David T. Fortin's book ARCHITECTURE AND SCIENCE FICTION: PHILIP K.DICK AND THE SPECTACLE OF HOME will be published in May 2011, the fourth book in the Ashgate Studies in Architecture series edited by Eamonn Canniffe
The home is one of our most enduring human paradoxes and is brought to light tellingly in science-fiction (SF) writing and
film. However, while similarities and crossovers between architecture and SF have proliferated throughout the past
century, the home is often overshadowed by the spectacle of 'otherness'. The study of the familiar (home) within the alien
(SF) creates a unique cultural lens through which to reflect on our current architectural condition. SF has always been
linked with alienation; however, the conditions of such alienation, and hence notions of home, have evidently changed.
There is often a perceived comprehension of the familiar that atrohpies the inquisitive and interpretive processes
commonly activated when confronting the unfamiliar. Thus, by utilizing the estranging qualities of SF to look at a concept
inherently linked to its perceived opposite - the home - a unique critical analysis with particular relevance for contemporary
architecture is made possible.
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