Our perception of the world is largely shaped through the mediums of fiction. Through film, we have always imagined alternative worlds as a way of understanding our own world in new ways. A critical role of science fiction is to provide a counterbalance to the prevailing media narratives around emerging urban technologies. Typically, our imagined futures are based on a solutionist view of technology and are marketed to us as simplified worlds of better and brighter, often ignoring the complexities, subcultures, and unintended consequences that result when technologies are democratized and rolled out at scale. Young will narrate a series of stories from these worlds less-traveled—small glimpses, fragments, vignettes, and snapshots, from a series of his films that come together to create a portrait of an alternative future of technology, urbanization, and automation.

June 3, 2021