Screening Outer Space: Reflections on Technotopian, Technopessimist, and Technostalgic Aspects of Representation

The article presents three distinct, historically persistent modes of representing outer space in film, i.e. the modes of technotopian, technopessimistic, and technoskeptical constellations of images and narratives. We argue that these modes reflect certain assumptions regarding the relationship between humankind, technology, and the image, and use the outlined triad to sketch the fairly recent genesis of the technostalgic moment of modern film production preoccupied with outer space, that is, the fascination of contemporary films with the history of space programs and their actors, with past space exploration technologies and, as elaborated in the article, with certain assumptions regarding the past modes of interaction between humankind, technology, outer space, and cinematic representations of outer space.

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