You are all very much invited to the next human-tech colloquium taking place on June 27, 15:45-17:15 in RA2504 by Dr. Nolen Gertz on "Techsploitation Cinema: How Movies Shaped Our Technological World"
Abstract: There is clearly an audience for movies about machines, for movies where flesh and blood has been replaced by metal and circuitry. So the question that I want to ask in this project is: Why? Why does this audience exist? Why do people want to see movies about humans fighting robots (Terminator), about robots fighting robots (Terminator 2), about robots fighting to protect humans so they can grow up to fight robots (Terminator 3)? If these movies are indeed exploiting the audience’s desires, then what are the desires that are being exploited in these movies? If a traditional sexploitation movie is about offering audiences a way to watch pornographic sex scenes surrounded by just enough plot to avoid the accusation of being a pervert, and if a traditional blaxsploitation movie is about offering audiences a way to watch racist stereotypes surrounded by just enough plot to avoid the accusation of being a racist, then what is it that a “techsploitation” movie would be offering audiences?
To answer these questions, this project will explore the movies that I have already identified and many, many others that similarly seem to cater to audiences who want nothing more than to see machines try to kill humans (e.g., Westworld), machines try to enslave humans (e.g., The Matrix), and machines try to become humans (e.g., A.I. Artificial Intelligence). This exploration though won’t just be about investigating the technological world of cinema, but also about investigating the technological world in which we live. For just as exploring sexploitation movies and blaxploitation movies have helped us to better understand gender dynamics and racial dynamics at play in society, I believe that exploring techsploitation movies will likewise help us to better understand the dynamics at play in society in the relationship between humanity and technology.
Bio: Nolen Gertz is an Associate Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. His work investigates the role that technologies play in everyday life. His research is primarily in the areas of political philosophy, philosophy of technology, and existential phenomenology. He is the author of Nihilism (MIT Press 2019), Nihilism and Technology (Rowman Littlefield International 2018), and The Philosophy of War and Exile (Palgrave 2015). His work has been translated into multiple languages and appeared in numerous academic journals as well as in international publications such as The Washington Post, Atlantic, and Aeon.
