Speculative Fictions

Fantasy, Sci-fi, Song, Film and more

[thefutureisoursart]

WELCOME

Welcome to the corner of the internet dedicated to ART4118 and a curated discussion of speculative fiction!

Subtopics that are explored here are:

Gender, Gender roles, and Queerness.

Post-human interactions.

Dystopia, Utopias, and Fantasy settings.

These are showcased in film and television, novels, video games, and music!

Enjoy your stay, just don't forget to wipe your feet on the digital doormat ☺

[thefutureisoursart]

Bibliography

Conrad, Dean. “Archive: Femmes Futures : One Hundred Years of Female Representation in Sf Cinema.” Science Fiction Film and Television 4, no. 1 (2011): 79–100. https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2011.5.

Dahms, Harry F. “Science-Fiction Films and ‘Love’: Toward a Critique of Regressive Social       Relations.” Soundings (Nashville, Tenn.) 103, no. 2 (2020): 121–57.       https://doi.org/10.5325/SOUNDINGS.103.2.0121.

Ferrando, Francesca. “A Feminist Genealogy of Posthuman Aesthetics in the Visual         Arts.” Palgrave Communications 2, no. 1 (2016).             https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2016.11.

Gibson, Rebecca. “More Than Merely Human: How Science Fiction Pop-Culture Influences Our             Desires for the Cybernetic.” Sexuality & Culture 21, no. 1 (2017): 224–46.      https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-016-9391-9. 

Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism In the Late Twentieth Century .” https://uottawa.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/388182/viewContent/5529738/View, n.d. 

Imarisha, Walidah. “Introduction.”https://uottawa.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/388182/viewContent/5529731/View, n.d. 

McMains, Juliet. “Queer Tango Space: Minority Stress, Sexual Potentiality, and Gender                           Utopias.” TDR : Drama Review 62, no. 2 (2018): 59–77.                                    https://doi.org/10.1162/DRAM_a_00748. 

Perea, Katia. “Touching Queerness in Disney Films Dumbo and Lilo & Stitch.” Social Sciences (Basel) 7, no. 11 (2018): 225-. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7110225. 

Yeung, Sarah. “Becoming Posthuman in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’: Exploring 

Cinematic Mediations of Memory and Technology.” Limina: A Journal of Historical and             Cultural Studies 26, no. 1 (2020): 13–25. 

[junkfoodcinemas]

Prey (2022) dir. Dan Trachtenberg

[thefutureisoursart]

Prey is an instalment in the Predator franchise. It takes place during the 1700s and while it is a movie about a supernatural creature it is set against the backdrop of colonization. The films protagonist is a strong female lead who saves her home uses the intruders weapon against him.

[movie-gifs]

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ‘風の谷のナウシカ’ 1984, dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[thefutureisoursart]

Nausicaä is a female protagonist in a future that has fallen victim to ecological disaster. She is gentle with the creatures and she uses her skills save herself, others, and her home. Her ability to use a glider is an extension of herself and without it there would be no chance for the people in the Valley of the Wind.

[midnightmurdershow]

The Shape of Water (2017) Directed by Guillermo del Toro

[thefutureisoursart]

Shape of Water follows the story of Elisa and the creature that is known as "the asset" as the two find love and understanding with each other. Elisa is a mute woman and they fall for each other by being in each other's company.

[wanderer-chronicles]

[thefutureisoursart]

Released in 1988 the Talking Heads paint a picture of a world where the earth has been taken over by plants once again. It questions whether it's paradise or not.

[thoughtportal]

quick reminder every dystopian novel is about the present. they are not predictions of the future. they are critiques of the now.

[thefutureisoursart]

This video is an example of how the present is someone's version of a dystopia. Although this is a general reminder it can be likened to the ideas of Indigenous futurism and how for some they have already lived through the apocalypse and that "apocalypse is grounded in historical reality and not fictional narrative" (Mathias Nilges). Likened but not taking away from it, the history that is taking place right now is the same system that is critiqued through SF.

[thefutureisoursart]

[skyozlem]

[thefutureisoursart]

San Junipero is the fourth episode of the third season of the popular show Black Mirror which is made to be a critique of the technology that is already present in our society. The show has a very bleak nature but thankfully, the creators allowed a happy ending for the couple shown in the fan made poster. The two women are allowed to be together by uploading their conciseness to a server where they can be forever young and in love. Relating back to the ideas present in the introduction to Cruising Utopia the couple has   hope for their future together.

[arcadebroke]

[thefutureisoursart]

This montage is collected from scenes of Ghost in The Shell (1995) and the connection to the cyborg entity. The images show the intertwining of the human and technology.

"Cyborg imagery can suggest a way out of the maze of dualisms in which we have explained our bodies and our tools to ourselves."

[thefutureisoursart]

Jakub Rozalski

howling at the moon

Jakub Rozalski is a futurist artist who appears to be interested in darker themes of SF.

[thefutureisoursart]

Gallery | Official Syd Mead Website 2023

Syd Mead (1933-2019) was a concept artist who is known for his work on SF films such as Blade Runner, Alien, and Tron.

[thefutureisoursart]

The Art of Ian McQue

Enjoy The Art of Ian McQue, a concept artist and illustrator. He spent over 20 years in the video game industry as lead concept artist and a

[thefutureisoursart]

Simon Stalenhag is a concept artist. His work is bleak but there is a warmth present despite it. In the image below it can be seen as a pair walks past what can presumed to be a pile of bodies in black bags. The height differences seem to indicate a relationship between an older person and a child. If this is true and there is a love of sorts between the two it can be related to the text of Harry Dahms and the notion that "love serves as a reference point for emphasizing how in modern societies, at the individual level, committing and contributing to the emergence of a qualitatively different system of social relations is an imminent necessity for the future to have the potential of being more than a mere continuation of patterns that have been defining our past and present." (Dahms 144)

[kammartinez]

Taika Waititi to direct Klara and the Sun adaptation

Taika Waititi to direct adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's New York Times best-selling novel Klara and the Sun for Sony's 3000 Pictures.

[thefutureisoursart]

Director Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder) is set to direct the film adaption of Klara and the Sun. The text follows the story of the AI friend Klara and Josie who faces an illness due to be genetically modified in order to be more intelligent.

[teethhavewords]

Each one of us had been promised our turn, and each of us longed for it to come. That was partly to do with what Manager called the ‘special honor’ of representing the store to the outside. Also, of course, whatever Manager said, we all knew we were more likely to be chosen while in the window. But the big thing, silently understood by us all, was the Sun and his nourishment.

- Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as candymaker Willy Wonka

[thefutureisoursart]

Dystopia and Utopia (depends on whose POV we're looking through). Wonka creates a "world of imagination" and the children are shown fantastical advancements made in candy making technology.