Custom Subject: Media Studies（Media and Technology）
Post your review of the film (approximately 230 words)
Film: Moon (2009; 97 minutes), directed by Duncan Jones
Note: Students who do not meet course prerequisites will be automatically dropped at the
end of Week 1.
Course Description
From the first depiction of a cyborg in Metropolis (1927) to the Web-based surveillance devices
of Minority Report (2002), science fiction film is central to organizing cultural discourse around
technology through its ability to popularize specific images of new technologies—those real,
those imaginary, and those coming “in the near future”. SF film simultaneously suggests,
critiques, and contributes to a range of cultural attitudes about technology, spanning from the
technophilic to the dystopic. In doing so it encapsulates what Raymond Williams refers to in The
Long Revolution (1960) as the “structure of feeling—not only formally held systematic beliefs
but the meanings and values as they are actively lived and felt in a specific time and place. The
course therefore interrogates the cultural and social meaning of technology as it is presented in
selected films and other representations drawn from popular media by examining how they
depict and ideologically frame new technologies for their spectators.
The course is divided into three interrelated parts:
Part I: “Designing the Future”: Film and Technological Prototypes
Examines the relationship among filmic representations of technology and the
development, acceptance, and social diffusion of new technologies
Films viewed: Moon (2009), Destination Moon (1950), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968),
Minority Report (2002).
Part II: “Thing-like imitators of humankind”: Robots, Cyborgs, and Replicants
Examines the “Thing-like imitators of humankind” that directly express “the interactions
between the human and the technological that lie at the very heart of science fiction”1
Films viewed: Metropolis (1927), Forbidden Planet (1956), RoboCop (1987), Blade
Runner: The Director’s Cut (1997).
Part III: Intelligent Agents and the Contemporary Technological Moment
Examines how selected films configure the idea of the virtual and their meaning(s) for
those embodied on this side of the screen
Films viewed Her (2014), ExMachina (2014), Black Mirror episode (2014)
1 J.P. Telotte, Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film, 1995
2
Course Learning Objectives
1. Develop insight into how SF filmic representations encode and promote specific
ideological understandings of technology
2. Develop insight into how SF filmic representations reflect and contribute to cultural
attitudes, both technophilic and dystopic, toward new technology
3. Develop a deeper understanding of critical media studies theory and the applicability
of theories of technology, cyborg subjectivity, and virtuality to understanding film as a
media form
4. Develop greater appreciation for historically significant SF films
Course Readings
There is no textbook. All required readings are available on Blackboard or via links to the
University of Toronto library.
You will be expected to screen some films outside of class via University of Toronto library and
other online sources. Copies of films may also be obtained from course instructor.
Please complete all readings and view films before we meet.
Method of Evaluation: 3 Exams
Exam I = 25%
Exam II = 25%
Exam III = 25%
Participation = 25% (based on film reviews on discussion board, contributions
to/comments on other reviews on discussion board, and contributions to class discussions)
Exam Part I and Exam Part II will be administered online and will test your understanding of
course content, including lectures, readings, and film content/plot. Students will have 2 hours to
complete the exam, which will consist of multiple choice, true/false, matching, fill-in-the-blank,
short answer/short essay.
The final exam is scheduled by the Registrar’s Office and will be announced in class. The final
exam will require your physical attendance and is not administered online.
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