acchambers

Westworld: Imagined Futures and Re/imagined Pasts

Published on May 30, 2018April 3, 2020 by acchambersLeave a comment

Originally posted: January 2017

Westworld was my favourite series of 2016. It presented a rich science fiction future that managed to be fresh and exciting despite being ~~a remake~~ based upon a 1973 movie by the same title. It had and continues to have lots of opportunities for developing exciting and prescient narrative that can be explored in what I hope will be a long running series. I was mesmerised from the opening credits, which I wrote about here. Westworld played around with time and I will have to rewatch all ten episodes as I attempt to distinguish between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’, and past, present and/or future. Continue reading “Westworld: Imagined Futures and Re/imagined Pasts” →

Science & Future World Building in Westworld’s Credit Sequence

Published on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambersLeave a comment

Originally posted: October 2016

Westworld finally got its UK premier last night. It seemed like an eternity between the US release and our chance to explore, and I successfully navigated the minefield of avoiding spoilers and opinions on the first episode that might interfere with my own initial response (and enjoyment). The first episode wasn’t perfect – I wanted more, but it was necessary to give over time and space for worldbuilding (both the Western theme-park and the futuristic workplace) and introducing the basic concept of the show. It’s based on the 1973 SF-Western movie Westworld written and directed by science fiction writer Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain, Disclosure), it was Crichton’s first foray in directing, and it famously stars Yul Brynner as a killer-robot called ‘The Gunslinger’. The film and now the HBO TV series is set in a near-future adult amusement park where the super-rich can pay ($40,000/day) for an immersive storyworld ‘holiday’ where they can do use the robots as they please to act out their wildest Wild West fantasies. Continue reading “Science & Future World Building in Westworld’s Credit Sequence” →

(Don’t) Ask a Scientist!: The Good, the Bad, and the Accuracy

Published on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambers1 Comment

Originally posted: May 2016 Frau_Im_Mond_940

At the end of March 2016 I went to my first science fiction convention: EasterCon. Also known as the British National Science Fiction Convention, now in its 67^th year, the convention is given a name that reflects its location or theme each year and for the Manchester EasterCon we had Mancunicon. The convention, which is primarily literary, was drastically different from my convention expectations of cosplayers and comic books. It was a serious and engaging event where, as a SF researcher, it was great to speak to a huge range of writers, fans, and commentators. Audience questions were perceptive and revealing and I found the entire experience very rewarding. Continue reading “(Don’t) Ask a Scientist!: The Good, the Bad, and the Accuracy” →

SF Suggestions (2016 edition)

Published on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambersLeave a comment

Originally posted: May 2016

When I started as a postdoc on the Unsettling Scientific Stories project in 2016 I was asked to produce a ‘top ten’ list of SF texts that were favourites, inspiration, and the types of works that I hoped to look at as part of the project.

This is mine: Continue reading “SF Suggestions (2016 edition)” →

Amazing Stories, Amazing Art: SF Magazine Cover Art

Published on May 30, 2018May 1, 2020 by acchambers1 Comment

Originally posted: April 2016

Screen-Shot-2016-04-13-at-13.35.53 The cover art for the Unsettling Scientific Stories project is taken from original cover art created by Arnold Kohn for the August 1947 edition of Amazing Stories (vol.21, iss.8). I proposed it as a suitable image to represent the project as it communicates the awesome power of science. The figure is both frightened and in awe of the power he holds in his hand: the potential of science, and specifically in this cover, the potential that atomic science has in the hands of humanity. Trying to find an image to represent a project that spans more than 100 years is not an easy task. But the idea that science has been looked upon, feared, respected, and misused is one that weaves its way throughout the project. Kohn’s art for Amazing Stories communicated an idea rather than a story. Unsettling Scientific Stories is of course about stories, and some very specific stories but it is also about how ideas about science were communicated through text and image. Continue reading “Amazing Stories, Amazing Art: SF Magazine Cover Art” →

You gotta make way for the Homo Superior: Mutation, Evolution, and Super Powers on Screen

Published on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambersLeave a comment

Originally posted: February 2015

: Detail from the title sequence from X-Men: First Class

Recently I went to a fascinating research seminar on the history of the theory of mass extinction and the human fears of and impact on extinction given by historian of biology, Dr David Sepkoski (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin) at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (University of Manchester). It got me thinking about not only imagined extinction in fiction (I’ve researched/written about Planet of the Apes’ and its post-human/post-apocalyptic worlds), but also about how some recent science fiction shows, predominately in the Marvel (MCU) and DC storyworlds, have drawn upon human fears of extinction and being replaced (and thus super threatened) by another human race (or more specifically, a secondarily evolving hominin species). The fear isn’t of an invading species of aliens, or the rise of intelligent apes – but a threat that is much closer to home, a threat from within human DNA (what Kirby [2007] refers to as ‘the Devil in our DNA’). Continue reading “You gotta make way for the Homo Superior: Mutation, Evolution, and Super Powers on Screen” →

The Skriker: Global Warming, Eco-fairytales, and Science on the Stage

Published on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambersLeave a comment

Originally posted: July 2015

Maxine-Peake-as-The-Skriker-Royal-Exchange-Theatre-photo-by-Jonathan-Keenan-1024x298.png — ‘It’s a clarion call …Maybe it will make people look at what we’re doing on a global scale and how wrong it is.’ Maxine Peake

Caryl Churchill’s postmodern play The Skriker is just about to begin its final week of a sold-out run at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and its environmentalist message is as worryingly relevant today as when it premièred at the National Theatre twenty-one years ago. This has been a summer of headlines about record-breaking temperatures; according to scientists the Earth as a whole has experienced its hottest June and the hottest first half of the year since records began. The current climate crisis is entwined with a lengthy history of industrialisation, reckless ecological practices, and the environmental movement has been blighted by financial crisis, austerity, and a political and corporate denial of this global catastrophe. Global warming and climate change are unavoidable issues that permeate news media and increasingly fictional media. Continue reading “The Skriker: Global Warming, Eco-fairytales, and Science on the Stage” →

What Entertainment Can do for Science, and Vice Versa

Published on May 30, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambersLeave a comment

Originally posted: August 2015

: One of the plausible zombies from The Last of Us (2013) – in the game the zombie infection is a fungus that kills and transforms its hosts

We are experiencing a golden age for the fusion of science and entertainment. Oscar-winning films such as Gravity and The Theory of Everything, television ratings titans like The Big Bang Theory, video games including The Last of Us (2013), and high-traffic web-comics like XKCD have shown that science-based entertainment products can be both critically and financially successful. Continue reading “What Entertainment Can do for Science, and Vice Versa” →

Jessica Jones: Science, Realism, & Netflix

Published on May 29, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambers2 Comments

Originally posted: December 2015

In the Netflix’s Marvel comic book adaptations the superheroes and their powers can be explained by science – medical/scientific experiments (e.g. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Kilgrave) and a childhood accident with radioactive toxic waste (Daredevil/Murdoch) – even if the explanations aren’t exactly entirely ‘accurate’. The active incorporation of science allows these small-screen Marvel adaptations to achieve a greater sense of verisimilitude and also tap into contemporary concerns about viruses, medical experimentation (specifically in relation to genetics), and uncontrolled science/scientists, alongside serious responses to addiction, rape, neglect, PTSD, and mental illness. Continue reading “Jessica Jones: Science, Realism, & Netflix” →

Stories about Science: Communicating Science Through Entertainment Media

Published on May 29, 2018May 30, 2018 by acchambersLeave a comment

Originally posted: June 2015 – co-written with Ray Macauley

We are now in a golden age of science-based entertainment media.

Every science-based entertainment product is a unique and complex cultural artefact created for a specific audience, format, and purpose. It would be difficult to come up with a template or set of generic rules that could be applied by practitioners in all science communication projects or encompass all forms of entertainment media. Continue reading “Stories about Science: Communicating Science Through Entertainment Media” →