BOOK

Documents of Contemporary Art: Science Fiction

Edited by Dan Byrne-Smith

Published by The Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press, 2020

I have an essay on Mobile Suit Gundam, Toshiya Ueno’s thinking around techno-orientalism (...including my own difficult relationship to it...), Dawn Chan’s brilliant provocations on Asia Futurism, and the work of Yuichi Yokoyama and Tiger Tateishi amongst others in the forthcoming Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art volume on Science Fiction, edited by Dan Byrne-Smith and published by The MIT Press, 2020.

In the past two decades, artists and writers have increasingly adopted the idea that science fiction can be understood as a lens through which to search for fragments of truth emerging from the past or the future, and the proliferation of science fiction in contemporary art practice and discourse reflects an increased understanding of how this narrative field continues to grow in relevance. Split into four distinct approaches (Cognitive Estrangement, Futures, Posthumanism and Ecologies), this unique collection gathers key examples of the influence of science fiction in recent cultural development: from the integration and acceleration of technological change to global urbanisation and concepts of futurity; from the boundaries of social structures and non-human life to the threatening self-evidence of climate change. The volume also includes a brand new essay by David Musgrave on Kobo Abe's novel Inter Ice Age 4.

Artist surveyed include Laylah Ali, Pawel Althamer, Ama Josephine Budge, Lee Bul, Ellen Gallagher, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Eduardo Kac, Patrick Keiller, Josh Kline, Lawrence Lek, Anne Lislegaard, Mariko Mori, Wangechi Mutu, The Otolith Group, Suzanne Treister.

Writers include Peio Aguirre, Margaret Atwood, J.G. Ballard, Jean Baudrillard, Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, Rosi Braidotti, Rachel Carson, T.J. Demos, Donna J. Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, Wanuri Kahiu, Tom McCarthy, David Musgrave, Alondra Nelson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Darko Suvin.