Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

Science fiction creates anxieties because the futuristic unknown worlds are an amalgam of otherworld images with familiar disquietudes. According to Telotte (1983), sci-fi imagery questions the perception of the everyday. According to Lefebvre, the everyday is an important theoretical tool to examine continuities through interweaving spatial scales and experiences. This paper aims to investigate through sci-fi imagery the scales of the dichotomous conceptions of urban and rural space, using as case studies animation series, Love, Death and Robots. The anthology series applies a variety of techniques to visualise stories from established sci-fi authors and a rich palette of spatial (cosmological, metropolitan, urban, rural and natural) and cultural (western and oriental) contexts. The spatial analysis looks at the shorts as representations of space, their links to reality and how they affect on the perception of space. A key theme that emerges is the generation of different types of generic cities by the animators in relation to the expansion of the city and colonization of nature as a mode of capital surplus. In this context, the characters perform different spatial practices which aim to create familiarity and at the same time question everyday activities. This also highlights the role of the body in sci-fi and how they are presented as trapped in these cities and forced to follow the a paradigm of regeneration and entrepreneurial novelty. Finally, the series’ bleak narratives are manifestations of the inability to explore Lefebvre’s right to the city and reduce the possible revolution to the gratification of revenge. Deliberately or unintentionally, Love Death Robots create future cities based on past and current urban challenges, where the characters are seekings for gratifications but, despite the temporal distraction, they remain trapped within a homogenised imaginary that cannot envision any alternatives.