Utopia/Dystopia/Narrative/Tech

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Over the course of the past two decades, the internet and digital technologies have been positioned as variously solving and causing any number of the world’s major social, political and economic crises. While the pendulum of positive and negative public perceptions about the impact of technology has always swung wildly in various cycles of illusion and disillusion, the pace with which these profound changes takes place has sped up to the point of near-incomprehensible oscillations. At the same time, it has never been more important to make sense of these fluctuations and locate some sense of truth within the tensions of promise and peril that underscore so many of our society’s techno-utopian and dystopian fantasies, dreams and fears. If we are to approach any kind of research, design, policymaking or public communications projects, we first need to understand the rhetorical spaces in which our imaginations play and process framing and fracture. It is from this foundation that we can then begin to understand our own positionality in complex sociotechnical systems. With grounding in Adorno and Horkheimer’s theories about dialectical relationships driving public perceptions of art, politics, persuasion and culture, this course will examine a range of technological tensions that have been taken up by creative works of writing, filmmaking, music, activism and immersive theater. Each session will focus on one recurrent narrative theme in which the role of technology has tended toward utopian or dystopian visions in response to current events, economic incentives or sociopolitical factors. While some aspects of the course will be co-created with students, significant discussion and critique will be devoted to narratives about digital equity, privacy and surveillance, youth and technology, health and wellbeing and intellectual property. Students should expect to come to each class having completed core assignments of reading, watching and/or listening to the material of our inquiry, while also contributing some form of writing and peer review either before or during our meeting. The structure of the class will support a collaborative community of practice that each student should approach with curiosity, generosity and a commitment to contributing what is expected of each class member. This course will also include guest speakers who will further enrich our discussions and help students understand how the critical theory and analysis work we do in class can translate into practice in a range of fields within and outside of academia.