UWinnipeg Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications professor, Dr. Matthew Flisfeder.
Hello, Dave…or rather, Dr. Matthew Flisfeder. The Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications professor is the keynote speaker at an upcoming event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey, at the Gershman Y in Philadelphia on March 24.
Flisfeder’s talk, titled “‘It can only be attributable to human error’: Reading the Hysterical Sublime in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Beyond,” explores the contradictory relationship between humans and artificial intelligence presented in the film.
“I explore the film’s representation of automation and artificial intelligence in the context of the transition…from the industrial to the electronic society,” Flisfeder said. “With this focus, I look at how the film shows a shift from utopian to dystopian thinking in the global cultural imaginary.”
Flisfeder’s work deals with media and cultural studies and his research and teaching interests lie in communication and cultural theory, critical media studies, and social and political theory.
He has a forthcoming article on social media algorithms, titled “The Ideological Algorithmic Apparatus: Subjection Before Enslavement,” which will appear in the April 2018 issue of the journal, Theory & Event. Also on the topic of algorithms, he will be presenting his paper “Input/Output: Rethinking Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model for the Age of the Algorithm,” at the Canadian Communication Association’s annual meeting in May.
He recently presented a talk about the alt-right movement at Winnipeg’s Congregation Etz Chayim. You can find more about Flisfeder’s work here.
