Deathstarchitecture

The Space of Evil

Abstract

How is the evil of the Evil Empire of the Star Wars universe constructed and codified in its spaces? In SW space is binary : the spatial cues of Deathstarchitecture – its slick surfaces, rational codes, restricted color palates, alienated unscarred unmarked surfaces, corporate culture and lack of any bathrooms or amenities – oppose it to the good Rebellion which is marked by aged, rough and marked surfaces and a deeply-inscribed sense of historical place, ornament and habitation. Here the spatial theories of non-place (Augé : 1995, 2002, 2004) and of the Third Space (Oldenburg : 1989, 1999) help us see both how spatial codes in the Star Wars universe manufactures its concepts of good and evil, and also how its spaces – and therefore its sense of ‘palpable evil’ – changes over decades. Certain spatial differences between the 1977 Death Star of A New Hope and 2015’s StarKiller Base in The Last Jedi reveal that by wordlessly expressing the audience’s actual, unevenly-shared and historically-determined social and spatial background, space in a fictional universe can be less stable than a canon that is more overtly fixed in the dialogue and actions of characters. This spatial slippage can also help unveil profound shifts and social disjunction in its audiences.