Science Fiction for Architects

Slipstream: Science Fiction Writing for Architects

This creative writing class familiarizes students
with the art of making the strange familiar or the
familiar strange. Students are introduced to genre
works, ranging from pre-cyberpunk SF to the
practice of "slipstream" and the New Weird. Both
experimental and traditional story-telling
techniques are reviewed with a special emphasis on
hybrid narrative forms, the collage film essay,
and architecture-based video games. Projects
including the short critical review, the short
story, film treatment, and video game script are
presented for peer review. Sub-genres include
Indigenous futurisms, Afrofuturism, space and
colonization, gender and science fiction, and
future cities. Materials for study range from the
renowned works of Sherman Alexie, Octavia Butler,
Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson,
and James Tiptree, Jr., to the current works of
Brian Evenson, Hao Jing Fang, Shesshu Foster,
Nnedi Okorafor and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.
Materials will be supplemented by the collage film
work of Craig Baldwin and guest lectures on
contemporary video games Soma, Observation, and
Outer Wilds among others.