imagining alternatives

[Alternative systems](alternative systems) are possible. Presented with alternatives in narrative/artistic/fictional form as well as real examples and plans, people are better equipped to enact social change.

  • many genres eg horror and dramatic realism are very good at negative realities and possible dystopias and these are important, but movements aren’t sustained on negative momentum alone - people need something to strive for

  • sci-fi is the realm that best captures the contrast of dystopia and utopia, offering far-flung alternatives with radical implications

  • but realist alternatives are lacking. gently optimistic narratives in short supply

  • even attempts at ‘good news’ programming can feel saccharine

  • the best of this I’ve seen is in the form of the ‘case study’ of existing movements, projects and activists that are making positive changes in the here and now, or of repeatable processes by which people can accelerate the growth of more equitable systems

  • Political art and radical art can also be very impactful in these areas

  • media that is otherwise realist, negative or naive in worldview can often address some angle of real-world injustice, bringing some small slice of utopia - any depicted better world, no matter how trivial, can be impactful

    • consider for example an incredibly downbeat BBC drama whose protagonist uses a wheelchair, set in an old English village full of locations that are inexplicably entirely accessible to them
    • this could’ve happened due to ignorance to its unlikelihood, happenstance of location, catering to the actor’s needs, or as a deliberate cry for wheelchair accessibility
    • but regardless of reason, the imagined world has been created.
    • for a viewer who uses a wheelchair and laments about the accessibility of old buildings, they’ve stumbled across some hope, and for them this show can be a utopia, despite other plots and moods that are melancholy and depressing.
      • (there’s a link here to ‘impact over intention’, interestingly)
    • they could go on to advocate for this very thing with the armament of the media depiction.

  • so, any concrete depiction of better worlds/systems/ideas in any medium can be crucial to aiming someone’s sights at it

  • and unfortunately the opposite can also be true with satirical dystopias backfiring

    • eg Squid Game inspired several real life competitions with huge monetary prizes (without the outright massacre of the original, but still with the horrifically exploitative and dangerous nature of playing with the lives of desperate people)

  • progress and innovation

  • what we can imagine, who gets to see through their plans

  • sci-fi shorts as experimental exploratory alternative futures

Mentions

Section titled “Mentions”
  • “The future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.”– William Gibson (quoted by)
  • “to capture one’s imagination – […] not only inspires, but also detains attention and imagination, orchestrates it, and delimits the possibility to imagine differently.” (Smolicki, 2017)