I'm almost done with the syllabus I blogged a few weeks back. But I still need some help from all you smart folks out there. Please take a look, and let me know what I'm missing. Feel free to borrow, as well. Remember, this is for Masters students in Media, Culture and Communication.
UPDATE: Here's the final revision going into the first class:
Topics in Digital Media:
Visions and Revisions of Cyberspace
Dr. Aram Sinnreich
Description
Today, for the first time in
history, computer-mediated culture has become mainstream for a majority of
individuals in technologically developed societies. From email to texting, from
online gaming to online banking, from YouTube to Hulu, from DoS attacks to
Second Life sit-ins, nearly every traditional aspect of our lives has found a
new expression in its digital proxy.
In order to understand the
cultural, social, political and economic consequences of this development, we
must look to the origins of today’s cyberculture, in the futuristic visions
(both dystopian and utopian) that shaped the development of today’s networked
technologies. We will trace the genealogy of these visions, as they developed
in tandem with the growing digital communications infrastructure over the past
three quarters of a century, and evolved into new forms that even the most
forward-thinking of visionaries could not have predicted. Ultimately, one can
argue that the Internet has both exceeded and fallen short of the hype that
surrounded its birth and development, and, by comparing the myth to the
reality, we may better understand what aspects of the human condition are
likely to persist regardless of technological development.
Class will be conducted as a
seminar. Students will be responsible for leading discussions on the readings,
and are encouraged to critically engage the readings and class conversations.
Schedule
9/9: Introduction
9/16: The Memex and
the Mushroom Cloud
9/23: The Metaverse
OR
- Neil
Stephenson, Snow Crash (Bantam,
1992)
9/30: Rules and
Regulation
OR
- Lawrence
Lessig, Code v2 (Basic
Books, 2006)
10/7: Freedom to Hack
GUEST: Karl Fogel, founder, questioncopyright.org
OR
- Doug Thomas, Hacker Culture (U. Minn Press,
2002)
10/14: dot-com
Fantasies
GUEST: Gene DeRose, CEO, HouseParty, former CEO, Jupiter
Research
OR
- Nicholas
Negroponte, Being Digital (Vintage
Books, 1996)
10/21: Web 2.0
10/28:
Remix/Configurable Culture
- Aram Sinnreich, Mashed Up (U. Mass Press, 2010)
OR
- Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture (NYU Press,
2006)
OR
- Lawrence Lessig, Remix (Penguin, 2008)
11/4: The Cloud
OPTIONAL:
11/11: Surveillance,
Sensors and Semantics
11/18: Adventures in
MeatSpace
GUEST: Dennis Crowley, founder, Dodgeball.com
11/25: MOVIE/FIELD
TRIP
12/2: Presentations
12/9: Presentations
FINAL PAPER DUE:
12/16
Recent Comments