"Future Worlds" Concept

 For the first "Future Worlds Concept I took the idealistic Utopia we all know and love, and added a dual-nature to it. Technology has advanced, but we remain divided on the method of execution. On the right of this Neotropolis we have those who prefer a more rigid approach to their method of execution, being extremely precise and very direct with their approach. On the left, the approach is more organic, with the buildings taking a sort of natural flow to them. I refer to this method of design as a sort of "willful segregation" where the inhabitants hold no ill will towards one another as a whole (people will always hold grudges, individual feuds are exempt) and they get along well, but each side dictates its preferred approach with the middle having a spire that fuses the two ideals together into a monumental task that seldom could hope to pull off. For Reference, I took a look at two science fiction movies in the past 20 years that I felt were underappreciated but amazing: TRON: Legacy and Tomorrowland. The cityscapes that appeared in each movie had a unique feel to them, and I chose to blend the two to create the duality of this city. The small figure of myself would appear to be in complete awe as he gazes upon this marvel, appearing as though his mind is attempting to comprehend the infinite possibilities that appear before him.

This second future is the fan-favorite post apocalyptic approach, which is the result of an as of yet undetermined disaster. I wanted the small model of myself to appear rugged, with clothes that are falling apart after years and perhaps he is clutching the Flag of the United States in on hand, as though he refuses to let go of the ideals and the way things were as he looks upon the devastation. Maybe the crisis was the result of overpopulation, overzealous leadership in one nation or another, or it could be the result of individuals making their way across the globe and systematically destabilizing entire regions through overexertion on natural resources. Whatever avenue I choose, I know that most of the destruction is the result of explosives, missile fire, or a distant nuclear bomb going off. I will most likely narrow it down as I weigh the options.

Readings Report

Tom Hagen

Nicole Miller

Art 350S

12 February 2017

Written Report of Readings

            One genre of fiction that continues to bring that childlike spark into a human’s eye is science fiction, which very much enables us to take a peek into the future and attempt to determine what will become of our society with the coming of new technology. Take, for instance, the most popular sub-genres of science fiction: Apocalyptic and Utopian. In one genre, due to the error of human ways we end up with a world that should be uninhabitable, with the ruins of human civilization dotting the landscape and in some cases, nature taking over where possible. The other scenario, which I always compare to the movie Tomorrowland, is a society that has essentially skyrocketed in its technological progress to the point that people’s lifespans are essentially indefinite, all diseases are cured instantaneously, and there is complete balance between innovation, invention, and environment. However, the three readings given to us illustrate three distinct and somewhat similar “futures” for society.

            In EM Forster’s “The Machine Stops” we have a future where nearly every aspect of human life is controlled by our various inventions. This piece when I began reading it really made me think of the movie WALL-E, where humans are confining themselves to autonomous chairs that handle every aspect of our lives. I would say this fictional future is ideal, however with increased dependence on machinery we lose vital skills that help define us as human beings, and we truly begin to lose who we are. This society to me is one I would refer to as an Automatic Dystopia, as we aren’t truly human beings but we are reliant on the preprogrammed notions of the various mechanical devices we have constructed to fulfill basic tasks.

            With “This Changes Everything,” an article written by Naomi Klein, we see a potential future that is essentially a devastated environment. Catastrophic rising in the average temperature melts the icecaps, and then most plant life goes extinct whilst humans are forced to flee inland to avoid the horrid rising sea levels. Not exactly the kind of future you hope for, but definitely a very real possibility in our modern age. In essence, this future could be attributed to a wide variety of causes, but one that I find particularly amusing is that to the planet, it sees the advancement of humanity and the growth of humankind as a sort of virus, so it is reacting much in the same way that our bodies react to a cold or flu. The planet is merely attempting to purge and wipe out this virus that threatens its existence, and to me I find that remarkable. This future that is foreseen is considered post-apocalyptic, though it is not the common nuclear war genre but merely environmental collapse.

            The Final piece of reading was called “50 years from now, what will the world be like?” This piece to me was more superficial than any others that we read, with it being more speculative than grounded in its own timeline. Most pieces of science fiction have a set timeline for themselves that explain the “current events” taking place and they tend to stick to it, whereas this one postulates multiple futures that all have different outcomes. I found it to be the weakest piece that we read, as speculation is often misleading when it comes to the truth.

            Overall, I found these readings to be rather fascinating but at the same time somewhat boring. They don’t really break out of the box on what the future could be. Most of them could technically fall under the film WALL-E, which really diminishes the impact of the stories overall. Any future worth imagining is one worth writing about, and these stories lack that spark that science fiction tends to produce.

Assignment 1

For this assignment we were instructed to create a physical representation of consumption. I chose to use a typical dinner style setting, with the clock face representing a plate and time all at once. Atop the clock face you have three modes of transportation based on how commonplace they were and how they were once the peak for that period of time. Firstly the bicycle, everyone's first wheeled transportation that is entirely dependent on the rider for propulsion. Next in line is a Volkswagen Beetle, the single most recognizable car for most of the world, and the single most produced car on earth, with the car continuously made from 1945-2003. Finally, we have a Hummer. The hummer was considered excessive when it came out, and for many if you drove one it was thought of as a form of compensation for one thing or another. Each represents a specific era and all three share a single common trait aside from the blatantly obvious: They all had use in the military. Bicycles were used by runners from the front lines to base camps very early on, Beetles were used by the Germans in WWII because of their relative ease to maintain and the fact they could tough out 99% of the terrain the battles took place on, and the Hummer is used by the US Military to this day because it is fitted with heavy steel plating on all of its sides and could technically be considered a light tank in terms of its armor classification.