SPCM 3900 – The Rhetoric of Cyberculture
Dr. Laura Sells
Spring 2005
Lab I – The Matrix
Directions:
View the film The Matrix. The lab works best if you view the film with
other students from class or with friends and then discuss the answers to the
questions before you write them to turn in. As you watch the film, make sure
that you pay special attention to the scene in which (1) Morpheus introduces
“the construct” and tells the history of the earth, (2) Morpheus and Neo battle
in the fight sim, and (3) Neo visits the Oracle, (4) Cypher asks to be returned
to the matrix.
After you have viewed the film, answer the following questions. Your answers
should be about a paragraph to half a page long:
1. Jackson argues that “New media is a force of both liberation and oppression.”
What does this statement mean? Do you agree or disagree? Use an example from The
Matrix to illustrate.
2. Poster argues that the “information super highway” is a misleading term
because it focuses on exchange of information and not on places on the internet
where the transmission of information becomes places of communicative relation
(Part I). What does this statement mean? How is this statement illustrated in
The Matrix?
3. In “The Performance of Cyberspace,” Barbatsis and Hansen define several ways
to understand space. How is “The Matrix” “space”?
4. In “At the Heart of It All” Lombard and Ditton define and explain presence
and discuss multiple causes and effects of presence. What role does presence
play in The Matrix? Identify one example from the film that demonstrates some of
the causes and effects of presence.
5. In audiovisual culture Rodowick writes three final points about our fears of
technological domination, which he calls “Murphy’s Law”: 1. technology fails,
and the probability of technology failing increases relative to its complexity;
2. successful commodification requires the prior existence or creation of a
compelling desire or need; 3. there is a corollary to Murphy's law that provides
an instructive counterweight to fears of technological domination. For every new
strategy of power that emerges, there also always emerges a countervailing
culture of subversion. What do these laws mean and how do they apply to The
Matrix?
SPCM 3900 – The Rhetoric of Cyberculture
Dr. Laura Sells
Fall 2003
Paper I – The Matrix
After participating in the lab experience, write a 5 page (typed) paper in which
answer any one of the following questions. To answer your question, select a
text for analysis; your text can be anything related to The Matrix, from the
narrative itself, the filmic techniques, your viewing experience, or the meaning
of The Matrix in the “real world”. In your paper be sure to 1) include a clear
thesis statement; 2) support your analysis with concepts from class (be sure to
define your terms), and 3) support your analysis with quotes from FOUR authors
from class). You are welcome to stray from the questions above, but your paper
must be -focused- and must meet the page limits.
Grading Criteria:
1. Ability to draw concepts from the reading material into your essay.
2. Ability to demonstrate understanding of concepts from course readings,
lectures and discussions.
3. Significance and appropriateness of concepts chosen for discussion in the
essays.
4. Fit between concepts and illustrations.
5. Specificity and amount of support material from readings, lectures and
discussions to illustrate the concepts
6. Thoughtfulness and insightfulness of arguments.
7. Coherence of essay--ability to organize ideas and create an argument.
8. Writing mechanics.