Swerve is a film created by the Collaborative Media Commons (CMC) and directed by Zach Horton. The Film is set in a nano-contaminated cyberpunk dystopia where technology and the human mind have become entangled, and follows various characters learning to live "off the grid" amid various data-driven pursuits. 

The film is a collaborative narrative, jointly produced by graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and film professionals during the past two years.  When finished, it will consist of ten chapters, each approximately twenty minutes in length. The film seeks to promote feedback which will bridge the standard boundaries between disciplines within academia, between intellectuals and artists, and between academia and the public.

For this presentation, Zach Horton, CMC founder and Swerve's director, will screen the first chapter of the film and discuss the process of making collaborative media driven by academic inputs, including their potential for pedagogy, public outreach, and research.

Zach Horton is a CNS-UCSB Graduate Fellow with the Nano-solar X-IRG. He holds an MFA in Film Directing, studied Philosophy and Creative Writing at Oxford University, and is currently a PhD student in English at UCSB. In addition to his work with the Collaborative Media Commons, Zach has been making films for over a decade.

The Collaborative Media Commons is based in the Department of English at UCSB and aims to address methods for improving humanities research. The CMC acts as an interdisciplinary collaborative space for creating dialogue regarding a wide range of theoretical and practical issues. By melding the methodologies of academic research with that of media production, the CMC allows many disciplines to unite toward a common goal and produce quality media objects.