This project analyzes the Blade Runner films in order to rethink the cyborg, a theory articulated by Donna Haraway as a metaphor that transgresses binaries which uphold systems of oppression, such as the distinctions between male/female, organic/inorganic, and human/nonhuman. For Haraway, the cyborg is a paragon of agency and liberation; however, Blade Runner imagines a world in which cyborgs – in this case human-like androids called replicants – entrench capitalist ideals in addition to racist and anthropocentric hierarchies. In the films, the replicants are coded as ambiguous racial Others who flexibly inhabit the symbolic position of Black, Asian, and white persons. Yet they are still placed above non-white humans within the racial hierarchy of the films because of their contributions to the capitalist and colonial projects of the future. In other words, they take on the role of a “model minority” desired for their production of capital, yet despised for being quintessentially non-human. The replicant-cyborg in Blade Runner reflects the societal desire for a class of laborers that will submit to capitalist interests, demonstrating (contra Haraway) its failure to disrupt established systems of power. However, while this paper interrogates our faith in the potential of the cyborg, it would be remiss to disavow this figure completely. In light of the cyborg’s associations with capitalist ideals, how might we reconsider it and our relationship with new technologies as they emerge? How can we conceptualize a future in which entanglements with technology are liberating rather than oppressive? These are ongoing questions for this project, which I explore in returning to Blade Runner.

In Weezer's 1996 album Pinkerton, frontman Rivers Cuomo laid his heart on the table, completely bare, in often grotesque detail. This uncomfortable exercise in intimacy didn't work well for audiences or critics, until recently. Despite its problematic themes, the album has gone on to go platinum, and later critical reception praises this awkward honesty. This example goes against the established order of scrutiny, or defies the conventions of-- as reactionaries may put it-- 'cancel culture'. Conversely, the work of David Foster Wallace has been put under intense social scrutiny, as more people have become aware of Mary Karr's abuse allegations against him. These two deeply flawed, yet undeniably talented, men showcase the issues with these creatives we hate to love-- be it from their actions or ideas. What was it that allowed Pinkerton to flourish today, while its controversial contemporaries have fallen from their pedestals for the exact same reasons? Starting with art from the nineties, this lecture works forward in time to evaluate modern audience's embrace of retrospective re-evaluation of art that has been fundamentally changed since publication by progressing social attitudes and the revelation of scandals. 

The Bed Trick, a recent play by Keiko Green, premiered at Seattle Shakespeare Company in Spring of 2024. It is a meta adaptation of William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well and is named for a narrative trope, the bed trick, that features prominently in Shakespeare’s play. In her play, Green deconstructs and reworks the titular narrative device and engages metatextually with All’s Well That Ends Well to examine the themes of consent, honesty, loyalty, and friendship. Green uses a variety of adaptive strategies to examine the ethical holes in All’s Well That Ends Well. Rather than directly adapting her source, she uses it as a jumping off point for her own story, and warps the structure of the trope of the bed trick to engage with current socio-political conversations around consent, rape, sex, and the boundaries thereof. I attended a performance of The Bed Trick toward the end of its first run, and it fascinated me so much that, four months later, I made it the focus of a research project for an adaptation studies class. In addition to utilizing my first-hand knowledge of play, I also accessed the primary text through the New Play Exchange, as it is a new play unavailable in libraries or bookstores. In my presentation, after briefly summarizing All’s Well That Ends Well and outlining the basic structure of the bed trick, I will walk through my original research of Green’s play, examining her various mutations of the bed trick, the ways that she engages metatextually with All’s Well That Ends Well, and the adaptive strategies she uses. The Bed Trick is a fascinating example of meta-adaptation and a highly contemporary and socially engaged piece. It is well-worth an exploration to analyze its purpose and structure, and adds greatly to discussion of theatrical adaptation.

AI's volatile impact across creative industries has been a point of heated discussion in recent years, with the Hollywood Writers' Strike in 2023 pushing back against AI-implementation in TV and film writing roles, and popular musicians such as Drake and the Weeknd having their creative works used to train algorithms generating music that copies their creative style and voice. Mark Fisher, through his musing and criticisms of the contemporary music landscape in the 2000s to the mid-2010s in his blog K-Punk, and equally through his lectures, namely on the so-called "Slow Cancellation of the Future", spoke of rapid technological-innovation as a further dissolving of the identity of the modern era, and a reduction of music as an industry to nothing more than a product sold to a disillusioned lowest-common-denominator audience. Fisher anticipated what was next, if not the form of it: The Pandora's Box of AI music-generation has been opened. Through the development and retrospective analysis of a 6-track-long EP, Neon Pulse, written entirely within the SUNO and ChatGPT platforms under the persona of "Bella Sol" I read SUNO's intent to put profit ahead of creative expression through the lens of Fisher's critique of pop music, explore the role of overt versus covert technological implementation in musical artistry, and attempt to interpret the unexpected glitches (or perhaps "independent creative expressions" of the AI music-generation algorithm) that form Bella Sol's finale "Outro".

In what way does the TikTok trend "corecore" reify the specific malaise that characterizes the zeitgeist of Gen-Z and the 2020s more broadly? Yannis Varoufakis’s framework of technofeudalism and Derrida’s concept of hauntology provide insight into the relationship between corecore’s digital aesthetics and the retention time-driven algorithms which control the avenues of digital (and increasingly, all) culture. This research argues that total corporate ownership of our digital existence informs the nostalgic sentiments of Generation Z and the ways in which those conceptions of nostalgia continue to shape young people’s ability to imagine a digital existence different than our own. As our digital existences are increasingly marked by a longing for the past and a pessimism toward the present and future, it is worth looking into both the causes and manifestations of this psychosocial trend.