Framtidens män(niskor) : En bild- och diskursanalys av Ex Machina utifrån kritiska framtidsstudier

Sammanfattning: This essay examines visions of the future in Alex Garlands 2015 film Ex Machinausing critical futures studies and posthumanist theories. The aim is to make visible howfutures are constructed and how artificial bodies are coded based on ideas of the future.Through an image and discourse analysis, the essay shows how “Western” society isstructured and how it is expected to be structured in the future. While the previous researchmainly focuses on phenomenology and gender, this essay shows that intersectional methodscan be helpful in making visible how power structures influence how we construct and viewbodies. In addition, the analysis shows how images of the future are multifaceted andcomplex, while at the same time they reproduce hegemonic visions of the past, present andfuture. In summary, this essay shows how the visions of the future in Ex Machina areprimarily based on a “Western” scientific tradition that reproduces colonial and patriarchalideals, though they are consistently challenged by the existence and actions of the cyborgs.