WEEK ONE/ Introduction
Mar 29
- Intro to Class, Syllabus, Attendance, Crashers, etc.
Reading:
- Course Syllabus for FDM 136c
Mar 31
Before Class
Reading:
- Walter Benjamin, excerpt from Theses on the Philosophy of History Thesis IX on pages 257-258 (one paragraph).
- Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future Is a Memory pages 148-155 (up to the section 'As We May Think')
In Class
Screening:
- Marker, La Jetee.
Lecture:
- Day 2
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WEEK TWO / LIGHT AND RATIONALITY, TIME and SPACE
Apr 5
Before Class
Reading:
- Laura Rigal, "Imperial Attractions: Benjamin Franklin's New Experiments of 1751," in Memory Bytes
- excerpt from Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
- Sasha Archibald, "Blinded by the Light"
In Class
Screening:
- Charles Babbage & Ada Byron Lovelace
- The Unmanned
Lecture:
- Day 3
Apr 7
Before Class
Reading:
- Carolyn Marvin, "Locating the Body in Electrical Space and Electrical Time" in When Old Technologies Were New
- Schivelbusch, "Railroad Space and Railroad Time" in Railway Journey
In Class
Screening:
- Lonedale Operator
- Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895) ; Buster Keaton, The General (1926) 75'
Lecture:
- Day 4
Techno-memoir. 1 page, single spaced. Due by the end of the day April 8
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WEEK THREE / GHOST DANCE / IMAGE, MEMORY, STORAGE/
Apr 12
Before Class
Reading:
- Rebecca Solnit, from River of Shadows
- James Gleick,
Chapter 1, "Drums That Talk" from The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
In Class
Screening:
- Clockwork
Lecture:
- Day 5
- timeline
Apr 14
Before Class
Reading:
- Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future Is a Memory (finish)
- Consider reading ahead for April 19
In Class:
Screening:
- Modern Times
Lecture:
- Day 6
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WEEK FOUR / BODIES of INFORMATION 1 / FEEDBACK & CONTROL / THE RISE of the SYSTEM
Apr 19
Before Class
Reading:
- Jennifer S. Light, When Computers Were Women
- N. Katherine Hayles, Ch. 3, "Contesting for the Body of Information: The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics" in How We Became Posthuman
In Class:
Lecture:
- Day 7 - lecture notes
- Day 7
Apr 21
Before Class
Reading:
- James Gleick, excerpts from The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
-- read Chapter 7.
Recommended:
- Warren Sack, "Public Space, Public Discussion and Social Computing"
In Class:
Screening:
- Alphaville
Lecture:
- Day 8
Shot Analysis Due by the end of the day April 22nd
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WEEK FIVE / ART
Apr 26
Before Class
Reading:
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
- Christiane Paul, "Introduction" in Digital Art
In Class:
Lecture:
- Day 9
Apr 28
Before Class
Reading:
- Warren Sack, "Public Space, Public Discussion and Social Computing"
Recommended:
- Oli Lialina, The Turing Complete User
In Class:
Lecture:
- Day 10
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Week Six / DEFENSIVE BODIES, RESILIENCY and WAR
May 3
MIDTERM
- Please bring blue books
May 5
Before Class
Reading:
- Alex Galloway, "Form" Chapter 2 in Protocol
- Jonnie Ryan, How the atom bomb helped give birth to the Internet
- Neal Stephenson, Mother Earth Mother Board
In Class:
Lecture:
- Day 12
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Week Seven / BODIES OF INFORMATION 2
May 10
Before Class
Reading:
- N. Katherine Hayles, ch. 6 "The Second Wave of Cybernetics: From Reflexivity to Self-Organization" in How We Became Posthuman
- Tiqqun, "The Cybernetic Hypothesis" sections 1, 2 & 3
In Class
Lecture:
- Day 13
Screening:
- Fassbinder, World on a Wire
- or - (Screening of All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace)
May 12
Before Class
Reading:
- Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Orienting the Future
- Edward Said, excerpt from Orientalism
In Class
Lecture:
- Day 14
...
WEEK EIGHT /DIGITAL UTOPIANISM, LABOR, SURVEILLANCE
May 17
Before Class
Reading:
- Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism
- Donna Haraway, "Cyborg Manifesto"
See Also
- Whole Earth Catalog
In Class
Lecture:
- Day 15
- Timeline for Networks, 2nd-wave Cybernetics, Computation
May 19
Before Class
Reading:
- Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel Delaney, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose
- Lisa Nakamura, "Economies of Digital Production in East Asia: iPhone Girls and the Transnational Circuits of Cool"
In Class
Screening:
- excerpts from Manufactured Landscapes, begin Ghost in the Shell
Lecture:
- Day 16
Operating System Analysis Due by the end of the day May 20th
...
WEEK NINE / CONTROL, FREEDOM and the SOCIAL BODY
May 24
Before Class
Reading:
- Gabriella Coleman, "AnOnyMOuS In COnTExT: ThE POLITICS AnD POWER bEhInD ThE MASk"
- Ron Deibert, Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet (2013) Chapter 14 - Anonymous: Expect Us
- David Kushner, "Anonymous Vs. Steubenville" in Rolling Stone
In Class
Screening:
- Finish Ghost in the Shell
Lecture:
- Day 17
May 26
Before Class
Reading:
- Richard Stallman, Chapter 18, page 121, "Why Software Should Be Free"
- Wikipedia on The Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1 (Provisions), 2 (Anti-circumvention exemptions) & 3 (Linking)
- Neal Gorenflo, from Shareable, Michel Bauwens, from the P2P Foundation and John Robb, from Global Guerrillas, interview las Indias' David de Ugarte Translated/Re-edited * by Stacco Troncoso, edited by Jane Loes Lipton - Guerrilla Translation!
- Gabriella Coleman, chapter from Coding Freedom
In Class
Screening:
Possible:
- Bitcoin (video)
- Spectres of the Spectrum (see review: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/nov/14/artsfeatures)
or
- Revolution OS
- RIP: Remix Manifesto
Lecture:
- Day 18
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WEEK TEN / ANTHROPOCENE, CAPITALOCENE, CHTHULUCENE
May 31
Before Class
Reading:
- Alex Galloway, "First Person Shooter"
- Donna Haraway, Speculative Fabulations for Technoculture's Generations: Taking Care of Unexpected Country From Multispecies Salon, by Eben Kirksley
- excerpt from Xenogenesis: Dawn, by Octavia Butler
Recommended:
- Donna Haraway, Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene,
Chthulucene: Making Kin
In Class
Lecture:
- Day 19
Jun 2
Before Class
Readings:
- Nora Khan, Towards a Poetics of Artificial SuperIntelligence
- N. Kathering Hayles, Narratives of Artificial Life in How We Became Posthuman
In Class
Lecture:
- Day 20
...
Final Exam:: Non Standard 2 -- Thursday June 09 7:30-10:30p :: Bring Blue Books