Seminar: M3GAN

The tagline for Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN (2022) reads “Friendship Has Evolved” - a promise of camaraderie and comfort brought about by technological progress.

In this seminar, Alex Svensson (Affiliated Faculty at Emerson College) details the varied ways this claim can be read as both warning and threat, critically exploring the film’s horrific (though often tongue-in-cheek) approach to robotics, artificial intelligence, algorithms, and the cult of personalization.  

About the Instructor

Alex Svensson is Affiliated Faculty at Emerson College in their Visual & Media Arts department; he has also been a Lecturer of film and media studies at MIT. His research primarily focuses on horror media, media controversies, and promotional culture. Alex's work can be found in the book Jordan Peele’s Get Out: Political Horror (ed. Dawn Keetley), as well as in Monstrum, Horror Homeroom, in media res, and Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies.