Immaginare il futuro prossimo: costruire mondi attraverso la fantascienza audiovisiva

Abstract

The fictional and textual dimension can be considered as an observation laboratory about representing the future. The science fiction narrative is, moreover, a historically accredited reference in the field of future studies for the development of its models.The article briefly reviews some definitions relating to science fiction and then focuses specifically on the field of audiovisual science fiction dedicated to near future: an imaginary future dimension similar to the current one and therefore full of elements of restlessness. As representative cases, two textual analyses dedicated to the film Ex Machina and to the TV series Black Mirror are taken into consideration. They are consolidated by some classical theoretical references – from Nelson Goodman’s constructionism to Paul Ricoeur’s reflection on temporality – against the background of a semiotic methodology. The question of the conceptual limits in the description of time is quickly dealt with, while a wider study is dedicated to the spatial dimension in audiovisuals, illustrating its essential role in the construction of a narrative universe, as well as its usefulness in constructing specific effects for an effective representation of the future.

Keywords

• future
• science fiction
• textuality