Addressing the Future with Data Visualization in Science Fiction Films: Dystopia or Utopia

Al-Mamori Yasir Khudeir Obid Postgraduate student, Department of Cultural Studies and Design, Altai State University 656011, Russia, Altaiskii krai, g. Barnaul, ul. Chervonnya, 5 yasiral-mamori@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Dreams of an ideal society, called utopia, and its negative counterpart, dystopia, are very fascinating topics for the literary imagination, which at the same time are reflected on the screen in science fiction films.

To date, there is no precise definition of dystopia and utopia in cinema, although it is believed that these genres of cinematography include films in a futuristic setting with a moral message or criticism of society ^[1]. Since the 2000s, after a period of calm, a large number of science fiction films have reappeared on the screens, and this trend continues to the present.

Since the beginning of the XXI century, there has been a shift in science fiction cinema compared to the last century. The films became futuristic stories with various moral and critical remarks, such as criticism of technology, ecology, reality television and the frequent use of female characters, as well as excessive violence ^[2]. In addition, the new target audience of these films is young people. It seems that the indicated shift began with an Avatar (Cameron, 2004), which broadcast criticism of modern society, showing dystopia in the narrative, depicting utopia at the same time. And since then, considerable research interest has focused on the analysis of visual effects in utopias and dystopias.

There is no doubt that the shift in sci-fi cinema has become possible thanks to new technological capabilities that make it possible to create alternative and plausible worlds. This made the films of the XXI century more spectacular, which in general created a place for active spectator perception, as a result of which films of this genre in the XXI century are noted for high success ^[3]. Sci-fi cinema has become a mixture that creates another world with the help of special effects, emphasizing many themes and hidden ideas, while depicting a fairy tale. Due to various genre conventions, viewers today expect an "update of ordinary reality" and a visualized spectacle ^[4]. And this is not an accident, because unlike literature: visual effects have a natural primacy, visual images allow you to more vividly and realistically represent powerful symbols and the gloomy atmosphere of future societies that are under threat.

Thus, the circumstances outlined above predetermined the choice of the topic of this article, and are also proof of its relevance at the present time.

The works of such scientists as Vlaznyuk N.I., Evallier V.D., Kosinova M.I., Samoryadova Ya.I., Muqun Niu, Stephen Prince, Whissel, K., Floquet Pierre, Venkatasawmy Rama are devoted to the study of the significance of visual effects for the image of an illusory, fantastic world.

Markov A.V., Andreeva A.I., Konarev M.V., Lisa; Loock, Kathleen; Lisa Bode devoted their works to identifying the features of the representation of the future in cinema art from the point of view of the philosophical and cultural aspect.

A number of critical points concerning the use of special effects in science fiction films, which lead to the impoverishment of their narrative and depth, can be found in the works of Malenko S.A., Nekita A.G., Afanasyev G.I., Shubnikova M.V., Daigle, Allain; Christie, Ian; Dan North.

Thus, the analysis of specialized literature, scientific articles by domestic and foreign authors allows us to conclude that visual effects, computer graphics today have penetrated deeply into the bowels of modern cinema and have become an integral part of it.

However, despite the available publications and the interest of scientists in visual effects in cinema, modern literature lacks a thorough study of the techniques of creating entertainment in science fiction films, a review of the methods by which the expressiveness of the future is achieved deserves special attention and study.

In addition, additional research is needed to identify the possibilities of interaction between traditional methods and computer-generated models in order to create a single creative integrity of fantasy films.

Thus, taking into account the above, the purpose of the article is to consider the features of addressing the future using visualization on the example of dystopias and utopias.

So, sci-fi movies have always relied on visual effects to tell the viewer their stories. Even before the success of Star Wars in 1977, outstanding visual effects were a crucial factor in the perception of these cinematic products. Often the best science fiction films also included expressive and memorable musical scores. Impressions from such films as "The Day the Earth Stopped", "Forbidden Planet", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Blade Runner" are largely determined by the characteristic visual effects and music that accompanied each film.

Like the science fiction literature that inspires them, most films of this genre contain imaginary technology that has at least some basis, albeit fragile, in the real world of science. Extrapolating this science, authors and directors can invent completely new worlds or assume new conditions in our world, while maintaining a certain degree of plausibility ^[5].

Science fiction films often look at the future in their own way, creating their own versions of the universe that correspond to the story they want to tell. When these films focus on the future of Earth, they often have only two options - whether their version of Earth will be a utopian paradise or a dystopian wasteland. The dystopian perspective gives many directors creative freedom to create their own dark film, playing up the decline of society as we know it, and creating hopeless conditions for the characters. In the case of utopia, it is more difficult to come up with a supposedly ideal society in which there will still be enough drama or excitement for a good story.

According to the author, modern technologies and the possibilities of creating visual effects have changed the film industry, as a result of which it has strengthened the genre convergence of utopian and dystopian film products, which in turn has allowed creating plausible worlds so that science fiction films are perceived in a more immersive way. Kristen Whissel sees this opportunity as an extension of the real world, where special effects tend to go beyond entertainment ^[6]. Today's digital technologies are able to create an image that makes unreal worlds as realistic as possible. Consequently, advanced technologies transform the imaginary world on the screen into a plausible reality for the viewer ^[7].

Futuristic and unreal worlds in sci-fi cinema are made believable by visual effects, as the viewer is immersed in the spectacle on the screen. The French film theorist Christian Metz (1977) calls this "deception" and explains it by the fact that the viewer is manipulated by visual elements; unreality becomes convincing for him, due to the fact that he accepts these plausible images ^[8].

Let's look at concrete examples of how the visualization of the future takes place in dystopian and utopian films.

So, the most commonly used technique in science fiction films is "brutalist architecture", which is often associated with a dystopian or utopian future, regardless of the year in which the film was shot. Starting from "Clockwork Orange" in 1971 and up to "Blade Runner 2049" in 2017, the visual image and aesthetics remain virtually unchanged.

"Brutalist architecture" and the brutalist movement is an architectural style that flourished from the 1950s to the 1970s. The word comes from the French word "B?ton brut", which translates as "raw concrete" and indicates open concrete structures as the main component of brutalist architecture ^[9].

Brutalist architecture often plays an important role in depicting the headquarters of oppressive regimes or a cold and sterile environment in areas of decline or in problem areas, which makes it possible to associate with poorly maintained and maintained buildings.

Brutalism is really the future architecture of an undesirable society. This idea originated from the concept of utopia, which refers to an ideal society where all people are at peace. There is no suffering, and, of course, a utopian society will never become a reality. That's why the human imagination leads to the opposite, dystopian world. In particular, the idea of a dystopian society was first introduced by John Stuart Mill in 1868 ^[10]. Since then, the film industry has released several dystopian futuristic films. And, as mentioned earlier, most of the buildings in this story tend to use brutalist architectural styles.

As an example, we can cite the previously mentioned, classic Stanley Kubrick film – "A Clockwork Orange" (see Fig. 1).

The film uses disturbing, violent images of brutal architecture to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs and other social, political and economic themes in the dystopian Britain of the near future. The Thamesmead Estate serves several times as a backdrop against which numerous crimes take place (see Figure 1).

Fig. 1 Thamesmead Estate/Southmere Lake

As another example, the film "Blade Runner 2049" is an American science fiction product in the neo-noir style, which is a sequel to the 1982 film "Blade Runner". The film takes place thirty years after the events of the first film, the architecture and scenery of the film are largely based on the brutalist architecture of London, but in a futuristic and creepy setting (see Figure 2).

Fig. 2 A frame from the movie "Blade Runner 2049"

Special attention should be paid to films in which, thanks to the appeal to the future with the help of data visualization, success is achieved due to the simultaneous fusion of utopia and dystopia. For example, films such as "Elysium" or "The Maze Runner" show that poor and less fortunate people live in the wastelands of the Earth, trying to survive on their own, while the rich and well-off are in bright shining utopian cities, closed from the problems of the rest of the world.

Let's look at a few more ways to visualize the future in science fiction films.

Of course, the image of cities deserves special attention, which can serve as scenery or plot material for history, or thanks to them, concerns about decline, degeneration and danger in the public sphere are voiced. The City of the Future has always been and remains a popular topic for thought experiments in science fiction films, which brought screenwriters to the extreme limits, both conceptually and in terms of how urban space is depicted.

Increasingly, urban space in science fiction seems not only gloomy, but also bottomless and, in various senses, incomprehensible. For example, in mid-XXIII New York in the dystopian film "The Fifth Element" (1991), the main character is literally in the air: he is a taxi driver in a car, vulnerable from above and below (Fig. 3), the heroine, jumping from a building, the top and bottom of which disappear into invisibility, falls through the roof to the back seat.

Fig. 3 New York in 2259, the bottomless city canyon

Various depictions of cities of the future in science fiction films can be interpreted as "utopian comments on the hopes and failures of today or, conversely, dystopian proposals, implicit criticism of modern urban life and the economic system that generates it" ^[11]. In fact, there are a number of iconographic motifs associated with well-known utopian visions, which are often quoted in the genre of future noir, but with irony. In general, the films of the future noir rely on the stock of common cultural images of progress in the construction environment and quote them. At the same time, the films express a significant loss of faith in the idealism from which these images originated.

The image of a famous city, in which there are easily distinguishable parts of today's urban landscape, while other parts are remade, is one of the most distinctive features of the science fiction genre.

In films such as F.V. Murnau's The Last Man, Joe May's Asphalt, or F. Lang's Metropolis, impending or distant visions of cities and their architecture are presented as busy urban centers with bustling traffic, neon lights and bright shop windows, or as dystopian projections of the future Metropolis (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 Night on the streets of Metropolis (1927).

Thus, summing up, we note that the breadth of utopian and dystopian films is diverse and quite extensive, but they use the same visual techniques to tell the story, which allow you to visualize the future. This, for example, can be brutalist architecture or the creation of an image of a future city.

In science fiction cinema, the visualization of the future within the framework of utopias and dystopias makes it possible to invariably evoke cultural meanings associated, for example, with scientific progress, the decline of cities, the nuclear holocaust, social degradation and other problems.