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David Bowie, the British musician and actor, read George Orwell’s novel 1984 and imagined such scenes.

Several lifeless bodies lying on the sticky, gruesome road, decaying away. A red mutated eye gazes down upon the famine-stricken city. In the city devoid of energy, only rat-sized fleas that devour cat-sized mice run rampant. The Peoploids (robots) seek the highest point on the skyscrapers, occupying the Earth as beings that are neither animal nor mineral.

This scene depicting a bleak futuristic city is from the lyrics of Future Legend, released by Bowie in 1974. How did the novel 1984, which depicts the complete brainwashing and inner decay of humans who give up resistance under the control and surveillance of Big Brother, transform into the dystopian future city known as “Future Legend?”

Now, after half a century has passed, the future scenes imagined by Bowie carry a sense of déjà vu, as if they have been seen somewhere in science fiction work. The story of a protagonist struggling to survive in a desolate world dominated by robots seems to be a recurring theme in Hollywood blockbuster movies. However, experiencing face-to-face encounters with humanoid robots without the mediation of screens may lead to a change in perspective. This is because the future world that was once observed in the third person perspective becomes more personal when experienced from a first-person perspective.

ACT Festival 2023 - Future Legends Poster

The theme of this year’s ACT Festival, which celebrates its 8th anniversary this year, is “Future Legends.” The ACT Festival, with its theme “Future Legends,” presents various programs that reflect the vague unease and tangible fear that humans experience due to the rapid development of artificial intelligence, drawing inspiration from the song of the same name created by David Bowie. The ACT Festival provides a platform for direct audience engagement, where one can experience scenes that will be staged in the future, rather than pre-determined scenes following a set structure. Through the opportunity to reach out through the gaps of transparent time and feel the temperature of the future, the ACT Festival attempts to create a new discourse about the future city that we will build.

This ten-day festival is composed of exhibitions, performances, workshops, and talks. It shares the completed outcomes of the residency, research and development, and educational programs at the Asia Culture Center with the public. It also provides a platform for exchanging ideas with domestic and international collaborators and experts.

The exhibitions primarily consist of artworks that depict a virtual future city or encourage direct audience participation. Visitors can experience an interactive game that involves cutting ingredients through voice commands, VR videos depicting the past and future cities within virtual spaces, and immersive videos that overwhelm the audience with surreal architectural landscapes and ambient sounds. Through collaborations with domestic and international institutions, the festival showcases works by not only established artists but also emerging artists, engineers, and researchers, allowing visitors to closely examine the current state of cutting-edge technology in the arts.

In the field of performance, the festival first presents the interactive robot performance “Inferno” that involves audience participation. The immersive space of “Future Legends” is further expanded with the addition of powerful electronic beats, flashing lights, and DJing, enhancing the experience of the interactive robot performance that depicts a dystopian setting. Next, participants from ACC Residency and ACC Sound Lab present their research-based works on the theme of “The Future of Listening.” Selected through an open call on the theme of “Future City Culture,” visitors can also explore completed works that were created in collaboration with international institutions.

In the workshops, participants can collaborate in groups with their families or experts to explore the theme of “Investigating Future City Life” and complete their own projects. In the family workshops, participants have the opportunity to imagine and create future modes of transportation while learning about digital fabrication technologies. In the expert workshops, participants will explore the structure and functionality of electronic devices used in electronic music and create their own electronic instruments to play.

Lastly, in the Career & Talk session, attendees will have the opportunity to hear firsthand stories from creators, researchers, and planners about vivid experiences in the field. During this session, participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences, from the process of creating artworks to promotions and collaborations with international institutions. Through sharing ideas, philosophies, and expertise, they will discover inspiration and possibilities for new projects.

Lewis Mumford, a philosopher and critic of civilization, believed that through a balance of art and technology, it is possible to achieve the integrity of machine civilization. He named this ideal state “Eutopia.” In the novel 1984, O’Brien, who represents Big Brother, says, “The object of power is power.” This implies that controlling material resources is a means to control people’s minds and thoughts. Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.” Will the future city we face be a dystopia dependent on machines, or will it be a Eutopia harmonizing with technology? Drawing the first page of Future Legends, which stands at the crossroads of dystopia and Eutopia alongside the 2023 ACT Festival, would be an intriguing endeavor.