Libraries, Archives and the Future of Information

Vector 298 (Nov 2023) is now unsealed: bit.ly/Vector298

As the guest editors Stewart Baker and Phoenix Alexander write in their editorial:

The articles in this issue of Vector work in both directions, teasing out the ways archives and libraries can be informed by SFF works while also exploring the assumptions SFF works make about libraries and archives.

In “The Librarian, The Computer, The Android, and Big Data,” Nichole Nomura and Quinn Dombrowski ask the question of whether librarians exist in the future of Star Trek—certainly a topic of relevance to today’s “AI search” upheavals. In “The Queen a Librarian Dreams of,” Kathryn Yelinek examines the connection between information literacy and restorative justice in the fantasy world of Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue.

Next up are a pair of trips through fictional archives. In “Archives, Information, and Fandom,” Tom Ue and James Munday consider how the Halliday Journals from the world of Ready Player One present the impacts of (mis)direction and information surplus on researchers. Grace Catherine Greiner’s “Finding Nothing Can be Finding Something” explores the capital-A Archives in Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles, with its interest in medievalisms, access, and “simultaneous bookishness and orality.”

Hopping back to libraries, Guangzhou Lyu’s “Library of Disassembled Past” takes a look at a floating library in China Mieville’s The Scar, exploring how libraries can serve as places of “deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation.” In “Magic and Critical Librarianship,” Ellie Campbell interrogates the ways libraries and other memory institutions can institutionalise racism, colonialism, misogyny, and homophobia, as shown in three fantasy short stories. And the last article in the issue, Monica Evans’s “You Are the Library,”considers how digital games can engage players in “library-like mechanics,” drawing on the long history of the value of information and exploration in game design.

Whether you’re a librarian thinking about installing a science fiction reading room, a fantasy novelist looking for worldbuilding nuggets for your next doorstopper about nautical librarians, a SFF academic who’s intrigued by archives concepts in games, or just someone who’s stopped by the information desk of this editorial to ask where the metaphorical toilets are, we hope you’ll enjoy your time with the insightful explorations of libraries, archives, and the future of information that make up this issue of Vector!

Cover by Kalina Winska. Original artwork title: The ethereal and eternal contest, with no winners and no losers, occasional bursts of anger, frustration, and perhaps…shame; waves of humility are often too weak to reach the edge of the world. (graphite, acrylic paint, gouache, and ink on wood panel, 36 x 48 inches, 2020).

Applied Science Fiction

Definition: Applied science fiction is “science fiction that is trying to do something, to not only glimpse but also shape the future.” Jo Lindsay Walton

Vector 297 Futures is now available to download.

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The ‘Futures’ issue of Vector is a collaboration between the British Science Fiction Association and the Institute for Development Studies, guest-edited by Stephen Oram. Our biggest issue to date, it explores how the opportunities, risks and limitations of harnessing science fiction all depend on who is applying it and how. Vector: Futures is a treasure trove of projects that aim to use science fiction to change the real world, showcasing interventions from fields as diverse as statistics, military intelligence, social activism, climate policy, decision science, technology and art.

Several pieces consider milestones for artificial intelligence and creativity, including SF writer Fiona Moore interviewing AI scientist Hod Lipson, and AI scientist Mackenzie Jorgensen interviewing SF writer Eli Lee, while Paul March-Russell and Dilman Dila both reflect on positive examples of AI/artist collaborations. Other interviewees include Andrew Merrie and Pat Keys, two of the leaders of the Radical Ocean Futures project, and Shanice Da Costa, art director for UNHCR’s Innovation Service’s Project Unsung. Interventions by SF writers in environment, science and policy domains are the subject of several articles, including those by Allen Stroud, Emma Johanna Puranen, Benjamin Greenaway, Dillon & Craig, Finch & Mahon, Fredström et al. and Pereira et al. Sara Stoudt reflects on statistics as a kind of science fictional thinking. Articles by Seeger and Davison-Vecchione and by Will Slocombe gives the issue’s theme a further twist, exploring science fictional representations of forecasting and prediction, and how science fiction itself might shape our applied science fiction imaginaries. Vector: Futures also features regular BSFA favourites, including Kincaid in Short, and Vector Recommends (selections from The BSFA Review).

The editorial, ‘Torque Control: Apply Science Fiction Here’ scopes the ground for this issue, and for applied science fiction as a whole. Whether you’re a longtime science fiction fan or writer, or a policymaker, practitioner, researcher or organiser interested in the power of arts and culture, there should be something in this issue for you.

Vector 296 SFF and Justice

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Vector 296 SFF and Justice

Vector 296,SFF & Justice, is guest edited by Stewart Hotston. Arriving November 2022. Featuring Stewart Hotston’s guest editorial on SF and justice, reviews by Arike Oke, Geoff Ryman, Phil Nicholls, Andy Sawyer, and Maureen Kincaid Speller from The BSFA Review, an interview plus article from Gautum Bhatia, interview plus book excerpt from Roman Krznaric, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne interviewed, BSFA Diversity Officer Ali Baker interviewed, Jo Lindsay Walton on art and artificial intelligence, Áron Domokos on the representation of the Roma in Hungarian SFF, Charne Lavery, Laura Pereira, Bwalya Chibwe, Nedine Moonsamy, Chinelo Onwaulu, and Naomi Terry on the use of Africanfuturist SF in rethinking how we value and care for nature, Guangzhao Lyu reporting on this year’s Science Fiction Research Association’s Futures from the Margins conference in Oslo, and a tribute to Maureen Kincaid Speller.

Vector 295 Greek SFF

Now available to download

Vector 295 Greek SFF

Vector 295, Greek SFF, is guest edited by Phoenix Alexander. Arriving April 2022. Featuring interviews with Nick Mamatas, Yanis Varoufakis, Polis Loizou, Mikhail Karikis and Alexis Panayiotou and contributions by Christos Callow Jr, Dimitra Nikolaidou, Paul Kincaid, Vasso Christou and others.

Cover by Mikhail Karikis.

Vector 294 SFF and Class

Vector 294 is now available to download.

We open issues to the public after about two years. An index of back issues of Vector can be found at the ISFDB. For the availability of individual print issues, please contact us.

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Vector 294, SFF and Class, is guest-edited by Nick Hubble. Featuring ksenia fir on labour in outer space, Paul Kincaid on Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, Guangzhao LYU on Wei Ma’s “Formerly Slow” and Hao Jingfang’s “Folding Beijing,” So Mayer on Star Trek: Discovery, Marie Vibbert‘s survey of class representation in SFF, Farah Al Yaquot on Petrosyan’s The Gray House, Ali Baker on de Larrabeiti’s Borribles, Andi C. Buchanan on Cipri’s Finna, and an extensive guest editorial from Nick Hubble.

Cover by Sinjin Li.

Vector 293 Chinese SF

Vector 293 (2021) is now available to download.

We open issues to the public after about two years. An index of back issues of Vector can be found at the ISFDB. For availability of individual print issues, please contact us.

Many earlier issues of Vector are also available for download on this site, or through FANAC. Digital editions of more recent issues are available to BSFA members.

Vector 293 Chinese SFDownload

Cover: Cao Fei, *Blueprints* (Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, 2020). Photo credit: Gautier Deblonde.
Inside page: Cao Fei, *Nova*, 2019, Video, 109’. Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space and Sprüth Magers. Back cover: Cao Fei, *Asia One*, 2018, Video, 63’20”. Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space and Sprüth Magers

Vector 293 is a collaboration with guest editors Yen Ooi and Regina Kanyu Wang. Yen Ooi introduces the issue as well as many of its recurring concepts, such as techno-orientalism. Regina Kanyu Wang takes us through the history of women writing SF in China. Artist and curator Angela Chan interviews Beatrice Glow about her work with colonial histories and the ability of science fiction to ‘tell truthful histories and envision just futures together’ through art. The conversation about history, futures, science fiction and art continues in Dan Byrne-Smith’s interview with Gordon Cheung. Chinese SF scholars Mia Chen Ma, Frederike Schneider-Vielsäcker and Mengtian Sun offer glimpses of their recent and ongoing research. Authors Maggie Shen King (An Excess Male) and Chen Qiufan (Waste Tide) interview each other about their recent novels. Feng Zhang introduces us to the SF fandom in China, while Regina Kanuy Wang brings us up to speed with accelerating Chinese SF industry. Dev Agarwal questions the maturity of the Chinese SF blockbuster as can be judged from Shanghai Fortress and The Wandering Earth (both available on Netflix). Virginia L. Conn explores Sinofuturism, while Emily Xueni Jin delves into the implications of translating a growing body of SF work from Chinese into English. We learn about the global perspectives on Chinese SF from an illustrious panel assembled at WorldCon 2019, and about transnational speculative folklore of the Uyghur people from Sandra Unerman. Niall Harrison completes the issue with an illuminating survey of Chinese short SF in the 21st Century.

Front and back cover images by Cao Fei (front photo credit: Gautier Deblonde), courtesy of the Serpentine Gallery.

Vector 292 Speculative Art

Vector #292 Download

Cover art by Fabrice Monteiro
Back cover: Juliana Huxtable

This special issue of Vector is all about SFF and contemporary art, guest-edited by Rhona Eve Clews. In this issue, Smin Smith explores transmedia worlding in Marine Serre’s FutureWear, while Alexander Buckley and Hannah Galbraith offer a selection some of the most exciting SFF-themed art from contemporary African artists. Declan Lloyd examines the tempestuous temporalities of the artist Neo Rauch, while Rachel Hill traces the twisting threads of Sinofuturism, cyberpunk, and AI futures in the work of artist Lawrence Lek. Frank L. Cioffi takes us on a tour through the science fictionality of conceptual art, while Alex Butterworth delves into the mysteries of Damien Hirst’s The Wreck of The Unbelievable and conducts his own speculative imaginings about the future of digital curation.

We’re also delighted to include interviews with the incredible artists Julianna Huxtable and Sensory Cartographies (Jonathan Reus and Sissel Marie Tonn). Artist and researcher Stephanie Moran discusses her art practice in ‘Eco-SciFi Art and Interspecies Technology.’

Andrew M. Butler reviews Science Fiction, edited by Dan Byrne-Smith and featuring contributions about SFF and art from Margaret Atwood, J. G. Ballard, Rosie Braidotti, Rachel Carson, Donna Haraway, Xin Wang, and many others. In Kincaid in Short, Paul Kincaid looks at Art and Science in Charles Harness’s ‘The Rose,’ and Vector Recommends brings you Fiona Moore on Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora and Eugen Bacon on The Perfect Nine.

This issue also includes information on the diversity and anti-racism motions passed at the BSFA’s 2020 AGM, and a message from the Chair Allen Stroud about current opportunities for volunteering with the BSFA. In a special editorial, guest editor Rhona Eve Clews explores this issue’s wealth of words in conversation with Stephanie Moran. It’s a bumper issue at 88 pages. To get a copy, join the BSFA.

Front cover by Fabrice Monteiro, back cover by Juliana Huxtable.

Vector #291

BSFA members can access the full Vector archives, including the most recent issues, by logging into the main BSFA site.

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Vector291 - 22 June — Cover art by David Lunt

In this issue you’ll find several insightful articles: “The Dystopian Narrative: an Analysis of Texts that Portray Nightmarish Futures” by Giovanna Chinellato; “The Needle and the Wedge: Digital Games as a Medium for Science Fiction” by Monica Evans; and “Amazofuturism and Indigenous Futurism in Brazilian Science Fiction” by Gama and Garcia.

There’s also an exciting array of interviews, including “This Is How You Produce The Time War”: Powder Scofield interviews Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone; “Another Kind of Party”: Vector interviews Catherynne M. Valente; “The Science and the Politics”: Vector interviews Nancy Kress; “Actions and Reactions and Ripple Effects”: Liz Lutgendorff interviews Valerie Valdes; “Living among the Leviathans”: Robert S. Malan interviews Stewart Hotston; and “More Politics, More Magic, and More Queer”: Alison Baker interviews Juliet Kemp.

Paul Kincaid‘s regular column, “Kincaid in Short,” is devoted in Vector 291 to a short story by Brian Aldiss, “The Girl and the Robot with Flowers”. There are three highlighted book reviews from The BSFA Review by Andy Sawyer, Maureen Kincaid Speller and Kate Onyett, as well as a special review-essay by Nick Hubble about Sideways in Time: Critical Essays on Alternate History Fiction, edited by Glyn Morgan and C. Palmer-Patel. Finally, this issue features a review-essay by Dev Agarwal “Us: A film about ‘Them’?”, a conference report by Jasmine Sharma on “Productive Futures: The Political Economy of Science Fiction,” and several artworks by the artist David Lunt.

Vector #290

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The last two issues of Vector had themes — #288’s ‘Future Economics’ and #289’s ‘African and Afrodiasporic SF’ — but this issue is once more a Deck of Many Things. Andrew Wallace reveals all about judging the Clarke Award. Christina Scholz recounts linguistic revolutions in Milton and Miéville. Stephen Baxter reflects on AI and Thunderbirds and Paul Kincaid discusses the late great Iain [M.] Banks. Katie Stone reviews Sophie Lewis’s Full Surrogacy Now, while Vector Recommends brings you Paul Graham Raven on Nick Harkaway’s Gnomon and Nick Hubble on Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. We’ve got interviews with Emma Newman and Yoon Ha Lee, and glimpses from SF fandom around the world with reports from WorldCon 2019 and IceCon 2018. We hope you enjoy.

Cover by Andrea Morreau.

Vector 289 African SF

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Vector #289 (August 2019) is a special issue on African and Afrodiasporic SF, guest edited by Michelle Louise Clarke. It includes articles by Michelle Louise Clarke, Anwuli Okeke, and Chinelo Onwualu on the state of contemporary SFF across Africa and the African diaspora; Jonathan Hay on clipping.’s Splendor & Misery; Kate Harlin on Afrofuturism and Afro-Pessimism in Black Panther and the short fiction of T.J. Benson; Päivi Väätänen on Nnedi Okorafor’s short fiction; Lidia Kniaź on African SFF cinema by Miguel Llansó and Wanuri Kahiu; Andy Sawyer on AfroSF Vol. 3 ed. Ivor W. Hartmann; Gemma Field on Nnedi Okorafor and ecological crisis, Nick Wood on South African comics; Masimba Musodza on the experience of writing SFF in ChiShona; plus Polina Levontin interviewing Dilman Dila, Louisa Egbunike interviewing Wole Talabi, and Joan Grandjean interviewing Mounir Ayache.

Cover: Ronnie McGrath

You can order a print copy here.