Cyber-Realism

Over the last 30 years, many of us have become practised at pressing buttons and rapidly responding to a barrage of electronic messages on computer games, the internet, email and mobile phones.

Is it possible that our enthusiasm for this new medium is changing the kinds of stories that we want to watch?

Using examples including The Wire, Lost and Memento, James Harkin argues that new and sophisticated kinds of stories which engage our restless cybernetic sensibilities can be found under our noses in mainstream contemporary cinema and television.

James Harkin is a regular contributor to The Financial Times and The Guardian, as well as Director of Talks at the ICA in London. He was the associate producer of Adam Curtis¹s three-part series, The Trap: Whatever Happened to our Dream of Freedom?

His book, Big Ideas: The Essential Guide To The Latest Thinking, was published in February 2008.