A city is characterized not only by existence of a population, but the specialization and interaction simultaneously. Specialization may include occupation, unique culture of different groups; interactions include trade, cultural exchange and more. In this chapter, the author discussed some atypical ‘cities’ and evaluate whether they possess the elements of being one city. While ‘Earthman Come Home’ and trains failed to make the most out of the setting of moving city, it does remind me of a movie I saw that may reconcile the definition of city here. This movie is called High-Rise. People in the movie lived in a

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Millennials seldom realize why and how we are captivated to disaster films or science fiction films. The rationale behind is likely to be multi-factorial, for example we may be fascinated by the theme of warmth and comradeship in the midst of disaster. Nevertheless, hardly can we deny that our entertainment stems from special effects of building destruction and ultimate apocalypse. Though destruction scenes might be more eye catching which may stimulate a stronger sense of pleasure or satisfaction in terms of physical response, filmmakers should explore something new and unique. Is it really difficult to produce films, particularly science fiction

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In the tutorial, our discussion is led towards the repetition of cities, where urbanism has made places to gradually lose their individuality.  This reminded me of the term “cookie-cutter” architecture and people. Cookie-cutters make cookies identically shaped and sized. Cities are under a similar mindset across cities, where development, economy, trade takes up a great role, acting as the cookie cutter. Architecture and people are getting very similar to one another like the cookies. Cities have lost individuality in terms of function, buildings, and even down to human mentality, the goals and achievements people are going to pursue. Skyscrapers are

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In real life, cities are stationary. This reading portrays different versions of cities that can migrate from a number of science fictions. Authors like James Blish and Stephen Baxter set a challenge to the idea of stationary cities. I wonder whether mobile cities could be our future. Like the drawings by Ron Herron, there may be walking cities which move to unexploited lands if the local environment was heavily polluted in the future. On the other hand, mobile cities may not be possible. The writers stated that a city is both a hunter and a gatherer. A city needs an

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbot

The tutorial and the reading has explained how films portray how Tokyo has fallen into catastrophic events, destructing the city and reviving through reconstruction. The monster in movies symbolizes an event with the event’s characteristics like plants, insect and pathogens, to exaggerate the seriousness and scale of the event. Even though these are disastrous monsters (events) have destroyed the whole city, it gives itself many chances to rebuild a complete appearance for the whole Tokyo, transitioning architecture styles after periods of time, giving rise to a perverse nostalgia to citizens, allowing them to remember to seek for hope in the

Continue reading[Reading Response]: William Tsuitsui

In Chapter 3 of Imagining Urban Futures: Cities in Science Fiction and What We Might Learn From Them, the writer uses a wide range of films to illustrate different kinds of migratory cities. In those examples, cities become walkers, caravans, mantises or trains. They are competing with each other for resources, like coal or food. Some tiny and undeveloped cities will even be hunted in the competition. Several science fiction writers are reflecting social problems in their novels. For example, in the film Snowpiercer(2013), the gap between the rich and the poor, and class distinction which happened in the real world

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