The Apocalyptic Informal - The big screen and glimpses of the future city

The big screen as we know it, is popular at predicting the future. Whiles the

predictions in certain films just re-echo a scientific industry craving, others are

straight out of the blue prying into the very recesses of our craving minds. Some

are said to be prototypes put on display in the movies for advertisements and

others are plain creativity and curiosity unleashed by producers.

Interestingly, most of these predictions fall within the realm of high-tech

gadgetry and advanced science. I can picture some science researcher shaking

her/his head in disbelieve, well that’s if he has the time to go to the movies!

Numerous sci-fi movies have aroused the imagination of many a movie-

enthusiasts. The Star Trek series abounds with such gadgets. The communicators

are more or less present day cell phones likewise the universal translator is

present in small gadgets like sigmo.

According to a BBC article by Finnerty (2012), predictions from the popular

Blade Runner film are popping up here and there. The article talks of the

privatisation of space travel in the movie, we have Elon Musk’s Space X today,

and for the gesture-based devices used in the movie, Kinect and Leap Motion

come into mind.

Well enough of the props! Considering most of these movies, they are set in

distant futures and behold, some have indeed come to pass. A quick look at

Wikipedia, gives a list of movies and their set dates in the future. Movies like

2012 have indeed come to pass with no apocalypse yet, 376 days and counting!

What interests me most about the setting of these movies is the utopia/dystopia

they portray. The apocalyptic or surreal images they feed us with.

What is worrying however is the urban landscape predicted in these movies. The

storyline mostly goes this way; an apocalyptic event in the future, man bleakly

survives, seeks refuge in a few habitable areas and there is the ever present

scarcity of resources and the accompanying Hobbesian struggle.

In those pictures, the informal is ever so present. They showcase an advanced

state of degeneration as a result of the resource scarcity. They are basically the

‘x-generation’ form of present day informal settlements.

In The Matrix Trilogy (1999), the surviving human race, are confined to Zion, an

underground informal settlement of about 3km below earth’s surface. It is highly

sophisticated relying on advanced cooling and energy systems like geothermal

energy generation. Like present-day informal settlements, it is just an abode for

the time being, for survival through the bad-times.

In The Book of Eli (2010), same can be said. The patchy surviving cities are

wholly informal settlements, with the usual penury in resources like water, food,

electricity etc.in the movie, the only two settlements shown bear a striking

resemblance to present formal/informal dichotomy, Alcatraz, the city to the

West being the formal.

In In Time (2011),the utopia is more caricatural and depicts reality. The informal

city with workers working day and night and still struggling to make ends meet

in sharp contrast with the formal, full of amenities and luxury. Survival pitched

with living. The movie translates the economic difference between the two

settings via the human clocks.

From all these screen examples, I believe the informal/formal dichotomy still

exists albeit expressed differently. With the informal as dominant urban

morphology, the formal takes second stage and degenerates into the void

between the few informal spots. How ironic! The reverse is somewhat true

today.

However, in some of these movies the formal persists but in a more utopian

expression. Still with the Matrix series, we could say a third morphology arises in

the name of the machine city. Thus we will now have an informal human city, a

formal machine city and a degenerated, lost former-formal city.

Well, with all these analogies, we do not know for sure whether the machine city

will come to pass but for the resource scarcity, all signs converge to a possibility.

Water is reported to become one of the scarcest resources on earth in coming

decades.

And with the informal settlements, they are fast becoming a dominant typology,

at least in developing countries were urbanisation is unprecedented and

governments can’t keep up with the rates.

Will we witness the predictions of the big screen or will they turn out to be false

alarms? Time and foresight will tell!