Mythologies and Science Fiction.

This week's topic is about one of my favourites: dreams and Sci-Fi.

We talked about the link between dreams and mythology, as mythology is based on what people fantasize in their dreams, which is supported by Freudian theory of the 'conscious and unconscious mind'.

What interested me at the beginning of the class was when Tessa explained the difference between archetype and stereotype. As these two elements are just about used in all the Science fiction medias. Prior to the class i thought there's no difference between the two words, even after the explaination from Tessa the line between those two words is still blurry, as both of them share a common meaning, and that is the representation of an ideal type. I came to a better understanding of the words after i did alittle more digging on the internet for the difference between the words,
'-An archetype is the typical example of something, or the "original" for a number of "copies."It also is used to describe a universal symbol, e.g. heart = love.


-Stereotype is an oversimplification of something, or taking something "unique" and reducing it to one or two generic traits.'
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/129238



Tessa then showed the class some slides that deals with the concept of dreams, mythology and Science fiction. I find it facinating looking at slide number 4. Robing the Bride by Max Ernst. Ernst being a supportor of Sigmund Freud's studies, incorperated many of ideas from Freud and used them in his painting. He was dedicated to making 'art of the unconscious'.

This work is interesting also for the time it was painted, which i think had an effect on this work. Around the time this painting was created, Ernst was having several love affairs, despite the fact he have a wife and a son. One particular relationship he had was with another surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Maybe she was an idea used in the painting??





http://www.brooklynrail.org/2005/05/artseen/max-ernst-a-retrospective5/05/artseen/max-ernst-a-retrospective


In the painting the woman figure is transforming into a bird like creature, similar to the half human half bird like creature on her left, this links directly to Egyptain mythlogical beings. A reason for the usage of birds was the memory of the death of his pet bird on the same night that his sister was born.

'confounding the images of human beings with birds and other creatures. The bird part is a symbol of freedom, and free will, while the human part represents the superego, focusing on control' - Max Ernst
http://gallagherseniorhonors.blogspot.com/2008/05/creative-mind-and-life-of-max-ernst.html

After the further research, i understood the idea of the link between a one's unconcious mind- dreams, creates inspirations and fantasies.

This connects nicely to a more modern fantasy concept, in slide number. 18-21 by Cao Fei.
here the models are dressed up as cartoon characters, though looking like they are from another world, and living out their fantasy, overly cramped apartment lifestyle and heavily polluted city scape in the distant background is the reality that they are living in.

May the Fourth being 'Star Wars' Day, we analysed the original movie (1977). The character i wish to study on is Luke Skywalker.
The character to me is a representation of a classic hero, an ideal 'stereotypical hero'.

The Stereotypical classic hero will always bare some of the following qualities:
Young, good looking, brave and ambitious. However often uncertain before their 'wake up call', they are seen as too strong headed, naive or not ready to fight yet. Sometimes, even unwilling to be involved in the situation, as the character might be traumatized from similar events or simply dont wish to get into the violence.

Luke's character was seen in the beginning of the film as being a dreamer, who desires adventures. The scene with the twin suns setting the horizon captures that fantasy/dream like world of Luke Skywalker. An event will occur that will set the classic hero to a quest, which will be the main drive of the plot for the story. The event often being the slaughtering/ endangering of the character's family member(s), concequently setting the character off to revenge and battle the evil. On the hero's way, he/she will encounter very stereotypical characters, like Obi-Wan Ben, who is the classic wise old man, similar to characters such as Dumbledore from Harry Potter or Dandulf from Lord of the Rings. This character will provide as a guide for the hero on his path, more than often they are the ones to provide the symbolic weapon for the hero.
In the first Star Wars film, the quest was for Luke to become a Jedi Knight, after the death of his uncle and aunty.









A character that comes straight into my head is Jonny Rico from Starship Troopers (1997), directed by Paul Verhoeven. Similar to Luke, Jonny was a dreamer, he dreamed of being a hero and do humanity proud, but his determination was put in doubt after the death of a team mate, loosing his courage he was ready to return home, it is then his home was destroyed and his family was killed that sparked his quest to revenge his parents.

Almost every story of a hero will follow this pattern, and their motive will be engine that drives the plot. Some of my favourite film references of the classic hero that all follows the same pattern are Red Sonja (1985) by Richard Fleischer, Daredevil directed by Mark Steven Johnson, Elektra by Rob Bowman, Clash of the Titans (2010) by Louis Leterrier.

All the above films feature the linear pattern of the Classic hero and conquers evil.

A game worth mentioning on this topic is Mass effect 2, where the game itself is very much like a movie, and you are playing as Commander Shepard, who is the hero/heroine (gender and appearance by player's choice). What kind of person Commader Shepard choose to be is completely by player's choice, and each choice will contribute to how your story ends. This game really explores the 'Hero' character in depth, it lets you feel what it's really like as a hero, how people treat you and the weight you carries on your shoulder knowing that lives may end by consequences of your choice of action.




(unfinnished painting of my Commander Shepard)







I really enjoyed this week's discussion on concept of Mythology and Science fiction, and i was interested in learning about the connection it have to the Freudian theories on the 'unconscious mind', which is the start of Surrealistic artists. I am a fan of Surrealism art and Science fiction, and wish to compose the dream like fantasy elements into my own practice.