On a visit to the newly opened galleries in The Museum of London this weekend I noticed a display of stop motion film showing one nights worth of activity in London. The night time shots of the city, beautifully framed views of luminescent glass and steel towers laced with walkways, and criss crossed with layers of trains and blinking car traffic, immediately caused me to visually reference both Fritz Langs masterpiece 'Metropolis' and also the more recent anime rendering of the same name. How much influence does the world of art, and the visualisation by artists of the future, have on the actual outcome? Art which depicts the future can surely be seen as a commentary on the present, by extrapolating forwards and therefore magnifying problems and issues that are in the embryonic stages in the present day. More than this, the visual language and design of science and technology is often influenced by the visions of artists and filmmakers. Science is still limited by the ability of the human brain to imagine, and to create new ideas, therefore art often provides the stimulus for technological progress.
The Chris Cunningham directed video for Bjork's All is Full of Love is a good example of this phenomenon. The video itself was informed by the previous decade of cyberpunk films, and japanese anime, but distills these influences into a short and haunting 4 minutes.
My favourite part of the video is the opening shot, which sees the camera pan upwards, trailing a huge bunch of cables, which eventually connect to the floor of the empty white room which contains the robots. The visual design of the room, and the machinery, seems to have informed the modern day robotics industry. If you look at the Honda robot ASIMO, the parallels between the design are uncanny.
The link between the way science expresses itself visually, and the art that informs these designs, is interesting for two reasons; firstly because groundbreaking science is usually accomplished by very creative individuals, therefore not only is the design component of the scientific discovery informed by art, but it is likely that the underlying science is influenced by art as well. Secondly, the way science is presented in art and film is also relevent to the consumers of science.
Many products, for example MRI scanners, appear to have borrowed design aspects from science fiction. The Siemens system shown above seems to share a lot of design elements with the Bjork video. This is especially important for products that are going to be used by the general public, because people find it hard to trust technology if it is not presented in the correct way. Suspicion can be avoided by using design to make products seem familiar, or seem 'futuristic' to inspire faith in the technology.
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