User:Dave Young/rm/1-2/proposal/

Proposal worksheet

Working title for your project: Potemkin Technologies: The Computer Aesthetic in Cold War Cinema

Triple Canopy project area (Research Work, Immaterial Literature, Internet as Material, Thinking Through Images, New Media Reporting, or New Programming): Thinking Through Images

1. Please summarize your project and describe how it fits into the project area you’ve designated (300 words max): The representation of computers as sinister machines in Cold War-era cinema is inextricably tied with the atmosphere of nuclear anxiety and techno-paranoia that existed in western culture in general. In 1950/60s western culture, the computer was seen not as a novel information processing tool as much as it was a calculator of missile trajectories. Through looking at a selection of films that feature computer technologies as a predominant visual motif, I aim to investigate the correlation between how the machines are represented as aesthetic objects with the political background contemporary to the film's production.