(or just my thoughts running like several Usain Bolts)
The City of Hopeful Monster is a catalog of enhancing procedures ready to be deployed upon any existing urban fabric. These procedures are so extreme in enhancement; they are classified as mutations. Consequentially through these mutations/enhancements, a sporadic reaction is created within the existing fabric. Once the procedure is deployed upon a city, the city’s lineage can no longer be traced through a gradual transformation or evolution, instead it has become a new specie altogether. If one were to try, they would see a steady line, then a sudden leap into the monstrosity we know as The City of Hopeful Monsters.
Fabric is_
The chosen fabric is not a static object or simply figureground/ foreground and facades of a city’s physicality. Instead, these fabrics include the speed, programs, colors, density, and vitality of the space. Thus to deploy a procedure upon such specific condition is not just a result of a disfigured shape or mutated object. Rather, the dramatic leap of mutation creates a super situation of a combination of several enhanced characteristics.
Fabric in reality:
- New York City
- Tokyo
- Los Angeles
New York_
Tokyo_
Fabric in fantasy:
- Pandora, from Avatar
- Waterworld, from Waterworld
- Arus, from Voltron
- Vulcan, from Star Trek
- Zion, from Matrix
- Akira, from Akira
Waterworld_
Zion, Matrix_
Arus, Voltron_
Planet Vulcon, Star Trek_Pure Grasshopper Fabric:
- Static field of conditions
- Simple operative system
Hopeful. Monster is_
So why exactly are these monsters “hopeful?”
“For example a mutation that produces two eyes on one side of the head of a fish of the most common morphology (such as tuna) is a monster; a mutation to a flatfish that produces two eyes on the upper surface of the head, with better scanning of the surrounding as a lucky result, is a “hopeful monster.”
- Steven Jay Gould
“To be hopeful, the monster must be fully functional, and it must have the means and opportunity of reproducing and propagating itself.”
- Michael Weinstock
In essence, the hopefulness comes from the sporadic mutation through the procedures.
previous. This new “species” then is able to utilize its new enhanced conditions/systems and demonstrate it through the analysis of its inhabitants within. Whether it is super smooth, super fast, or super relaxed it is a species that has mutated not just to survive, but to survive very well.
Hopeful Monster = Procedure is_
The procedures itself is incredibly vague at this point. However, a source of inspiration has been discovered today. Daft Punk’s song “Harder, better, faster, stronger,” gives a perfect description of the attitude of the described hopeful monsters. Even better is the music video that is set in a futuristic mechanical system, which enhances/suppresses the character’s attributes. Certain questions were sparked after analyzing the process of this machine.
- Superficial vs. the Internal
- Deletion vs. Addition (in biology mutation are generally negative due to deletion process of genes, however, to use references such as micro biology and comics there is additive process)
Screen shots_harder, better, faster, stronger_
