For our monster documentary for arth 480 (visual and digital media theory), we wanted to explore Elon Musk as a modern-day monster—an embodiment of unchecked capitalist ambition, space colonization fantasies, and the technological obsession with control and transcendence.

Musk represents a form of monstrousness that is both intriguing and troubling; he’s a figure idolized for his innovation yet criticized for his ethical compromises. Through his persistent presence on social media and more general appearances in media, a monstrous manifestation emerges as a reflection of a societal craving for a solution to the potential problems of the future—often at great costs.

In our video essay, we portray him as a monster through a cyborg / post-human / transhuman framework, as well as themes of corporate colonization and ecological exploitation, suggesting a monster that reflects humanity’s contradictory desires for both progress and domination.