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2001 Essay

The set design of 2001: A Space Odyssey is analyzed. The design predicted modern technologies like touchscreens and video calls. It also conveyed a sense of danger and alienation through curved hallways and replicated spaces. Contemporary yet forward-looking furniture and non-geometric designs maintained verisimilitude of a possible future society.

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10 views3 pages

2001 Essay

The set design of 2001: A Space Odyssey is analyzed. The design predicted modern technologies like touchscreens and video calls. It also conveyed a sense of danger and alienation through curved hallways and replicated spaces. Contemporary yet forward-looking furniture and non-geometric designs maintained verisimilitude of a possible future society.

Uploaded by

jude.rowe
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Jude Rowe – Design Case Study.

The Set design of this scene in 2001: a Space Odyssey, is typical of science-fictional design and it’s
influence on the everyday world.

First, the design is predictive of modern technology as the infrastructure of the pre-1970 set is
contemporaneous to the modern day. The set design is also utilized to instill us with an unerring
sense of fear, leaning on the themes of social alienation and human constructs (physical or societal)
preventing harmony. Lastly, the set uses then-new design whilst developing diegetic prototypes to
remain as futuristic as possible.

The Technology of the film’s set is forward thinking. Science fiction has long been associated with
“anticipation of future possibilities based on extrapolation from…technological trends”1. We see a
touch screen Coffee and Bar drinks dispensers and the picturephone, exact prediction the then-
future of technology. We see also the use of clones in the female members of hotel staff.
“[there is a] General myth among laymen that, somehow, the chief function of a science fiction writer
is to make predictions that eventually come true.”- I.Asimov2

Science fiction has long been seen as the herald of future technologies. Stanley Kubrick’ set
designers attempted to design a set that would replicate a possible future using their knowledge as
engineers3. This ensured the adherence to the trope of predicting technology by his devotion to
verisimilitude. We also see the failiure to predict correctly certain technologies; clones are not yet a
part of daily life, yet perhaps their inclusion plays into ourfears of irellevancy as in Blade Runner
(1982)

The set design purveys a sense of unknowable danger, a central tension common to science fiction;
The Call of Cthulu (1926), and The Matrix (1999) are popular examples. The set designers use the set
to keep us suspicious of the environment. The curving of the corridor obscures both its length and
who or what may be found along it all while establishing a nauseating. The harsh lighting deprives us
of shadows and a full spatial sense of the set. The two desks visible appear to be replications of each
other, evoking the idea of an ever-repeating environment. Fear is not played for dread, but for a
lingering feeling of never being at ease and having to ’keep your guard up’, as is true for Dr Haywood
with the Russians. Science fiction often “represent[s] the decline of community, [and] modern
alienation”4. The set serves to play into these themes by giving us reason to distrust when we
observe the interactions of Dr Floyd and the Russians by showing us that there is something
dangerous that we don’t know.

Lastly, the design utilizes contemporary yet forward looking designs as well as ideas developed
bearing in mind current technological advancements to maintain verisimilitude. The Djinn chair and
stool sets (Olivier Morgue) are results of space age influence on sixties design. Similar designs such
as the Eclipse lamp (Vico Magistretti) and the Lunar Rocket fabric design (Eddie Squire) can also
found in Phillipe Garner’s sixties design5. One of the primary feature of these pieces is the use of
curves and non-straight forms to silhouette the designs. In a post-Bauhaus environment after the
rise of post-war brutalism, divergence from blocky geometric silhouettes signaled modernity.
Furthering the advance look of the society the characters of 2001: A Space Odyssey live in.
Bibliography

1. Parrinder, Patrick. Science Fiction. 2005. Web.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/northumbria/reader.action?docID=1460912

2. Westfahl, Gary., Wong. Kin Yuen, and Amy. Kit-sze Chan. Science Fiction and the Prediction
of the Future : Essays on Foresight and Fallacy. Jefferson: McFarland &,, 2011. Critical
Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy 27. Web.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/northumbria/reader.action?docID=665211

3. Schwam, Stepahie, The Making Of 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2000, New York, New York:
Modern Library. Web.

https://archive.org/details/makingof2001spac0000unse

4. Lukas, Scott A., and John Marmysz. Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation : Horror,
Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade. Lanham, Md.: Lexington, 2009. Web.

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/northumbria/reader.action?docID=1043782

5. Garner, Philippe. Sixties Design. Köln ; London: Taschen, 2003. Print.

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