So despite the small time frame, i managed to go to the MoMA today. It was an interesting exhibit, one that definitely makes you think about where we’re going as a species. The overcrowding of the larger cities is a growing problem. The exhibit showed some ideas that are already in effect and are being worked towards to fix these problems particularly with architecture.
Immediately my thoughts went to DADoRS/BladeRunner, particularly the movie, as the crowded scenes when Deckard is in the street show exactly how it could be with the overcrowding. Some of the ideas for shops in Lagos were very similar to what we saw in the movie.
There was one interesting picture from The New CIty Reader section called the Island of Resources that showed a hive like structure that would go underground/water. I could imagine the rooms from The Machine Stops being built in a place like that.The idea of the structure is very similar to Vashti’s room. If anyone still hasn’t gone yet, make sure to grab a copy of The New City Reader off the stack that is under one of the television displays. It has a game inside that you can play. Its pretty twisted, yet it really makes you look at what could possibly happen.
Overall, the idea of these massive housing changes seem to be the future. The building that Isidore lives in could easily be a remnant of one of the ideas shown at the exhibit. Of course, after World War Terminus. Most of the ideas were very reminiscent of Blade Runner, although much cleaner. While i know the ideas being shown here are based on real world applications and problems, i wonder if some of the creators of these plans were inspired by some science fiction they have read or watched.
I chose the title of The Other New York for this post as this part of the exhibit hits us at home. I was pretty shocked at some of the statistics that were shown. The numbers really help to show you how large the gap is between the different economic classes. This large difference in the classes is like the rich and the workers in Metropolis.
Statistics NYC
I know some may not be able to get there, but here’s a video of one of the area’s that i took quickly to show some of the exhibit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrDlqso3BJk&feature=youtu.be
Wow, nice going Chris. Odd though, when I tried to use my tablet to take pictures the security went all Nazi on me.
Weird, maybe because i used my phone, but i did it a few times in front of them, and they didn’t say anything. I actually have about 10 more pics but i don’t want to spam them.
Ah,cool cool. It was a pretty small exhibit. It would have made my life x10 easier if I could take some pictures. I was there for a good hour taking notes instead. Did you manage to grab the newspaper near the Hong Kong area? That’s all I brought back with me.
Yea, i mentioned it in my post, its a pretty interesting paper. I doubt i’d actually play it, but figured it was worth taking.
Yeah, did you get to see the blank painting that was framed there? It’s literally a blank canvas hung onto the wall.
In that section? Only thing i saw blank was the huge display screen when they weren’t showing the video. I must have missed it. lol
Are the crowded cities truly comparable to the crowded streets of Blade Runner? Our streets are crowded as a result of surplus population. In the post-apocalyptic world of Blade Runner, arn’t the street crowded simply because there is no where else to go? And even then it was only what seemed to be a market place that was crowded but all other places were eerily empty, even the Tyrell Corp was void of life.
Its the same thing. The opening scene shows the ship flying over a Los Angeles, akin to any major metropolis. The city is full of people. Throughout the movie, Deckard is always surrounded by large masses of people. The exhibit is about where our population is going, so in the 4 years we have until the year of the movie, who knows. ^_^
Surge, you raise a really important here, that we’re going to discuss in class tomorrow. There’s a lot to discuss on this topic, not only the differences in the representation of the urban landscape in ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ (the lonely, empty, silent city) and ‘Blade Runner’ (the teeming/bustling streets of LA … as Chris states, the film is way more crowded than the novel) but also about the kind of post-apocalyptic isolation/depletion (of population, resources, etc.) that occurs after some huge disaster. Lots to think about …
I think you probably made a better connection of the assignment than I did, so I applaud you for that