I consider myself a fan of science fiction, but in truth my travels through that particular galaxy are pretty limited. I’m passionate about Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, in thrall to Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey; I’ve read Isaac Asimov and Robert A Heinlein; my spare bedroom is dotted with posters from the heyday of pulp science fiction. However, a new exhibition in London shows me that there is far more to it than that.
Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction is a display of art, design, film, video installations and games, literature and comic books that aims to entertain and enlighten fans of the genre, as well as those who have never dreamt of warp speed or alternate universes. It’s comprehensive — there are more than 800 objects — and takes a thematic rather than a chronological look at the history of a pervasive cultural genre once considered nerdish and niche.
For Patrick Gyger, curator of Into the Unknown, the importance of science fiction “is that it conjures up other images for the future and other directions for the world to take’’. So it’s the writers and artists, the people who bring shape and personality to the innovative ideas of sci-fi, who take centre stage in his cultural survey. There are original manuscripts and sketches by the visionary 19th-century author Jules Verne, meticulously romantic drawings by James Gurney for his Dinotopia series, more than 200 books from around the world and scores of space-themed comic books.
Artwork is a big part of the show, be it boldly coloured Russian technology magazines, storyboard drawings for Dune — a legendary Hollywood flop — or the iconic magazine covers of Frank R Paul. What’s missing, perhaps, is a fuller sense of how digital technology has utterly transformed the sci-fi universe on screen, opening up the possibility of illustrating virtually anything writers can throw at them.
“Leonard Nimoy’s Spock is the greatest of all sci-fi heroes
The show draws together works from film studios, private collectors and national archives, and includes more than 60 film and TV clips that can keep the visitor occupied for ages (from Gulliver’s Travels and Thunderbirds, to Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Interstellar).
Advertisement
In the first section, Extraordinary Voyages, the emphasis is on sci-fi’s infancy when writers were discovering the still unknown reaches of our planet (from the bowels of the earth to the depths of the sea). The second section, Space Odysseys, is the largest and most satisfying to visitors seeking exotic aliens, cosmic adventures and fancy intergalactic modes of transport.
An interactive display here recreates a sequence from the Nasa mission control set in Ridley Scott’s film The Martian, while Martin Panchaud’s interactive contribution obsessively deconstructs the original Star Wars, minute by minute. Brave New Worlds explores the future of our cities — a utopia of progress or a dystopian nightmare? Final Frontiers, the last section, which looks at the transformation of body and mind and the growth of artificial intelligence, is the least persuasive thematically (although I wasn’t able to fully peruse its film and video exhibits).
All of this is in the Barbican’s Curve Gallery; elsewhere, in what amounts to a mini festival, there are film screenings this summer (including Tron, Soylent Green and Gravity) and music performances in the Barbican Hall. There is also a contemporary art component in the form of Conrad Shawcross’s giant, twitchy robotic arm downstairs in the Pit (a smaller version of the one he made for Wayne McGregor’s ballet Machina at Covent Garden five years ago).
As the world becomes more technologically sophisticated, it’s fun to see the things that used to amuse us — such as the latex dinosaur models for the film One Million Years BC — or the dinky flying saucers that used to scare us. You like props? Here’s Darth Vader’s helmet, the rubber and resin masks from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and spacesuits worn by John Hurt in Alien and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, the greatest of all sci-fi heroes (though Star Trek is only modestly represented here).
Superheroes make an appearance (though as a sub-genre of science fiction, the Green Lantern, Hulk and Iron Man are somewhat removed from its intellectual ambitions). So, too, do robots, most delightfully in the shape of Robot B-9 from the 1960s TV show Lost in Space and in a colourful collection of tiny robot figures from China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Soviet Union.
Advertisement
There is plenty to read and absorb, but ultimately it’s up to the spectator to piece together from these disparate items a sweeping tale of science fiction that works for him or her. One thing is abundantly clear, though: the colourful optimism of pulp sci-fi and classic Star Trek has given way to an especially grey and apocalyptic creative agenda today. Sometimes I miss the exuberant tongue-in-cheek humour with which we used to imagine our future.
Into the Unknown is at the Barbican, London EC2 (020 7638 8891), from June 3 to September 1