Writing Other Futures: A Conversation about Science Fiction

Abstract

<p>CentraI to The Other Trans-Atlantic is the contention that kinetic art was a species of realism, reflecting the new socioeconomic realities emerging in the geographies considered by our project. In seeking to test the hypothesis that the pervasive curiosity, if not enthusiasm, for science and technology, as refracted through the lens of innovative artistic practices, led to the embrace of optical and kinetic forms, we,the editors, wondered if we might find correlating interests in other artistic languages and cultural forms. In trying to understand the way in which these forces (industrialization, scientific discovery, etc) changed everyday life and therefore shaped visual culture, we happened"pan two books, We Modern People: Science Fiction and the Making of Russian Modernity by Anindita Banerjee and The Emergence of Lain American Science Fiction by Rachel Haywood Ferreira. It became clear that kinetic and Op artists were applying in the visual field what Science fiction writers were doing in the literary field, namely reflecting the present and imagining the future. We invited Banerjee and Rachel Haywood-Ferreira to help us understand the complexities of the cultural moment using science fiction as a lens.-Eds.</p>