Making worlds in art and science fiction

2013

Making Worlds: Art and Science Fiction is an anthology of new writings by artists, curators, art historians and writers who are self-confessed science fiction fans. The linking point is the idea of science fiction as a platform for the building of alternate art histories. This collection is concerned with the ways in which science fiction might be performed, materialised or enacted within a contemporary context. Featuring essays on Stanislaw Lem, Robert Smithson, J.G. Ballard, Eduardo Paolozzi, H.P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, Samuel Delany, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Andrei Tarkovsky, R.A. Lafferty, and Stanley Kubrick as well as texts on time travel, philology, geophilosophy, loops, speculative realism, dystopias, telepathy, surrealism, pop, Mercerism, and contemporary art. Edited by Amelia Barikin and Helen Hughes with contributions by: Adrian Martin, Amelia Barikin, Andrew Frost, Anthony White, Arlo Mountford, Brendan Lee, Charles Green, Chris McAuliffe, Chronox, Damiano Bertoli, Darren Jorgensen, Dylan Martorell, Edward Colless, Helen Hughes, Helen Johnson, Justin Clemens, Lauren Bliss, Matthew Shannon, Nathan Gray, Nick Selenitsch, OSW, Patrick Pound, Philip Brophy, Rex Butler, Ryan Johnston, and Soda_Jerk.

World Art, 2012

This contribution summarises the proceedings and emergent debates of world-making, especially through art and writing, from a multi-disciplinary conference held in Canberra, Australia.

In: Marta Boni (ed.), World Building, Transmedia, fan, Industries, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, pp. 47-61. Fantasy and Science Fiction seem to be crucial genres for techniques of transmedia storytelling, with notable contemporary examples such as The Matrix, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Lost, and Heroes. What does Fantasy/Science-Fiction offer as a structural or thematic framework for constructing storyworlds that cross multiple media? If world building is a key concern of transmedia storytelling (Jenkins), the nature of world-creating in these genres is pivotal, and certainly much more evident than in crime, mystery stories and even horror stories; in Science Fiction and Fantasy, in fact, the creation of detailed settings seems to be a structural necessity. My contribution will focus on Science Fiction writing from a semiotic and narratological point of view, with particular reference to studies on possible narrative worlds and on enunciation. Firstly I will briefly summarize some key aspects of the theory of possible worlds with regard to the Science Fiction genre; on this basis I will tackle a definition of Science Fiction worlds before investigating more deeply their nature. Finally, I will explore the question of narrative transmission, both in regard to the first elements that allow access to the fictional world, and more generally in relation to the enunciative modalities of the genre.

Humanities Research, 2013

The conference inspired significant interest nationally and internationally and attracted scholars from the United States, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and South America. It formed part of the program organised by the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) at ANU under the overarching theme: 'The World and World-Making in the Humanities and the Arts' and complemented other conferences relating to the concept of 'world-making' in history and literature. 2 We would like to extend our special thanks to the Head of the HRC, Dr Debjani Ganguly, who suggested we undertake a conference focussing on art and to our coconveners Zara Stanhope and Jackie Menzies and to Leena Messina and Sharon Komidar for their assistance with both the conference and this special issue of Humanities Research.

Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 2016

This special issue of Humanities Research offers a selection of papers presented at the international conference ‘The World and World-Making in Art: Connectivities and Differences’ held at The Australian National University (ANU) from 11–13 August 2011. The conference inspired significant interest nationally and internationally and attracted scholars from the United States, Europe, Asia, the Pacific and South America. It formed part of the program organised by the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) at ANU under the overarching theme: ‘The World and World-Making in the Humanities and the Arts’ and complemented other conferences relating to the concept of ‘world-making’ in history and literature.

2016

Imaginary worlds and how they are constructed are central to fiction. The term world-building, however, has been applied so broadly in scholarship that it has become ambiguous and difficult to use in critical discussions. Aiming to contribute to greater clarity in the critical use of the term, this article introduces the concept of critical world-building. This is distinguished from other types of world-building, such as that performed by an author or reader, mainly by the fact that a critic analyses a world through a combination of their sequential presentation, as complete world, and with critical interpretation and theoretical filters in place, applying all three perspectives simultaneously. Two possible approaches to critical world-building are presented, based on the functions of a world’s building-blocks and how to interpret those functions. The first approach focuses on a world’s “architecture” – its structural and aesthetic system of places – and the form, function, and mean...

Imaginary worlds and how they are constructed are central to fiction. The term world-building, however, has been applied so broadly in scholarship that it has become ambiguous and difficult to use in critical discussions. Aiming to contribute to greater clarity in the critical use of the term, this article introduces the concept of critical world-building. This is distinguished from other types of world-building, such as that performed by an author or reader, mainly by the fact that a critic analyses a world through a combination of their sequential presentation, as complete world, and with critical interpretation and theoretical filters in place, applying all three perspectives simultaneously. Two possible approaches to critical world-building are presented, based on the functions of a world’s building-blocks and how to interpret those functions. The first approach focuses on a world’s “architecture” – its structural and aesthetic system of places – and the form, function, and meaning of those places. The second emphasises the dynamic interplay between building-blocks and their interconnections in a web of explicit, implied, and interpreted information about the world. The authors base their discussion on textual, secondary fantasy worlds but invite applications of critical world-building to other genres and media.

Appeared in the collective volume Writing Worlds Welten- und Raummodelle der Fantastik Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH Heidelberg (September 2014)

Ex Ovo, 2003

An act of creation is an attempt at recreating the world. Every artist is a minidivinity in his or her microdomain. Every microdomain lays claim to being a world. To create a world, however, an artwork has to have capabilities for both reflection and transformation. The world looks back at itself in an artwork that has succeeded in bringing forth some truth about it.