Dream city: more, better, sooner

16 MINUTES

The fate of a London landmark inspires a feverish rumination on progress

Here comes the Dream City, an illuminated tower of electric light. There goes the Dream City, left on a page, in a box, in a dream.

On the south bank of the river Thames in London, Battersea has evolved over the centuries from an agricultural district, to a commerce and rail centre, to an energy hub, to a forest of high-end high-rises. Since the 1930s, the area has been defined by Battersea Power Station – a towering, brick landmark of Art Deco architecture that once burned coal to provide electricity for the sprawling metropolis. Since the power station’s shutdown in 1983, developers have tried to rebrand the former working-class area into an upmarket neighbourhood of the future. In 2016, Apple announced plans to convert a portion of the power station into its new UK headquarters, with the remainder of the building to be filled by luxury apartments, shops, restaurants and theatres.

Named after an abandoned proposal to build an amusement park on the power station site, Dream City (2016) by the UK artist Alice May Williams is an experimental short that ruminates on the area’s past, present and future. In a whirlwind monologue, a disembodied voice summons the dispassionate language of a mindfulness instructor whose words seem to encourage a woman peering out at the the power station to be present with her body and breath, and resist being drawn into ‘past failures or future plans’.

But, just like a racing mind that tries to stay tuned to a meditation, the voice soon spirals into loosely associated, free-flowing thoughts. Poetic tangents that comment on Battersea’s perpetual state of flux gain a frantic momentum. Likewise, a flurry of images jump in and out of the present. Modern scenes of Battersea flicker into archival footage of its industrial past, and computer-generated renderings of what developers promise will be a far better future. Throughout, the film’s cascading narration and visuals are anchored by a pulsing, ambient score that seems to evoke a heartbeat, or perhaps the ceaseless pounding of construction.

While Williams evokes the whims of a runaway stream of consciousness, her film’s overall effect is deliberate. From an intertwining amalgamation of words, music and images, it generates a disquieting mood that, although plotless, seems to build to a climax. And, while the work is focused on a small pocket of London, its portrait of place taps into something universal about contemporary urban life. Peering into Battersea, Williams channels the cynicism evoked by corporate promises of a techno-utopian future. And, through the vernacular of mindfulness, she voices the anxieties that so often accompany the steady drumbeat of progress, marching ever-onward towards an uncertain future.

Written by Adam D’Arpino

Explore more

Photo of a person holding a tortoise above a container with leaves against a tiled wall.
Psyche Exclusive

High in the Alps, Kathleen takes extraordinary steps to keep a pet safe through the winter

Directed by G Anthony Svatek

Impressionist painting of a green Japanese bridge over a pond with water lilies surrounded by lush greenery in a garden setting.

Monet understood the elusive power of a place’s atmosphere

The gist of a scene or place can subtly alter our very sense of being, an affecting quality captured by Monet’s paintings

by Pablo Fernandez Velasco

A traffic light showing a green transgender symbol in front of a historic city square with statues and buildings.

To see your home city anew, try this

See a city through a visitor’s eyes to capture feelings you’ve lost, or never had – it’s the vicarious construal effect

by Elena Seymenliyska

Four people enjoying churros with coffee at an outdoor cafe table, engaging in conversation and laughter.

Are people less talkative these days?

A study explores how many words people use a day, whether women really speak more than men, and whether we’re talking less

by Matt Huston

Close-up photo of an elderly man with a beard wearing a black cap, lying in a hospital bed, looking content.

After four decades in prison, Big D contemplates the brave new world that awaits him

Directed by Laura Tejero Núñez

Illustration of a room with a person lounging on a bed, a pink dresser, a table with cups and a plant.
AUTISM

A mysterious black orb trails Mo, growing ever harder to ignore

A film by Gil Goletski

Photo of a man sunbathing on a rooftop next to a large satellite dish.

Why it’s possible to be optimistic in a world of bad news

The original optimist, Leibniz, was mocked and misunderstood. Centuries later, his worldview can help us navigate modern life

by Sumit Paul-Choudhury

Scene from a film with three characters walking from a futuristic spacecraft in a city setting.

We need the toolkit of utopian thinking, now more than ever

Many dismiss utopian ideas. But imagining a better world is a vital political skill for tackling today’s challenges

by Caitlin Rajan