Cosmia Festival and the Constructing the Future symposium

CAN the futuristic world of science fiction help find solutions to present-day problems?  Organisers of a new annual sci-fi festival in Huddersfield believe that it can, and in the next edition they will focus on the contemporary climate crisis.  One response could be to encourage fans not to stock up on plastic action figures and cheap T-shirts.

The first Cosmia Festival, described as the UK’s first multi-arts event dedicated to science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction, has now taken place.  Its programme included a day-long symposium titled Constructing the Future, held at the University of Huddersfield – one of the festival partners.

This event attracted researchers from around the world who delivered papers on different dimensions of utopia and dystopia.  It was held at the University of Huddersfield’s Heritage Quay archives centre, where visitors also had a preview of items – including Star Trek scripts – deposited by Sir Patrick Stewart, the locally-born actor who played Captain Jean Luc Picard in the legendary sci-fi series.

Sir Patrick is Emeritus Chancellor of the University and the selection from his archive remains on display to the public until March, as part of an exhibition titled Visions of Better Worlds.

The Cosmia Festival also saw the launch of the Movement for Responsible Fandom.

“We want to start to imagine new ways of being a fan that don’t require plastic and cheap cotton and other unsustainable ways of operating,” explained Cosmia director David Smith.

“For example, instead of buying a hundred action figures, you just buy one,” he continued. “We don’t have all the answers yet.  But we want to start the conversation.”

The Movement for Responsible Fandom is a close fit with the theme of climate change and apocalyptic fiction that has been selected for Cosmia 2020.

“We, as a festival, are incredibly concerned with the climate emergency,” said David Smith, who works at Heritage Quay as Public Engagement Officer.  He has been an enthusiast for sci-fi since childhood and describes it as “a play pit or a test area or a mirror for ideas and concepts that are happening in the modern world”.

“Science fiction is almost always about the present day and can be a safe way of working through contemporary political concerns,” continued David.  For example, films about Martians and UFOs in the 1950s were a response to the Cold War.  The current popularity of The Handmaid’s Tale reflects current fears that human rights could be eroded.

David Smith devised Cosmia and when organising it with his team and partners the theme for the pilot edition was kept deliberately broad, in order to establish the festival.  Events, including talks and games, took place at a wide range of venues in the Huddersfield area, including Heritage Quay, Kirklees libraries and the Lawrence Batley Theatre.

Queensgate Market in Huddersfield is the setting for an exhibition titled The Persistence of Utopia, featuring work by University of Huddersfield artists and architects.  Major new BBC series His Dark Materials debuted during Cosmia, and festivalgoers were invited to experience it on the ‘Big Curvy Screen’ at Heritage Quay.

Constructing the Future symposium

At the University, students of English take a module on science fiction and one of the lecturers is Dr Nick Stavris, whose PhD, completed last year, dealt with dystopianism within apocalyptic writing.  He worked alongside Dr Allegra Hartley in devising the Constructing the Future symposium that was one of the key events of at Cosmia.

A call for papers resulted in a global response, and the symposium had talks from academics based in Hungary, Sweden and Mexico as well as the UK.  Now, there are plans to edit and publish a volume based on the proceedings, said Dr Stavris.

“‘Dystopia’ has become the word of the moment in the 21st century,” he explained.  “We don’t really have utopian narratives any more so we decided to see if we can find utopia inside dystopia.”

It was decided that Constructing the Future would be multi-disciplinary, so speakers came from academic backgrounds that included sociology, architecture, creative writing and music as well as literature.