This class focuses on the history and theory of ecology-related digital media, emerging technological solutions to the environmental crisis, and cultural imaginations that address the possibility of human extinction and ecosystem collapse. Zooming in on both luddite and futurist proposals for post-carbon futures across the global political and cultural spectrum, the class discusses emerging technologies in scientific and popular discourses about ecological futures. From geo-enginnering to terraforming, space colonialism, genetic engineering, and other scenarios that relate to the technological survival of humanity in fraught environmental conditions, it aims to take students to the forefront of contemporary technological imaginations related to our future on (and off) this planet. Prereq: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks