Making  Futures (continued)

The  familiar aspects of the original Enterprise are; the Navy styled  registration insignia written on the top of its ''sauser section' which creates  an analogy with a Naval vessel. And the windows which readily identify that it  is occupies and how big it is. The rest of the Enterprise is common SF  language. The engine pods are rockets, he navigational sensor is a radar dish  and most blatant of all the primary hull is a flying saucers. What the  enterprise design is saying, in all three interpretations is that science is  freedom and power. Through absolute science will come absolute freedom and  power.

A  spacecraft with a very different 'message' appeared in Riddley Scott's Alien. The Nostromo, like the Enterprise was sticking point  in the production process. It was designed by conceptual artist Ron Cobb, one of  several SF design luminaries working on the film. Visually the Nostromo is the opposite of the Enterprise, it is blocky and heavy, its surface is  pitted with an elaborate network of piping and machinery. It is ugly, in a way  only something built purely for function can be. Using an architectural analogy-  While the Enterprise is a sculptural palace of Art Deco, the Nostromo is a grim  battered tower block. The Enterprise frees its crew while the Nostromo entombs  its crew.

Grim  and ugly the Nostromo may be, but it is also a highly coherent piece of  futuristic design. Ron Cobb has become renown for his highly sophisticated and  plausible designs.

Like  Syd Mead, Cobb is a conceptually artist/ designer who'd work has on occasion  became real.

While  working on the film The Abyss, Cob was required to design a divers  mask that would allow the audience to see the actors faces. Cobb's solution was  so effective that an oil company bought the design off him, with a view to using  it form industrial diving work.

Ron  says of himself "I'm a sort of  frustrated engineer because I have a lot  of opinions about how certain problems could be resolved  using present  technologies or even speculating about near future technology. So in working on  a film I like to take this challenge and design a spaceship as if it were  absolutely real, right down to fuel tolerances, the centre of gravity the way  the engines function, radiation shielding whatever. After I do that I like to  deal with how I can take this idea and hammer, bend and twist it into something  appropriate to the film"

Robots  have been used been used throughout the history of SF films. The machine that  is, or becomes a man( in Metropolis a woman) is a theme which has not  changed much  over the years. The vast majority of robots are designed to the  human pattern, that is they are bipedal 'humanoids'. They are symbolic of the  ultimate evolution of the machine age, were the divide between maker and machine  becomes blurred. The constancy if this theme is probably the main reason for the  robots visual consistency throughout history.

As  well as the human form there is another familiar element. Some robots have  recognisable mechanical components or systems, some have nuts and bolts, some  have rivets. Later, more realistic models had pistons to operate their joints.  The most celebrated robot, mentioned in the previous chapter is Robby. From  The Forbidden Planet. Bob Kinoshita's design is a crops between a deep  sea divers suit and a jukebox.

Mead  sees himself as an industrial designer first, and a film designer second. "I do a lot of work for films. which I enjoy very much. But I have a rule  that film work never accounts for more than a third on my corporations output.  This allows me to work on a more diverse range of projects, coming from industry  as well as Hollywood." This rule has also helped to stave off the  effects of recession.

Amongst  Meads industrial commissions have been concept illustrations for NASA, an ultra  modern market place and the interior of a futuristic disco in Tokyo.

[next]