Popular Culture
Firrell has declared his belief that mass, rather than high, culture may well be the more powerful shaper of our ideas about how to live rich and fruitful lives.
"I would argue that popular shows have an immense cultural importance because their popularity makes them powerful 'carriers' of ideas. If you think about Trek, it has been spreading powerful ideas about tolerance (for example) for 50 years or so. Every rerun is a chance to open another person's eyes to the truths that we need each other if we are to live good lives, and that the differences between us, strengthen us. Every rerun of Voyager shows the world that it is unremarkable that a women should be the ultimate authority figure."
The Sci Fi Series project (working title) mines popular American television science fiction for helpful ideas and philosophical truths with direct bearing on the project of enriching lived experience.
Contributors include Kate Mulgrew (aka Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek Voyager), Joe Flanigan (aka Colonel John Sheppard, Stargate Atlantis), Torri Higginson (aka Dr Elizabeth Weir, Stargate Atlantis), Ben Browder (aka Commander John Crichton, Farscape).
Interviewed by SFX Magazine in January 2011, Firrell stated, “I am interested in the power of popular culture to disseminate sound ideas about how to live productive, intriguing and valuable lives. It struck me that popular culture is often looked down on by 'serious' critics or commentators. I wanted to use my privileged position as an artist to counter this by taking a very long, deep and critical view of the ideas in science fiction and their potential value when applied to our daily lives.
"Truth is, I have little or no idea about how to live a good life myself, and my experience suggests that we are all equally baffled and all equally in need of ideas and advice. Science Fiction is as good as source as any, in my opinion - maybe a better source than most. So the Sci Fi Series project is intended to create a platform for thinking about what might be important and helpful to us all."
Read more about this topic: Martin Firrell
Famous quotes related to popular culture:
“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)