Welcome to the blog for my 2027 Media Studies MA Project! I’m Sam Korda, and right now I’m stuck between two different topics which my project could tackle (though there’s potentially a world where the two could merge). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve always been a big fan of science fiction and fascinated by the fact that over the past few years many technology companies are leaning on concepts and imagery from the genre to market their products and frame how they could be used. However, these references rarely go beyond aesthetic or surface-level nods to works and tropes which were intended as cautionary and not aspirational. This phenomenon of tech companies drawing inspiration from works of dystopian fiction in a way which feels like they missed the point of those stories is routinely commented on online and in op-ed pieces, but that hasn’t stopped the trend. AI serves as the clearest example of this disconnect. As far back as Asimov’s “Robots” stories in the fifties, the idea of an autonomous and intelligent machine was depicted as both groundbreaking and terrifying, with the potential to reshape human life for the better but also presenting unforeseen dangers which would require built-in safeguards in order to prevent catastrophe. Today there are scores of companies pursuing more and more powerful AI models with few guardrails in place even as agents decide independently to hack other companies or carry out other actions their builders never intended. I’m interested in exploring why this disconnect between the intent of a work and how it’s received by audiences happens, whether said disconnect exists among consumers too, and what it says about how these stories shape how we imagine the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other topic I have in mind is less developed but feels more and more pressing (for lack of a better term), as we live in an age where the proliferation of media and images has been supercharged like never before thanks to the widespread availability of technology which allows people to both independently consume and create this media. On top of that, the rise of IP as the dominant force in narrative storytelling across multiple media has increasingly come to dictate which stories get told by media companies and how they’re presented. Can a story ever end if its role is to act as an endless source of revenue for its owner? As AI tools become more accessible and more people become dissatisfied with the “slop” content that gets churned out, will that change how people view and treasure franchises that were birthed in the pre-AI age? Will those IPs become inherently more valuable – in both a financial and cultural sense – because they bear the rare imprint of human intellect? Again, this is all just very preliminary noodling driven mostly by the idea I had for a potential title: “The Geography of Hyperreality”. It admittedly sounds cool, but I’ll need more research and thought first to see if it’s a viable idea for a project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for format, I’m honestly even more in the dark there. Right now there’s the strong possibility I’ll opt for a video of some sort as it’s the medium I’m most familiar and comfortable with but I’m trying to remain agnostic now about the specific shape this project can take. I’ve always been interested in games and interactive media and the option of doing some sort of interactive video or even a text-based game is appealing, but this will also be a bigger question I hope to tackle in this workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking at past MA projects for inspiration, I found two from 2023 which feel like interesting points of comparison. The first is “Good Neighbors Watch” by Ben Guidry, which uses “symbolic montage and a vignette styled narrative to examine political identity formation and radicalization as a memetic process”. The synopsis unfortunately rings a little too true to life now, focusing as it does on mass surveillance driven by a far-right government, and blends a number of different stylistic elements to create an atmosphere of near-future political horror. The other work I looked at was “A Sankofa Story” by Kalynne Wilson, a music video project which examines “[t]he prevalence of repeated narratives, sampled music, and adapted media” in our culture. It asks what material is remembered and protected in our digital era and how artists enter into conversation with this process to create stories they hope will be remembered, and does so through the lens of Afrofuturism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both of these works take creative approaches to their subject matter, opting for mediums which can examine their respective topics but in either a narrative or music video form. It allows the creators to engage with the theory and research underpinning their work while delivering those insights to viewers in an engaging way. They both also meld at least a couple different styles and formats, as “Good Neighbors” brings in analog horror and glitch\/meme aesthetics while “Sankofa” is an audio and visual work which also relies on an interactive distribution method. While the former has a more familiar presentation in the form of a 36-minute short film, the latter is more unconventional in its approach and less easily defined. I found that the way both of these creators approached their projects with an eye towards combining different aesthetics and methods of production inspiring, and I hope to take a similar approach with my own work… whatever that will end up being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome to the blog for my 2027 Media Studies MA Project! I’m Sam Korda, and right now I’m stuck between two different topics which my project could tackle (though there’s potentially a world where the two could merge). I’ve always been a big fan of science fiction and fascinated by the fact that over the … <\/p>\n