Running from 28 November 2024 to 27 April 2025 at Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), The Future & Other Fictions is a brand new exhibition celebrating display screen tradition’s position in shaping a extra optimistic world.
Imagined futures are sometimes dystopian, as epitomised by George Orwell’s chilling line of dialogue in 1984: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
Contemporary science fiction is rife with such bleak photographs: consider the sea wall holding again a rising ocean in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, or the grim and gritty world of Cyberpunk 2077, the in style tabletop role-playing sport turned PC RPG, during which the solely individuals who profit from the collision between hi-tech and low-life are the ultra-rich (who in the phrases of cyberpunk progenitor William Gibson are “no longer even remotely human”).
But science fiction doesn’t should be darkish: it will probably additionally assist us think about brighter futures.
Showcasing the storytelling craft of main creatives from movie, video video games and screen-based artwork, and that includes artworks, units, props, scripts, clips, costumes and authentic design supplies, The Future & Other Fictions “reminds us that the way we imagine the future is shaped by popular film, TV shows and video games,” based on ACMI Director and CEO Seb Chan.
“Many alternative visions of the future can and do exist. From two-time Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E Carter to Italian fashion designer Alessandro Michele [or] New Zealand’s renowned special effects studio Wētā Workshop to the Pilbara’s own Love Punks. We hope that visitors leave optimistic about what might be possible – and find hope in designing the futures we need,” Chan says.
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Two model new commissions in the exhibition affirm that the future is ours to create. Queensland-based artist and DJ Hannah Brontë attracts upon her tradition with a brief movie centred on the embodiment of Country, whereas Liam Young and Ngarrindjeri, Narungga, Kaurna and Noongar actress Natasha Wanganeen (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Limbo) reimagine a world during which fossil gasoline manufacturing has ceased, and communities return to rebuild the panorama.
Other exhibition highlights embrace Academy Award-winning costumes from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Icelandic musician Björk’s otherworldly robe from music video The Gate (launched in 2017 and directed by Andrew Thomas Huang), miniature units from Blade Runner 2049, authentic sketches from futuristic First Nations comedian collection NEOMAD, idea artwork from video video games Cyberpunk 2077 and Saltsea Chronicles, and extra.
Accompanying Björk’s hanging costume from The Gate is a retrospective season of movies at ACMI Cinemas from 28 November to 16 December 2024, celebrating her many abilities as a musician, actor and creative collaborator.
Titles screened embrace folklore drama The Juniper Tree (1990), which marked Björk’s appearing debut, the Palme d’Or adorned Dancer in the Dark (2000) and her latest celebration of eukaryotic organisms in the documentary, Fungi: Web of Life (2023), which options mesmerising time-lapse footage by Stephen Axford, Patrick Hickey and Wim van Egmond.
The Future & Other Fictions is co-curated by ACMI Curator and Gunaikurnai lady Amanda Haskard, and movie director and futurist Liam Young.
Young says of the exhibition: “Storytelling and imaginary worlds can help us connect to the future on a deeper, emotional level. They can dramatise data, ideas and challenges, immersing us in the aftermath of the decisions we face today. Speculative cities can be cautionary tales, or roadmaps to a brighter future. The exhibition is an open invitation to all visitors to imagine the futures we need now.”
The Future & Other Fictions runs from 28 November 2024 to 27 April 2025 at ACMI, Melbourne.
