Running from 28 November 2024 to 27 April 2025 at the Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, The Future and Other Stories is a new exhibition celebrating the role of screen culture in shaping a more optimistic world.
The imagined future is often dystopian, as George Orwell summed it up in a chilling dialogue line in 1984: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a shoe trampling on a human face—forever.”
Contemporary science fiction is full of such bleak images: think of the sea wall holding back the rising ocean in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, or the bleak and gritty world of Cyberpunk 2077, the popular tabletop RPG-turned-PC RPG, where the only people who benefit From the collision of high-tech and low-life are the super-rich (who, in the words of cyberpunk predecessor William Gibson, are “no longer even remotely human”).
But science fiction doesn’t have to be dark: it can also help us imagine a brighter future.
Showcasing the craft of storytelling by the pioneering creators of film, video games and screen-based art, and featuring artwork, sets, props, scripts, clips, costumes and original design materials, “The Future and Other Stories” “reminds us of the way we imagine the world” “The future is shaped by films, television shows and games.” Famous Video,” according to ACMI Director and CEO Seb Chan.
“Many alternative visions of the future can and do exist. From two-time Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter to Italian fashion designer Alessandro Michele [or] Renowned New Zealand special effects studio Wētā Workshop to the Pilbara’s own Love Punks. “We hope visitors leave optimistic about what might be possible—and find hope in designing the future we need,” says Chan.
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Two new commissions in the exhibition confirm that the future is ours to create. Queensland-based artist and DJ Hannah Bronte draws on her culture through a short film centered around the embodiment of the countryside, while Liam Young, Ngarengiri, Narunga, Kaurna and Noongar actress Natasha Wanganeen (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Limbo) reimagines a world in which fossil fuel production has ceased and communities have returned to Landscape construction.
Other exhibit highlights include Academy Award-winning costumes from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Icelandic musician Björk’s gown from the music video The Gate (released in 2017 and directed by Andrew Thomas Huang), miniature sets from Blade Runner 2049, and original drawings from the series Futuristic First Nations NEOMAD comics, concept art from the Cyberpunk 2077 and Saltsea Chronicles video games, and more.
Björk’s stunning costume from The Gate accompanies a retrospective season of films in ACMI Cinemas from November 28 to December 16, 2024, celebrating her many talents as a musician, actress and artistic collaborator.
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Titles on offer include the folk drama The Juniper Tree (1990), which marked Björk’s acting debut, the decorated Palme d’Or winner Dancer in the Dark (2000) and her recent celebration of eukaryotic organisms in the documentary, Fungi: Web of Life (2023). , which features gorgeous time-lapse shots by Stephen Ackford, Patrick Hickey, and Wim van Egmond.
The Future & Other Fictions is organized by ACMI curator and Gunaikurnai woman Amanda Haskard, and film director and futurist Liam Young.
“Storytelling and imaginative worlds can help us connect with the future on a deeper emotional level,” Young says of the exhibition. They can dramatize data, ideas and challenges, immersing us in the wake of the decisions we face today. Speculative cities can be cautionary tales, or roadmaps to a brighter future. The exhibition is an open invitation to all visitors to imagine the future we need now.
The Future and Other Stories exhibition runs from 28 November 2024 to 27 April 2025 at ACMI, Melbourne.
