Reading Response: Carl Abbot

Abbot’s text generated discussion during the tutorial in regards to how films that portray Sci-fi and the future affects its audiences. We identified the 21st century trend of more pessimistic Sci-fi films (notably Wall-E) compared to the 20th century which had more optimistic portrayals (Back to the Future). Personally dystopian future films have had a strong influence on me in terms of myself becoming more conscious of my day-to-day actions and how it affects the environment. However my prolonged exposure to these films have caused me to also become quite pessimistic about the future (I have no desire to see flying cars or Mars colonies), rather I am more interested in just ensuring the future is not horrible. We also touched on the effect of Sci-fi architecture in the 20th century on how it has inspired present day architecture.

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1 thought on “Reading Response: Carl Abbot

  1. Putri Santoso says:

    You pointed out how the future was projected differently in the 20th and 21st century. Maybe it’s also worthwhile to take a peek into the previous centuries (or decades) as well. That way, we can tap into some of the plausible reasons behind these depictions. As for Abbot’s piece, I would say what he proposed in the article was “what-if scenarios”. What if the cities are moving? How would they move and organise themselves? Maybe, what he was trying to do is providing a platform for planners and theorists to rethink the cities (as he mentioned in the last sentences of his article). That way, he was taking the imaginative writing to spatial discourse.

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