Category: Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes

Cat Links Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes, Lecture 8: Sci-fi Technologies

[Reading Response: Carl Abbott]

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Carl Abbott discussed imaginary cities in science fiction. Due to issues like resources shortage, environmental degradation, and so on. The residents of these cities had to create a new way of life for survival, which is called “ migratory cities” by the author. Their cities can move, walk, or fly. The imaginary cities can reflect some social reality. Some movies are an indication of environmental worries in society because these cities are usually forced by environmental issues to wander. Some movies meanwhile reveal class issues and the darkness inside humans. For example, a movie mentioned by the author told a

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Cat Links Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes

Reading Response: Christine Boyer

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In The imagery real world of cybercities, the author has mentioned: “Cybercity narrate the dematerialization of physical space and chronological time.” This line has gotten me to brainstorm further regarding “materials” in such cyberworld. Technology advancement in virtual reality created such imagery cyber world for users to immerse in which has reduced the users’ awareness towards actual space and time. In movie the philosophers, the director has illustrated such cyber virtual world for the users to conduct several experiments in. While they are in the virtual world, the importance of the physical space and time has significantly decreased. This cyber

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Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[READING RESPONSE] Christine Boyer

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The article mainly talks about the world of CyberCities. It describes a city that is filled with networks and telecommunication that counters urban isolation. The modern, disciplinary societies are replaced by numerical one. Yet it also makes people lose their humanity and become indifferent. It really horrifies me that the world will end up as a continuum, or a utopia, where emotionless machines work day after day with high efficiency. Also, the article also describes a city of artifice, that artifice can become a “spot of time”. As said in the article, in the 60s of Las Vegas, the architecture

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Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[READING RESPONSE] CARL ABBOTT

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The article analyses a few assumptions on ‘migratory cities’ proposed in science fiction and science fiction films, which explore the pattern of future urban development and the social development of human beings. The concept of a city on the move sounds interesting at first; however, it turns out that people are forced to migrate because of ecological damage and resource shortage. A point in the article that touches me significantly is that citizens in Terminator, a rolling city, enjoy a lifestyle similar to the present one. Hence to some extent, these works serve as a reminder for today’s people. Furthermore,

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Cat Links Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes, Lecture 8: Sci-fi Technologies

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

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In the Reading, the walking city was defined as a self-contained giant machine, it reminds me of the film Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) by Miyazaki Hayao. There was a saying by Le Corbusier, “A house is a machine for living in”. In Howl’s castle, there is a heart burning in the fireplace to provide energy for everything in the castle, including the electricity, movement of the house and the house owner’s life. Like Wang Kar Wai’s films, the castle expresses the owner Howl’s inside world through the behaviour of the house. In the highly stressed cities, we may want to

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Cat Links 2020 Spring, 2021 Blog, 2022 Blog, Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes, Lecture 8 Sci-fi Technoscapes, Lecture 8: Sci-fi Technologies

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

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In Abbott’s interpretation of migratory cities, unlike how cities are in real life and viewed as a static entities, in-universe such as in science fiction, it is very mobile. It could travel move and rotate in all kinds of ways and forms, which the train in snowpiercer resembles, as while the space itself is static, the location is constantly on the move. This concept of the migratory or mobile city is actually more present in reality than expected. While it is not as cybernetic or has fancy visuals (cg) in real life, with constant movement from people from different backgrounds

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Cat Links 2022 Blog, Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[READING RESPONSE] William M. Tsutsui

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The article dives deep into the relationship between Japan’s disasters and their portrayal in cinema.  For starters, the author listed different perspectives of presenting disaster on the big screen.  One presents natural disaster and war as dark and gritty as they actually are; one presents them in a light-hearted way; and of course, there is also one that aims to strike the balance between the two.  I believe that there is no right or wrong here.   The methodology chosen should entirely depend on the message that the film aims to convey.  Cinema is supposed to be limitless.  The idea and

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Cat Links Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes, Uncategorized

READING RESPONSE: Prakash, Gyan

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Tokyo has a history of 500 years. During this short time, the city that has been destroyed and rebuilt in almost every century of its existence. The city has been ravaged by atomic bombs and fire. Tokyo is now a symbol of technological advance and order. The sterile yet bustling creative city seems like an anachronism in its paradoxy. Japanese art is distinguished from other nations art. There is a theme of violence and monster- as seen in mangas, anime, and paintings. Murakami Takashi, a Japanese sociologist explains this phenomena. Art is often a reflection of society, and the art

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Cat Links 2021 Blog, Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

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The idea of a migratory or mobile city is commonly used in science fiction. There are various kinds of migratory cities, which Carl Abbott explains with examples from various films. Abbott explains the plot of the films and how these cities came to exist in the stories. I learned a lot and agree with him on most of the points he makes about different types of migratory cities. However, I partially disagree with him when he discusses the Snowpiercer. He discusses how it lacks interaction with the outer world and is too small. While I agree that the train lacks

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Cat Links 2021 Blog, Lecture 8 Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[Reading Response] M. Christine Boyer

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Boyer has mentioned the point of CyberCities, how different aspects of cities are being replaced and controlled by computer technology, and I think this is becoming the new reality day by day. Like the argument mentioned in the reading, “electronic telecommunications have so reformulated our perception of space and time that we experience a loss of spatial boundaries, of spacial distinctions.”, since the beginning of the pandemic, our normal lives have been moved online and became virtual. People were used to going to school or to work or to gatherings in person, but because of the virus, people were forced

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