How have writers and other artists imagined how nature and technology are intertwined? In a way, nature and technology seem locked in a struggle: technology is created to control nature and nature resists and sometimes strikes back. This is one of the themes of the Frankenstein myth, and also of many other stories, icons, and metaphors that explore real and imagined new technologies and how they might change nature, society, and humanity.

We will turn to literature and other media-- music, film, visual arts, digital imaging, and interactive new media-- to investigate the myths and stories we use to talk about technology, from Pandora's box and Frankenstein to Metropolis and The Matrix. Some common themes we will explore:

- dreams of technology controlling and conquering nature,
- fears of the consequences,
- visions of future technotopias, &
- anxieties about who can control    technology--or will it control us?