Honors

Black Mirror: A Love-Hate Relationship with Technology

HON 498 – Dr. Cigdem Usekes

Modes of Inquiry: Textual Analysis, Historical, Social and Cultural Analysis, Artistic Creation and Analysis, Scientific and Mathematical Analysis

Course Description:

Writing for The Guardian in 2011, Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, described the premise of his soon-to-be-famous sci-fi drama anthology: “If technology is a drug–and it does feel like a drug–then what, precisely, are the side-effects? This area–between delight and discomfort–is where Black Mirror...is set.” Depicting “the way we live now” and imagining “the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy,” Brooker’s Black Mirror brings to life a slew of contemporary concerns ranging from digital cloning to memory recording, from autonomous weaponized robots to the on-going exploitation of black bodies. In this course, we will analyze many of the vivid nightmares Black Mirror has conjured up for its audience in relevant scientific, social, historical, and cultural contexts.