Time splits in two: on one side, junk time - accelerations, loops, and fatigue produced by technology and capitalism, on the other, deep, Neolithic and underwater times that flow beyond our spectrum. In this fracture takes shape Hito Steyerl’s The Island, a visual narrative that uses science fiction and the logics of quantum physics to reorder space and storytelling. The project interweaves four trajectories - Lucciole, The Artificial Island, The Birth of Science Fiction, Flash! - ranging from microorganisms to galaxies, from poetry to pop culture, and even low-resolution content generated by AI. At its core, a new film expands into an installation: sculptures, structures, and video interviews form an archipelago of dimensional passages where data and fiction contaminate one another. The theoretical trigger is an anecdote by Darko Suvin: in emergencies, imagining “other worlds” becomes a survival technique. Steyerl translates this into experience: flooding as a recurring motif, AI-fueled authoritarian drift, political pressure on science, and the climate crisis. The result is a device of estrangement that doesn’t ask us to believe in science fiction, but to use it as a critical tool to see multiple realities at once.
