tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post116339794681180530..comments2024-01-06T03:54:46.267-05:00Comments on the sceptical futuryst: Death of a PresidentStuart Candyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-1163486205158570432006-11-14T01:36:00.000-05:002006-11-14T01:36:00.000-05:00Many thanks for raising an interesting point.If I ...Many thanks for raising an interesting point.<BR/><BR/>If I can qualify my statement, in the light of your helpful observation, it does indeed seem that any <I>story</I> -- but not, I think, any <I>creative endeavour</I> more broadly -- is a thought experiment in the sense I have in mind. Stories depict events unfolding in sequence. Painting, single-panel drawing, sculpture and still photography (for instance) do not have this quality; whereas film and television, stage plays including opera and ballet, and literary fiction do.<BR/><BR/>I make this distinction because story engages a temporal dimension. The "what if" is followed by some kind of answer for our contemplation ("then this would happen"). So, although perhaps not unique in this regard, audio-visual storytelling is in my view uniquely powerful, because it's accessible (meaning easy to absorb), and offers the same story to each viewer, therefore serving as a collective reservoir of "images of the future", with resonance at both conscious and unconscious levels. Small wonder, then, if massive asteroids hitting earth, killer-virus pandemics, and mutant science experiments wreaking havoc on shrieking New Yorkers are scenarios more readily imagined for many of us than ending poverty, peacefully dismantling the world's militaries, or holding a corporation-free summer Olympics in West Africa. The former stories have been imagined for us dozens of times; while these other tales don't typically make it to the multiplexes.<BR/><BR/>The main insight is not the specialness of film per se (as you point out), but as follows: We can regard stories set in the future as thought experiments -- albeit with some fitting that analytical frame better than others -- and talk about them on that basis. How plausible is this future; how organic or contrived? What assumptions underpin the actions of this party, or that one? For whom, and in what ways, might this be a desirable scenario? And what, if anything, might we like to do about it?<BR/><BR/>It seems to me the way our storytelling media are used, and the sorts of images of the future that they offer, and the kind and degree of critical scrutiny they meet (or not) are important indicators of a culture's attitudes towards, and prospects for, "the future". For with images of the future we get back to the bread and butter of futures studies. Consider Fred Polak's <I>The Image of the Future</I> (01973, trans. Elise Boulding). "The general character and quality of the images of the future which prevail in a society" are, says Kenneth Boulding in the foreword, "the most important clue to its overall dynamics. The individual's image of the future is likewise the most significant determinant of his personal behavior."<BR/><BR/>I am suggesting that we need to look carefully at the images of the future we're offered; and when they are withheld, ridiculed or deemed inappropriate, ask why; and ultimately generate and find compelling ways to describe and discuss our own preferred alternatives. We need, in other words, to run many more of our own thought experiments, and then enact the most promising ones in our lives. And not to be too cute about it, but my basic interest is just this: how can we bring futures to life?<BR/><BR/>Back to the original point, then. Creativity does involve a "what if"; so too does inventing a preferred future (it's a question we ask many times over). Filmmaking, to my mind, simply offers one of the best ways to broaden participation in that discussion -- but any way people do it is fine with me. <I>Death of a President: The Ballet</I> could be just the ticket.Stuart Candyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-1163479838598753292006-11-13T23:50:00.000-05:002006-11-13T23:50:00.000-05:00Hi, I was provoked by the "thought experiment" des...Hi, I was provoked by the "thought experiment" description of film. It does seem that almost any creative pursuit can be classified as a gedanken experiment. In that case, it is not clear if such a description sheds any particular light on film-making that is not at the same time shed on literary fiction, ballet, opera, painting etc. <BR/><BR/>It would seem then that all you are saying is that film-making is "something creative" as creativity necessarily involves a "what if" question.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com