194s Fantasy in Film : Cyberpunk	Michael Trigilio | email: mtrigilio@ucsd.edu |
SUMMER 2020 course schedule	back to teaching

CLASS TIMES: Mon/Wed 2pm-5pm

Office Hours: Tues 1pm-2pm
If you intend to visit during office-hours, please send canvas msg to confirm.
These office hours are for course/career/research matters only (not petition advising)

About the course:
Science Fiction & Fantasy films explore a wildly diverse range of sub-genre, from space-opera to time travel, from zombie apocalypse to Middle Earth. Cyberpunk is a late-twentieth century genre which arises alongside corporate-governance, news-entertainment, personal computing, and the decentralization of “the commons” in neighborhoods, municipalities, and nation-states. Yet cyberpunk is made from many tropes & traditions we find throughout cinema and literature: crime-noir, gothic-horror; white-saviors and myriad “exotic” cultural “others.”

The politics of data. Coding as sorcery. The spiritual value of the MACHINE vs the economic value of the FLESH. What happens when sex, death, and prayer are understood as software? What is the social and political worth of the body?

We will look through the lens of Feminist and Afrofuturist theories to provide critical, complicating, and deepening understandings of cyberpunk and the stakes, tropes, and values of cyberpunk narrative. Who programs and who is programmed? Who is the coder, and who is the coded upon? Which is the maker and the made? And perhaps most valuable to students and artists, how do stories of the impossible shine light on our access to and comprehension of our actual lived world?

Readings:


.>.articles, essays, poems, & excerpts:
"Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose," by Mark Dery
"A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna Haraway
"Murmer: Meditations, Fictions and Forensics for Invisible Americans," By Greg Tate
AfroFuture - Dystopic Unity," by Tracie Morris
"The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Afrocentricity and the Digital Public Sphere," by Anna Everett
"Humanity Not Included: DC’s Cyborg and the Mechanization of the Black Body," by Robert Jones Jr.(@SonOfBaldwin)
Hamlet on the Holodeck by Janet H. Murray (excerpt)
Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi and Fantasy Culture, by Ytasha Womack (excerpts)

additional required reading will be uploaded and announced when required.

recommended further reading:
Neruomancer by William Gibson
Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan
Futureland by Walter Mosley
"Believe the Hype: Hype Williams and Afrofuturist Filmmaking," by Thomas F. Defrantz
“Desiring Machines in Black Popular Music,” by Alexander Weheliye

Grades Calculation:
40% will be based on a take-home Mid-Term exam
40% will be based on a take-home Final exam.
20% will be based on all other quizes, assignments and work averaged together.

Synchronous / Asynchronous
Our goal is to meet this class at the scheduled time in the books. We will need to be flexible about how much of our class is "live" and what will be pre-recorded and shared on Canvas. Students who can be present will likely get a lot out of being together in real-time, as routine-keeping can be really helpful. We also intend to accommodate those students who, for many legitimate reasons, will not be able to be together at the same time. Be sure to check-in regularly on Canvas and with me to make sure you are able to participate in the class as fully as possible.

PARTICIPATION POLICY:
Participation requires active engagement in the key aspects of our course. Examples include: provide individual insight into examples shown in class, visiting Zoom Office Hours with questions or ideas to discuss, participating in the Discussion threads on Canvas. Being present in "real-time" during lectures is important, as it allows you to take notes and ask questions about course-content in real-time. If you are able, please make arrangements to be available in-real (on zoom, obviously) time for Mon/Wed lecture times, 2pm-5pm.

LATE-WORK POLICY:
I will only accept assignments late in an urgent situation about which you have messaged me directly.If you miss class on a day something is due, I will not accept your work late. Late work will be accepted at Instructor’s discretion.

Expectations:
Students will attend ALL lectures.
Students will be active and engaged in coursework, homework, and attendance.
Students will watch films, including finishing films from which only excerpts were screened in class.
Students will demonstrate creative and critically reasoned responses to Exam questions.
Students will be deliberative, critical consumers of the films and readings presented.
Students will actively resist cynicism and foster open-mindedness.

What students can expect:
Presentation of challenging examples, readings, and films chosen to deepen your education in Media Art and Media History.
Respect and honest critical feedback
A passionate and engaged articulation of course material, free of cynicism or contempt.
Fair and honest grading of your classwork.

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updated 7.30.2020 08:53:18