Science Fiction as Agent of Change

Course Description

Summary

This is a seminar, screening and production half-semester course, based on themes within Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction as means to imagine a different future.  In the first half we will be viewing films, from big budget to experimental and performance-based video art, while also listening to music, audio plays, and reading experimental and theoretical texts to support weekly thematic discussions. We will contrast Hollywood narratives against historical films like Born in Flames, Space is the Place, Fresh Kill, and Flaming Creatures, alongside the work of many contemporary artists.  Further, we will be reading texts by Gayatri Spivak, José Esteban Muñoz, Laboria Cuboniks, and Fred Moten, among others - texts conceptualizing the urgency in reimagining the future to make room for identities in alterity in the present.  In the second half of the course students will work towards a short self-formed project in either film/video, script, or critical/experimental text.  Entry into the class is predicated on the professor's permission, and those interested must submit a sample of recent work in either moving image or text.