Tag: science & technology
0808 – Gravity (2013)
timespace coordinates: Earth orbit, mission STS-157 to service the Hubble Space Telescope in the not too distant past
Gravity is a 2013 science fiction thriller film directed, co-written, co-edited, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as American astronauts who are stranded in space after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle, and their subsequent attempt to return to Earth.
Visual effects company Framestore spent more than three years creating most of the film’s visual effects, which make up over 80 of its 91 minutes. (wiki)
Although Gravity is often referred to in the media as a science fiction film, Cuarón told BBC that he sees the film rather as “a drama of a woman in space”. According to him, the main theme of the film was “adversity” and he uses the debris as a metaphor for this. Despite being set in space, the film uses motifs from shipwreck and wilderness survival stories about psychological change and resilience in the aftermath of a catastrophe. (read more: Themes)
807 – Mercury 13 (2018 documentary)
Mercury 13 is a remarkable story of the women who were tested for spaceflight in 1961 before their dreams were dashed in being the first to make the trip beyond Earth. NASA’s ‘man in space’ program, dubbed ‘Project Mercury‘ began in 1958. The men chosen – all military test pilots – became known as The Mercury 7. But away from the glare of the media, behind firmly closed doors, female pilots were also screened. Thirteen of them passed and, in some cases, performed better than the men. They were called the Mercury 13 and had the ‘right stuff’ but were, unfortunately, the wrong gender. Underneath the obsession of the space race that gripped America, the women were aviation pioneers who emerged thirsty for a new frontier, but whose time would have to wait. The film tells the definitive story of thirteen truly remarkable women who reached for the stars but were ahead of their time. A Netflix original documentary directed by David Sington and Heather Walsh. (rottentomatoes)
806
“Hardware and software is culturally biased. Robotic epistemologies are caught in a 500-year bubble, a particular way of looking at the world,” Lewis says. “It gave us some good things, but it also gave us colonialism, slavery, and sustained environmental degradation. Do we really want those biases trained into future technologies and A.I.?”
Indigenous peoples are decolonizing virtual worlds
805 – Spectral (2016)
timespace coordinates: near-future Chișinău, Moldova
Spectral is an American military science fiction action film directed by Nic Mathieu. The screenplay was written by Ian Fried, Mathieu and George Nolfi from a screen story by Fried. The film stars James Badge Dale, Max Martini, Emily Mortimer, and Bruce Greenwood. Described as a supernatural Black Hawk Down, Spectral centers on a special-ops team dispatched to fight supernatural beings who have taken over a European city. (wiki)
imdb / http://conceptartworld.com/news/spectral-concept-art-andrew-leung/
0804 – Frequencies (2013)
Frequencies, also known as OXV: The Manual, is a 2013 independent British science fiction romance film written and directed by Darren Paul Fisher. The film stars Daniel Fraser, Eleanor Wyld, and Owen Pugh. The film takes place in a world where human worth and emotional connections are determined by set “frequencies”. (wiki)
0803 – Sorry to Bother You (2018)
timespace coordinates: alternative present-day version of Oakland, California
Sorry to Bother You is a 2018 American absurdist dark comedy with aspects of magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing written and directed by Boots Riley, in his directorial debut. It stars Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer.
Capitalism
Boots has maintained that the film offers a radical class analysis of capitalism, rather than a specific analysis of America under President Trump, clarifying that he wrote the initial screenplay during the Obama administration, and that the target was never any specific elected official or movement, but rather a broader look at “the puppetmasters behind the puppets.” While the majority of the final script remained the same, minimal changes were made prior to shooting in order to avoid the film appearing to be a critique of Trump specifically, including removing a line where a character says “Worry Free is making America great again,” written before Trump would use the line in his 2016 presidential campaign.
False consciousness
The title of the film has a double meaning, referencing both the phrase’s use by telemarketers and its general usage when telling a person something you know they might not like to hear, such as the Communist themes present in the film. According to Boots, “…the other side of it is, is that often when you’re telling someone something that is different from how they view things, different from how they view the world, it feels like an annoyance or a bother. And that’s where that comes from.” The theme of the strike was used to reflect the need to “organize people in the workplace” and for workers to recognize their power. When asked on his choice to cast Armie Hammer as Steve Lift, Boots stated that Armie was a “lovable dude,” whose casting reflects the current state of “new capitalism,” where the realities of working conditions are hidden, referencing lines such as “I’m not your boss, I’m your friend.” (wiki)
TimeSpace Warps 