Views of the Computer Through Celluloid Glasses: Introduction


Instructor: Professor Joel Adams

Text: Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom & Discernment, by Brian Godawa (InterVarsity Press; ISBN 0-8308-2321-2).

Objectives:

Welcome to IDIS W63, Views of the Computer Through Celluloid Glasses. Optimistic people are sometimes said to "view the world through rose-colored glasses" meaning their optimism affects their perception of the world. In this course, we will examine how filmmakers' presuppositions about computers and technology affect their portrayal of computing technology in their films (i.e., in celluloid media).

The primary focus of this course is thus to study a series of films that portray computing-related technology in a wide variety of ways, to discover what each is saying about technology and computing. By starting to examine filmmakers' presuppositions within this limited genre, it is my hope that you can generalize from our analysis of computer-related films to mainstream films and critique them as well.


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