Vol. VI Núm 11 Vol.2018 VIII No. 14 2020 and Film Society in Television Techno-Capitalist Imagining the Editors Albert Elduque and Gonzalo de Lucas (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain). Associate Editors Núria Bou (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) and Xavier Pérez (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain). Advisory Board Dudley Andrew (Yale University, United States), Jordi Balló (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain), Raymond Bellour (Université Sorbonne-Paris III, France), Francisco Javier Benavente (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain), Nicole Brenez (Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne, France), Maeve Connolly (Dun Laoghaire Institut of Art, Design and Technology, Irleland), Gino Frezza (Università de Salerno, Italy), Chris Fujiwara (Edinburgh International Film Festival, United Kingdom), Jane Gaines (Columbia University, United States), Haden Guest (Harvard University, United States), Tom Gunning (University of Chicago, United States), John MacKay (Yale University, United States), Adrian Martin (Monash University, Australia), Cezar Migliorin (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil), Alejandro Montiel (Universitat de València, Spain), Meaghan Morris (University of Sidney, Australia and Lignan University, Hong Kong), Raffaele Pinto (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain), Ivan Pintor (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain), Àngel Quintana (Universitat de Girona, Spain), Joan Ramon Resina (Stanford University, United States), Eduardo A. Russo (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina), Glòria Salvadó (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain), Yuri Tsivian (University of Chicago, United States), Vicente Sánchez-Biosca (Universitat de València, Spain), Jenaro Talens (Université de Genève, Switzerland and Universitat de València, Spain), Michael Witt (Roehampton University, United Kingdom). Guest Editors Camil Ungureanu (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain), Sonia Arribas (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) and Rebecca Anne Peters (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain). Contributors Himar Bethencourt Reyes, Ekin Erkan, Rebecca Anne Peters, Ida Marie Schober, Joseph Walderzak and Ling Zhang. Editorial Assistants Mario Barranco and Brunella Tedesco (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain). English language reviewer Rebecca Anne Peters and Tamara Courage. Original design and layout Pau Masaló (original design), Núria Gómez Gabriel (website and PDF layouts). Publisher Center for Aesthetic Research on Audiovisual Media (CINEMA), Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). Place of publication Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Communication Campus - Poblenou. Roc Boronat, 138, 08018, Barcelona (Spain). E-mail [email protected] Website www.raco.cat/index.php/Comparativecinema Comparative Cinema, Volume 8, No. 14, «Imagining the Techno-Capitalist Society in Television and Film», Barcelona, 2020. Legal Deposit: B.29702-2012 ISSN: 2604-9821 Some rights are reserved. Published under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International). Cover Photo Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015) Comparative Cinema is a scientific journal that addresses film studies from a comparative perspective. It is published by the Center for Aesthetic Research on Audiovisual Media (CINEMA) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), in Barcelona. Since its inception in 2012, it has investigated the conceptual and formal relations between films, material processes and production and exhibition practices, as well as the history of ideas and film criticism in different social and political contexts. Comparative Cinema tackles an original area of research by developing a series of methodologies for a comparative study of cinema. With this aim, it also explores the relations between cinema and comparative literature, as well as other contemporary arts such as painting, photography, music and dance, and audio-visual media. The journal is structured into monographic issues featuring articles, interviews and the re- publishing of crucial texts, which are sometimes complemented by audio-visual essays, either as part of a written article or as an autonomous work. Each issue also includes a book review section which analyses some of the most important works in film studies published in Spain and abroad. Comparative Cinema is published biannually in English, though it may include original versions of the texts in other languages. It is an open access, peer-reviewed publication which uses internal and external evaluation committees. As such, it is recognized by international indexes such as DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and Latindex (Regional Information System for Online Scientific Journals of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal). 5-7 Camil Ungureanu, Sonia Arribas & Rebecca Anne Peters Imagining the Techno-Capitalist Society in Television and Film 8-32 Rebecca Anne Peters When Your Motherboard Replaces the Pearly Gates: Black Mirror and the Technology of Today and Tomorrow 33-45 Joseph Walderzak Blaming the Poor: The False Allure of the Capitalist Critique in the comparative cinema comparative Age of Postmodernism 2020 46-61 Ida Marie Schober No. 14 No. Vol. VIII Vol. Loving the AI: Captivity and Ownership in Unbalanced Dystopian Relationships 62-81 Ling Zhang Foreshadowing the Future of Capitalism: Surveillance Technology and Digital Realism in Xu Bing’s Dragonfly Eyes 82-85 Ekin Erkan Schefer, Jean-Louis. 2016. The Ordinary Man of Cinema. 86-88 Himar Bethencourt Oter, Jorge and Santos Zunzunegui. eds. 2019. Ensayos de poética. Miradas sobre el contacto entre el cine y la poesía. New forms of authoritarianism, interpretations that envision populism, and inequality have possible future developments sprung up from the core of our from the seeds of the present— contemporary techno-capitalist e.g. Black Mirror (Charlie society—from the US and Brooker, 2011–present), Ex Europe to China. The corporate Machina (Alex Garland, capitalist dynamic has, further, 2014), Interstellar (Christopher comparative cinema comparative generated an unprecedented Nolan, 2014), Humans (Sam crisis of the environmental Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, conditions of society itself, 2015–18), Westworld (Lisa Joy which has led scholars to and Jonathan Nolan, 2016– characterize the current present), The Handmaid’s Tale age as the “capitalocene.” (Bruce Miller, 2017–present), 3% The permanent revolution of (Pedro Aguilera, 2016–present), technological capitalism is or Dragonfly Eyes (Qingting zhi throwing into question the very yan, Xu Bing, 2017). concept of the human, pointing The aim of this special towards a post-human society. issue is to use the tools of The specter of dystopia is cinema to engage some of haunting our social imaginaries engendering new apocalyptic the questions regarding the myths and narratives that have diagnosis of the current crisis of techno-capitalist 5 become even more relevant due to the current global pandemic. society and its consequences: what forms of narrative and And yet, the landscape of representation are used today social imagination is plural in cinema and television to and divided: AI, robotics, account for the present crisis neuroscience, biogenetics, and of techno-capitalism? How do evolutionary theory are breathing technological developments new life into eschatological shape (human) relations? How and salvation myths. In this are current myths (apocalyptic, situation of historical crisis and salvationist, etc.) interpreted openness, filmic imagination and constructed through film, and its capacity to read possible and what is the role of techno- futures into the “signs of times” scientific narratives? How do is a privileged site of experience technological developments and reflection. After the fashion shape the use of power in of postmodern fragmentation contemporary societies? and playful fictionalization, there has been a flourishing of (grand) In her article “When Your narratives drawing on scientific- Motherboard Replaces the technological inventions and Pearly Gates: Black Mirror and socio-historical ideas in order the Technology of Today and to anticipate and reflect the Tomorrow,” Rebecca Anne Peters Editorial in Society Techno-Capitalist Imagining the and Film Television coming post-human society. In considers five episodes from the particular, the predicament of anthology series Black Mirror. capitalist society has generated The article lays out an argument 2020 No. 14 No. for reading the use of the Vol. VIII Vol. a wave of filmic insights and DOI: 10.31009/cc.2020.v8.i14.01 technology within the series as a In her article “Loving the reflection of Christian concepts AI: Captivity and Ownership that haunt Western culture, in Unbalanced Dystopian positing that the specters Relationships,” Ida Marie of these ideas linger in our Schober analyzes what she idealized thinking of the god-like argues has become a trend in powers that technology might the dystopian and science fiction comparative cinema comparative give us. Likewise, these concepts genre of the last years, namely, endure in the persecutory role the depiction of a relationship that technology might play as a between a lonely male human moral enforcer, echoing one of character and a female man- the dimensions of the church made AI one. She concentrates throughout history. To construct on the spatial restrictions that her argument, she considers these AI female characters the episodes in relation to one endure, resorting to recent another and in the context of the psychoanalytic theory applied biblical concepts they mirror— to the visual arts, as well as to drawing from Christian