Ca 2+ y Presenilinas

This study has progressed in a loop; well, perhaps more of a spiral. The conversation mentioned earlier, the one that started it all off, occurred some time in 1998. When in early 2000 I was searching for a topic for a possible Master of Design proposal, investigating the industrial design aspects of science fiction movies was one of the six topics on my shortlist. I produced a proposal for an MDes at Massey University in mid-2000.

The focus of this proposal was the industrial design content of science fiction cinema. Part of my proposal critiqued the design content of a series of movies selected on a chronological basis, and considered two aspects of ‘context’. The first issue was the connection between design in the real world at the time the movie was produced and the design of the internal world of the movie. The second issue was the concept I termed ‘framework’, which I consider as the larger context of the fictional world of a specific movie: the network of decisions that form the ‘world’, and what good design means within this framework. When I actually got my teeth into the literature review in early 2001, I discovered little useful discussion or analysis of either the industrial design content of science fiction movies, or much recognition of a relationship between science fiction and industrial design. By ‘useful’, I mean of specific interest to industrial designers, or of direct relevance to my study. As this did

not align with my observations discussed in the previous section, I was left with two conclusions: either that the connection between industrial design and science fiction was so obvious or so shallow that it wasn’t worth investigating, or that I was in fresh territory. Not coincidentally, 2001 was my first year teaching industrial design at Massey University (having previously taught other design disciplines as well as practising professionally), and informal

discussions with industrial design students confirmed a strong thread of interest in science fiction and science fiction movies. The vast majority of investigation that I have done around the topic, therefore, has been to test the validity of the basic premises identified in the hypothesis rather than analysing a body of existing work.

However, I continued to explore my interest in science fiction cinema, and my initial ideas about the interrogation of industrial design content was

supplemented by my development of the concept of ‘leakage’. This is a term that describes the unintentional appearance of contemporary design in a science fiction movie that was intended to represent the future; representing cutting edge contemporary design as the design of the future. I wrote a 40- page discussion of industrial design in science fiction cinema, which encapsulated my thoughts on production design and its development, and included these and other original concepts. Two Massey University School of Design staff reviewed this work, and their feedback suggested that the topic was far too broad, and lacked both focus and serious analysis.

While I was mulling over these issues, a number of parallels between science fiction and industrial design became apparent. Not only is there a substantial design presence in science fiction, there is an equally strong (if less visible) science fiction presence in industrial design. It was through this realisation that I started considering just what science fiction might have to offer industrial design. This question was initially focussed on what industrial design might learn from how the profession contributes to science fiction cinema (the leakage concept was part of this) but the investigation became much deeper as I considered the ways that both science fiction and industrial design work.

At this stage, the focus of the study had broadened rather than narrowed, and the topic had moved from the industrial design content of science fiction cinema to investigating and describing the relationship between industrial design and science fiction. Out of this period of investigation emerged a need to understand the real nature of industrial design and science fiction and why they exist in the first instance. The aim was to explore the scope and depth of these two areas to identify parallels, overlaps or convergences to guide the development of a theory that describes and analyses the relationship between industrial design and science fiction.

Around this time (early 2003) a new supervisor was appointed for my study. One of my new supervisor’s first suggestions was that I attempt to diagram the issues in my study. This proved to be a pivotal point in the progress of the study, as the depth of understanding of science fiction and industrial design and the relationship between the two generated a clear, concise visual representation. This cyclical model was central to the identification of a cause and effect layer to the industrial design/science fiction relationship.

A second landmark in this study was the discovery of a quote from Will McCarthy’s Lab Notes column on the Science Fiction Weekly website (www.scifi.com/sfw). In an article titled ‘The Future: Treacherous When Shallow’, McCarthy identified what he termed the ‘job’ of science fiction – an approach to the genre that sidestepped any argument about definitions and the scope of science fiction (a notoriously difficult area) and skipped straight to why it is that science fiction exists in the first place (McCarthy, 2003). When a similar description of industrial design by academic Brian Lawson was identified, the connections between the two areas solidified and took a very interesting shape (Lawson, 1997).

Taken together, these two developments were critical to the development of the study, and were key elements in the emergence of a theory from which the study could proceed.

The remainder of the study has seen the development and tuning of the hypothesis, and the broadening of the literature review to add depth and detail

to the study. During the middle phase of the study, investigating science fiction cinema took a back seat to the need to understand some of the fundamental issues in industrial design and science fiction. In the final stages of the study, it became apparent that science fiction cinema is a key link between industrial design and science fiction. The topic has reappeared in the study as one of a number of case studies that demonstrate the operation of the industrial design/science fiction relationship. The topic, therefore, has almost turned full circle, but has gained both depth and scope in the process. Perhaps this is more of a spiral than a circle – the same issues are being investigated, but in much greater depth, and the connections between the two areas are much more apparent.