwork or illustration to enhance the ideas of their world
One of the tools Science Fiction uses is realism to help the story become more believable which paints a clearer pictureUsing descriptors, metaphors and similes, forces the reader to use their imagination and make comparisons to real life experiences
The use for architecture in Science Fiction is a tool to help develop the setting in a story and can give hints to any technological advancements that have been established in a storyAnother use for architecture in Science Fiction is that it can also challenge the idea of “what is home” and how that idea progresses through the storyBoth words and illustration can be enough to get an image into the reader’s mind, but when used in conjunction with each other it helps to even further clarify what the author imagines. Sometimes words are just enough, but sometimes seeing a picture of an iconic element in a story can really put it into perspectiveSlide9
Works Cited
“Architecture.”
Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/architecture. Bradbury, Ray.
There Will Come Soft Rains. Collier's, 1950. Caplescu,
Oana. Architecture In Science Fiction Movies.
Oana Caplescu, Architecture In Science Fiction Movies
,
www.academia.edu
/11672078/ARCHITECTURE_IN_SCIENCE_FICTION_MOVIES.
Fortin, David Terrance.
Architecture and Science-Fiction Film: Philip K. Dick and the Spectacle of Home
. Ashgate Publishing, 2012.
Jacob, Sam. “Architecture, Philip K Dick and Science Fiction Film.”
Architect's Journal
, Sam Jacob, 4 Aug. 2011,
www.architectsjournal.co.uk
/architecture-
philip
-k-dick-and-science-fiction-film/8618144.article.
“Project 1984.” WAI Thinktank, waithinktank.com
/Project-1984. Slide10
Works Consulted
Heathcote, Edwin. “Architecture: How Buildings Are Used in Sci-Fi Films.” Financial Times
, Financial Times, 22 Nov. 2013, www.ft.com/content/fff5e7cc-4d50-11e3-a220-00144feabdc0. Jackson, Gordon, and Charlie Jane Anders. “Great Science Fiction Creators Who Have Studied Architecture.” io9, io9.Gizmodo.com, 16 Dec. 2015, io9.gizmodo.com/5845565/great-science-fiction-creators-who-have-studied-architecture. Some interesting info on sci-fi writers who have some background in architecture or design
Keskeys, Paul. “The Architecture of George Orwell's ‘1984’ - Architizer Journal.” Architizer, Architizer, 31 July 2018, architizer.com/blog/practice/details/the-architecture-of-george-orwells-1984/.
McCrary, Montez. “The Architecture of ‘Metropolis (1927)".” The PractitioNERD
, 2 Oct. 2017, thepractitionerd.com/2012/05/31/the-architecture-of-metropolis-1927/. “Science Fiction.” Early American Literature UHCL 2014 Sample Research Posts
,
coursesite.uhcl.edu
/HSH/
Whitec
/terms/S/
scifi.htm
.