Media are not just everywhere around us – we consume, use, mediate and digest media on a daily basis. As the media also mirrors and influences the society it is produced in, it is a fruitful subject within the field of cultural studies. This course introduces students to the study of media and its interrelations with culture, society and itself, laying particular emphasis on film studies and gender representations within media. After an overview on various aspects of media history, media theory, and media analysis, we will focus on selected American science fiction movies and occasionally look at some TV series and video games. Artificial intelligence(s) and future technologies have interested and fascinated directors and viewers but also influenced developments in computer science and artificial intelligence, which then inspired directors for new media productions. Therefore, sci-fi media are a fruitful ground for the study of the mutual influences of media, culture and society. Although the course focuses on a specific genre, the students will be provided with a toolkit to critically analyze media productions in general and from various angles.
Which media productions we/you will take a closer look on depends on their availability on streaming platforms (Netflix, Prime, Disney+) during the winter term. Possible films and TV series we will look into are:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Terminator franchise (1984-2019)
Aliens (1986)
Total Recall (1990)
The Fifth Element (1997)
The Matrix franchise (1999-2021)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Minority Report (2002)
I, Robot (2004)
WALL-E (2008)
Surrogates (2009)
Total Recall (2012)
Prometheus (2012)
Her (2013)
Ex Machina (2014)
Chappie (2015)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Love, Death and Robots (2019-present)
Upload (2020-present)
You will watch some of the films completely, I will use excerpts from others in class. You may, of course, watch all of them! If you have a specific American sci-fi production in mind, which you would like to work on although it is not on this list, no problem. In our first session, we will take a look at the films and series available and can make some minor adjustments to the list according to your general preferences and interests.
We might also look into these video games:
Mass Effect 2 (2010)
Mass Effect 3 (2012)
Detroit: Become Human (2018)
Readings and material: A selection of texts will be provided; the films we will work with are available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ respectively.
Requirements: The introductory part of the course will be accompanied by readings and small writing assignments, students will give a presentation, either in class or as a recording (depending on the number of participants), and write a short essay, which has to be handed in until April 30. |
