#2 Sci-fi expert Isabella Hermann: Play me the song of the anti-dystopia

«Perhaps the utopia or the anti-dystopia also indicates that we simply need to think differently. Not that there are these individual heroes who lead us to a good future, but that it is simply contradictory and not necessarily coherent and not everything is always connected.» Isabella Hermann, science fiction expert

Isabella Hermann is an analyst, author and curator in the field of science fiction. One of her questions is: How do science fiction and technology visions construct socio-political structures and do they reflect world politics? She is also co-director of the Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest. That’s why we also imagined together with her what the leading politicians in this country would have to see for a film programme in order to draw inspiration for action from science fiction. Her introduction to science fiction was recently published by Junius Verlag.

This conversation was held in German.

Further links to topics of the dialogue
Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest (web)
The Terminator
(movie)
Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash (book)
Darko Suvin – cognitive estrangement (web)
I, Robot (movie)
Kim Stanley Robinson – Das Ministerium für die Zukunft (book)
Thomas Morus – Utopia (book)

Links to streaming platforms

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Welcome to THE GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS – It’s high time for a new world selfie! 45 years ago, NASA sent its «Golden Records» into the depths of space in the hope that distant intelligences would be able to get an idea of humanity this way. Back then, a small group of Americans curated an embellished selfie for the entire Earth: Photos as if with a retro filter, music between European classical music and Azerbaijani bagpipes, as well as nature sounds in poor sound quality – our as yet unknown alien friends will get a pretty weird impression of us. Fortunately, since the 1970s, not only the view of the world, but also the view out of the world has changed significantly.

In our podcast series THE GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS, exosociologists, anthropologists and other alien artists put their heads together with us for this experiment to produce new recordings: How do we want to be remembered? How do we welcome alien intelligences? Which colonial structures do we have to say goodbye to in order to secure the existence of the human species? And is freezing after death really the smartest way to travel into the future? THE GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS are an open invitation to listen in and think along, infused with sounds and music. On the first level, we deal with various questions arising from the Golden Records project. But you soon realise that we are dealing with very contemporary and local issues via the figure of the alien or the message to space.

Hosts: Alexandra Lauck und Lukas Matthaei
Creative Producer: Fabian Kuehlein
Music: Chris Umney

Produced by matthaei&konsorten 2023