Now Open: ACMI's 'The Future & Other Fictions' Exhibition Celebrates Creative Visions of What Might Come
'Blade Runner 2049', 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever', 'Cyberpunk 2077', Björk: they're all featured at this world-premiere showcase.
When you're watching Blade Runner 2049, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Creator, or playing Cyberpunk 2077 and Saltsea Chronicles, possible futures unfurl before your very eyes. As these imaginings play out in cinemas and on televisions, how prophetic will they prove? No one can know for certain what tomorrow will bring; however, the tales told on screens big and small, and through games and comics as well, have delivered plenty of visions of what might come. At The Future & Other Fictions, these peering-forward works are in the spotlight.
Will androids dream of electric sheep? Will a Keanu Reeves (John Wick: Chapter 4)-voiced rock star and terrorist make their presence known? Will Afrofuturist technologies transform life as we know it? These are some of the potential scenarios conjured up by beloved pop-culture titles — and they're all part of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image's world-premiere exhibition as well, which is filled with 180-pieces, such as artworks, sets, costumes and props, as well as scripts, clips and original design materials. Open since Thursday, November 28, 2024 and running until Sunday, April 27, 2025, this is a love letter to and deep dive into futuristic storytelling, including pondering the significance of humanity's thoughts about what could be in store. It's also the Melbourne screen museum big summer showcase.
"Film, TV, videogames and art spark our imagination and help shift our thinking about how the future might, or should, be. The crafts of screen culture — visual effects, costume design, character creation and model building — are powerful tools that bring future visions to life," explained ACMI Director and CEO Seb Chan.
"The Future & Other Fictions asks us to consider some of the worlds we're familiar with and imagine the worlds we'd like to see."
"For thousands of years cultures have shared ideas through storytelling. It is an extraordinary common language. I hope a key takeaway of the exhibition is the importance of sharing stories about the futures we want to live in — be they greener, more sustainable, more harmonious or more diverse. Stories are products of culture and in turn produce it. As we write stories, we write the world," added director and artist Liam Young, who co-curated The Future & Other Fictions with ACMI's Amanda Haskard and Chelsey O'Brien.
Before he was just Ken, Ryan Gosling (The Fall Guy) starred in the 35-years-later sequel to Blade Runner — and before he brought Dune and Dune: Part Two to the screen, Denis Villeneuve directed Blade Runner 2049. The Future & Other Fictions lets attendees follow in their footsteps via miniature sets, which are one of the exhibition's definite must-sees.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gets the nod thanks to Academy Award-winning costumes by Ruth E Carter, while sketches from comic series NEOMAD also features — as does concept art showing The Creator and Cyberpunk 2077's cityscapes, plus more from Saltsea Chronicles.
As it celebrates how screens imagine the years ahead, The Future & Other Fictions also features a film season focusing on Björk, complete with Björk: Biophilia Live on the lineup. Within the exhibition's halls rather than in ACMI's cinema, the Icelandic icon also pops up via the dress and headpiece from her music video for 'The Gate'.
This showcase isn't just about well-known renderings of the future, though, thanks to work by Olalekan Jeyifous, Osheen Siva and Tāgata Moana art collective Pacific Sisters. Plus, via new commissions, DJ Hannah Brontë has her own take, and so do Young and Natasha Wanganeen (Limbo). The first, Birth of Dawn, is all about the circle of life. After the End, the second, muses on a future without fossil fuels.
On The Future & Other Fictions' events program, visitors can look forward to four days of short films in February that highlight Australian cinema's future, a video-game showcase focused on emerging developers, the return of ACMI's annual symposium, and talks on topics as varied as artificial intelligence and pop-culture predictions.
Fancy making your sci-fi movie — or, to be accurate, playing a text-based choose-your-own-adventure game about that very scenario? That's part of the exhibition, too, via INT. SPACESHIP — NIGHT, which you can access for free via the QR code in the ACMI foyer.
The Future & Other Fictions is on display at ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne, from Thursday, November 28, 2024–Sunday, April 27, 2025. Head to the venue's website for more details.
Images: Eugene Hyland.
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