Scriptwriters, filmmakers and scientists reflected on science and fiction this Tuesday in the framework of the Future Congress 2021, the main meeting of scientists and intellectuals in Chile, which will take place online until Thursday.
They were Julio Rojas, screenwriter and writer, director of Development at Fabula TV; Jorge Olguín, founder and director of Olguín Films; Libya Brenda, Freelance writer and editor; and Felipe Asenjo, Associate Professor at the Adolfo Ibáñez University.
Brenda, who participates in the interdisciplinary group Cúmulo de Tesla, highlighted that the constant exchange she makes with scientists to write her books allows gains for both parties. It makes it easier for writers to access scientific knowledge, and for researchers to learn about issues “of art that perhaps otherwise would not see in the same way, but they also learn to think outside the known scheme, on the playful, free side.”
“The most interesting thing is the dialogue, the act of exchanging information and sharing a way of approaching knowledge and creativity,” he added, while commenting that he is currently preparing a children’s book about women who changed the world in science and art.
Regarding the pandemic and the future, Brenda said that “we are capable of doing things well” and wondered “what seeds we can sow for a better future.”
“I am not blind optimism, I am very realistic, but I do believe that hope is very important, and literature and science and art put at your service. So we can create better things.”
“We are going to continue making mistakes, but we can and we are going to do better. Not outright, not Manicheanly, but in a humane way. That is my bet. I would like to think that the work we do together in Latin America will advance” He added, and insisted on the importance of “building a community”, something that was evident during the confinement.
Science fiction link
Asenjo acknowledged that it is difficult for him to get out of his “being a scientist” when watching science fiction, although he recognizes that it must have its fantastic component depending on the story. He also said that the exchange between writers and scientists “is the best way to produce science fiction,” and that uncertainty – like the current one – is the best circumstance to produce knowledge.
The scientist named the film “Interstellar” (USA, 2014), which stood out not only as a story, but also as a visual experience. Also the description of the passage of time in an interstellar trip or of a worm, “which is shown as it is. Science is the protagonist.” The opposite happened with the series “Dark” (Germany, 2017), “where science is not well explained and time travel is magic”.
“The best possible science fiction is one where the writer recognizes what is being done in current science”, as happened with writers who predicted the future.
He also pointed out that science fiction has influenced scientists, as was the case with the series “Voyage to the stars” (USA, 1966), “which predicted many things” in a world where discrimination and poverty had been eliminated. thanks to science, which allowed faster travel to light thanks to “warp” speed. And he named the example of the Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, who proved that this was possible.
He also highlighted the importance of creativity in science, and gave examples of “creative leap”. First the work of Galileo Galilei, who knew how to recognize that geometry described the elements of nature, specifically with the parable when explaining the path of a bullet. Then the work of Isaac Newton and the trajectories, specifically the ellipse, with the rotation of the moon around the Earth. In this sense, “the work of science is similar to art”, because it is carried out outside, in contrast to the caricature of the scientist in a laboratory.
Science and cinema
In Olguín’s case, he highlighted the importance of talking to scientists when making his films. An example is his first film, “Ángel Negro” (Chile, 2000), where he turned to a doctor because the story was about a thanatologist.
Also with “Caleuche” (Chile, 2012) “I needed to understand marine biology, that universe”, since in the film a marine biologist faces a mythological being.
Olguín recalled that one of the first films in the cinema was “The trip to the moon”, inspired by the French writer Jules Verne, and pointed out that in this sense the seventh art has always reflected the fantasies and fears of the human being. In his case, “one projects what one feels.” And he stressed that every science fiction film, “even the crudest”, makes more than one viewer leave the movie theater and start investigating the issue.
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