[READING RESPONSE] Carl Abbott

After reading this chapter, I was really obsessed with different cities introduced in science fiction. The author linked these imagined cities to cities in reality, and it reveals the prototypes of future cities to help us further understand them as well. One type of city is really interesting named Distributed City. It means cities are physically separate but cities still cooperate. There is no any typical distributed city in the real world, but Global City is similar to it with global economy help. Nowadays, geographical boundaries may become unnecessary due to the emergence of advanced transportation and internet. Therefore, cities

Continue reading[READING RESPONSE] Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

Carl Abbott depicts the futuristic cities observed in fiction as “Migratory Cities”1. Variations of these include the Hunter-Gatherers, Riding Rails and Distributed Cities which serve as superficial locations and worlds to enhance the narrative or atmosphere of a film. Particularly through the Riding Rails concept, it reveals despite how advanced or innovative these cities are, there are still underlining disparities and equality in the population. Snowpiercer (2013) explores the poor faction in a circumnavigational train (The Snowpiercer) supporting the last vestiges of humanity. The poor initiates an uprising aiming to take control of the train. Through the exploration of each

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

From “Walking city”–a huge and self-sufficient mini-city that looks like a combination of giant construction cranes, robots and praying mantises,published by British architect Ron Herron,to a migrating city that can move in the ground in Flood which published by Stephen Baxter,these cities are the result of the authors’ imaginings of the cities of the future based on the issues facing their time and their own insights(Abbott, C.2016).Many times there is something behind science fiction that allows readers or audiences to connect. For example, trains are often regarded as a bridge between the future and the present (Abbott, C.2016). Distributed cities

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

The idea of cities on the move is an interesting trope we often see in sci-fi films. As described in the reading, migratory cities, or distributed cities specifically, simultaneously highlight the specialization and interaction of the urban city. It is an excellent media that allows the creators to magnify and display in-depth a specific phenomenon in real life, be it social stratification in Snowpiercer, or the endurance of humanity shown with the Cooper Station in Interstellar being so strong that even a deadly blight on earth is not enough to kill us off. Migratory cities are always on the move,

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

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

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

This article discusses one of the future cities shown in science fiction films—”migrant city”. Migrant cities have been given a certain degree of “life” by science fiction writers, allowing them to fly, walk, float or even merge with surrounding places as live things. In science fiction, migrant cities always seem to assume the role of collapse, escape or resistance. Indeed, science fiction films provide audiences with the ultimate sensory experience through their stunning visual effects and unfettered plots, but all kinds of crises in the film point back to our real world. The future city is the product of the

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In the reading piece migartory city,the most significant difference between city in real life and the scifi-city is that the migartory cities are not considering enough real life problems. A city in real life needs to consider energy, water and other problems, as a stationary city it is quite easy to get consistent souces. But in the passage, the migartory city can move with huge legs, wheels, and even monsters leading the city. Therefore in conclusion, real life city needs to consider many aspects, city in scifi-novels ignores many physical principals and other problems. It only focus on maybe one

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In science fiction, cities always seem to collapse, be fled, and be rebelled. However, when the author looked at the various forms of the future city, he talked about the possible crisis. I was gradually attracted by this diverse and heterogeneous civilization form, where things and ideas are constantly declining and collapsing, and new knowledge and creation are continually being born. In this chapter, the author mentioned the migratory city, which can also relate to our urban trends. He takes New York as an example, a big migrant city containing lots of migratory workers and hobos. Due to that situation,

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In science fiction films, there are many so-called “migratory cities,” which are the cities that can move from place to place. For example, some utilize extensible legs to walk, change their town to an airship, and use trains on the wheel. These migratory cities are not just for fun but also educational purposes. The main objective may be appealing to people to protect the environment since people choose to migrate their city to avoid environmental disasters and massive tectonic disruptions in the SCI-FI film. Besides, there are evident classic divisions, such as the elite living at the top of the

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In this article, the author gives an illusion of migratory cities in different appearances and features. These urban models are fairly popular in the science fictions. Indeed, the concept itself is appealing and novel enough. However, we can find some similarities to our own history.  Always under migration, seeking better resource and living condition, such pattern conforms the development of human civilization. Under certain contradictions, our forefathers chose to return to the road of  abandon and resettling.  For herdsmen who leave their former colony or foreign immigrants arrives in a new nation,they are always migratory people with migratory civilization. While

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