In July, there was a heated debate in the UK surrounding Channel 4's faux documentary "Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat."
Viewers were actually unaware that it was a fictional satire on the rising cost of living in the UK and about a potential future without food banks. Indeed, the documentary initially appeared as a regular food-based show, following Wallace to a secretive facility in Lincolnshire where meat made from human cells was being produced by Good Harvest, an innovative food company.
As the program unfolded, it suggested that the solution to the cost of living crisis was growing human meat from surgically harvested flesh (with donors being paid about £250 a time). The most shocking revelation came when the tastiest meat was claimed to be from children under seven years old.
Directed by Tom Kingsley, the show - made more credible by Matt Edmonds' script - deliberately provoked anger and discomfort, exposing social issues like poverty, austerity, and neglect.
Wallace's presentation of the concept was impactful, the bitter satire highlighting the faults of an uncaring government and the exploitation of vulnerable people, stirring strong emotions of outrage towards the unaffordable luxury of food and the idea of selling one's flesh for cash.
The clever execution and audacious nature of the program made it an effective modern-day version of Jonathan Swift's 18th-century satirical essay "A Modest Proposal," where the author suggested eating babies to address hunger in Ireland, but also called to mind Orson Welles' announcement of a Martian invasion in 1938 that sounded like a genuine radio news announcement.
Thought-provoking, yet unsettling, the program tackled social issues making the viewers feel angry while masquerading as a genuine documentary resulting in a program suspended between science facts, science fiction and social commentary.
In yesterday's post we looked at an exhibition entitled "Fashion Fictions" that looks at the future of fashion and it is inspired by different dichotomies, such as the one between the scientific and the fantastical, found in Julian Bleecker's essay "Design Fiction" (2009; downloadable for free at this link),
And this is where we may find an inspiration also for a fashion collection: juxtapositions always help generating great ideas and stirring one's imagination, but whenever we had a juxtaposition of science and fiction in the history of fashion, we always saw intriguing shows and narratives on the runways (remember Alexander McQueen's Plato's Atlantis, inspired by a vision of an underwater future in which - according to the late designer - humanity is condemned to once the ice cap melts? While the story is a fiction, it moves from a scientific fact - the rising sea level is indeed an effect of climate change).
So science facts and science fiction could help us coming up with something extremely original. Further inspirations along these lines?
The short documentaries by Floris Kaayk: as some of you may remember, in 2006 the Dutch digital artist did a short documentary entitled "Metalosis Maligna".
In the documentary we are shown patients with metal implants or prosthesis in their bodies who start growing metal spikes and protuberances that in some cases eat their flesh alive and turn their bodies into a mass of metallic pieces.
Intriguing yet disturbing and definitely not for the faint-hearted, the documentary offers food for thought for all those creative minds interested in half human/half robotic hybrids and species transformations. Kaayk also shot other fictitious documentaries about insects made of mechanical components proliferating in abandoned industrial areas ("The Order Electrus") and about a modular body grown in a laboratory.
Besides, he also worked with a group of artists and designers to develop another short mockumentary about sneakers made with genetically engineered rayfish with intricate and bright patterns on their skins designed by people (between 2012 and 2013, some publications actually believed the story was true while others questioned its veracity…).
But you could expand your research and references to literature and look for juxtapositions of science facts and fiction in stories: in Alasdair Gray's novel "Lanark" (which is partially a science fiction used as a social commentary) one of the characters, Duncan Thaw, has a real skin issue, eczema, which is mirrored in a fictitious skin disease, the dragonhide that turns Lanark's skin into scaly patches (a metaphor for expressing the hardening and the alienation of the lost individual; fermenting inside themselves, these individuals go "supernova" and their combustion is used by the Institute as energy-fodder).
So get to work on your Science Facts Vs Science Fiction narrative (keeping in mind other artists who tackled it in other disciplines such as film or even photography in clever ways - remember Joan Fontcuberta?). You can come up with something disturbing, dark, or even with a piece of factual entertainment or a satirical narrative suspended between documentary and elaborate hoax (it could be a prank on fashion and design magazines like the story of the genetically engineered stingray sneakers...). So, read, research, and enjoy your journey through science facts and science fiction.
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