Course Syllabus
Ron Burnett and Charles Levin
http://www.eciad.bc.ca/~rburnett/levin.htm
Analog vs. Digital
(definition by Aviva Rosenstein for her course on Communications and the Internet, given at the University of Texas, Austin)
Analog: variations in original sound or light wave forms are transformed into
electrical impulses on a wire or into electromagnetic disturbances in the air.
Traditionally, the telephone and broadcasting technologies such as radio and TV
have been analog.
Digital: transforms waveform information into a binary, computer readable format
which can be transmitted with high fidelity, and which can be compressed into a
shorter message which takes less time to transmit.
Course Syllabus
Week One
Jan. 11
*** = most important
** = important, but can wait a little
* = useful background
= of related interest
***Claude Levi-Strauss, THE SAVAGE MIND, Chapter 1 (ON RESERVE)
***Ron Burnett, CULTURES OF VISION, PART 4 "Projection" 127-217
***TOY STORY
**Michael Heim, THE METAPHYSICS OF VIRTUAL REALITY, Chapters 1,2,4
**Gianni Vattimo, THE TRANSPARENT SOCIETY
*Paul Watzlawick et al., THE PRAGMATICS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION, Section 2.5 (or
the whole of Chapter 2 if possible) (ON RESERVE)
*Anthony Wilden, SYSTEM AND STRUCTURE, Chapter VII (ON RESERVE)
*James Carey, COMMUNICATION AS CULTURE, Chapter on "Time, Space, and the
Telegraph" (exerpted in Crowley and Heyer, COMMUNICATION & HISTORY)
*Jean Baudrillard, SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE AND DEATH, Chapter 2
James Beniger, THE CONTROL REVOLUTION: TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC ORIGINS OF
THE INFORMATION SOCIETY. Cambridge: Harvard U.P., 1986.
Robert Logan, THE FIFTH LANGUAGE. Toronto: Stoddart, 1995.
Discussion of visuality, the body, images and the digitization of space and
time within the contextof analogue and digital technologies. Projection and the
relationship between identification andthe body. The distancing role of
computerized technologies, the question of technology and history. Old and new
concepts of subjectivity. Discussion of
Week Two
Jan 18
C. Levin and R. Burnett
READINGS: Vattimo*** Heim***
Sandy Stone, WAR OF DESIRE AND TECHNOLOGY***, Chapters 2 & 3, with
reference
to Martine Rothblatt, THE APARTHEID OF SEX.. Reference will be made to Nancy
Fraser, "Rethinking the Public Sphere"** & James Tully,STRANGE
MULTIPLICITIES* (available in bookstore 2nd floor).
Mark Poster's homepage "Cyberdemocracy" **
Public Sphere and the
relationship between concepts developed by Habermas, his critics and supporters,
and notions of cyberspace. Further reflections on projection, the body. More on
concepts of subject and subjectivity. Selections from Burnett, Memories of
Identification: Scream From Silence.
Week Three
Jan 25
R Burnett
READINGS: Levin, Jay, Romanyshyn, Benedikt (Cyberspace, First Steps) (all on
reserve) as well as Jones-Cybersociety Postmodern Media and Computerized
communities. Analysis of the response to the process of distanciation by the
creation of mythological spaces of community. Discussion of community as a
concept and as a term.
Related back to the notion of cyberspace and to Benedikt's definitions. Use
of MOO's as an attempt to create a discursive space on the internet, and this
related to attempts to create a visual
and oral space through the World Wide Web. The
Humanities Hub contains one of the largest collections of resources directly
related to Cultural Studies on the World Wide Web.
The following was written by David Bennahum who edites a newsletter entitled,
Meme which is about the Internet and Cyberspace.
Computer networks and the communications they carry are products of people,
and people live by geography, in physical space, under the rule of law.
Cyberspace then will be governed by people in the context of their culture. The
great challenge is to create a set of standards which somehow bridges this
incredible range of cultures, while allowing people the freedom to communicate.
Part of what makes this difficult to solve is the mystique surrounding
cyberspace, as if the whole thing were one monolithic environment. It is not.
Cyberspace is actually a set of different communications tools, each of which
should be treated differently. One end can be marked "private" and the
other end "public." The more "public" a forum, the greater
the rights of society; the more "private" the greater the rights of
the individual. In the real world, life is a constant balancing act, a perpetual
negotiation. Cyberspace is part of the real world. By forcing this debate into a
"winner takes all" do or die struggle, we get to avoid the tedium of
negotiating, arguing and trading to reach a consensus. But that, in the end, is
the tried and true way of succeeding. So to start with, here are examples of
what I mean by different communications tools, ranging from the private to the
public.
Week Four
Feb 6
C Levin
READINGS: Levin, Jay, Romanyshyn, Benedikt (Cyberspace, First Steps) (all on
reserve)as well as Jones-Cybersociety . Simulation and the role of the media in
generating a space for cyberspace. Detailed examination of Levin's arguments in
Chapters 2, 3,4. Relate arguments to Heidegger. Use of arguments developed in The
Opening of Vision: Nihilism and the Postmodern Situation By David Michael
Levin (on reserve). Further use of Kevin Kelly and his book Out of Control
which posits a biological model for the digital universe.
Week Five
Feb 13
R Burnett
TOPICS: Sproull and Kiesler - Social-psychological issues in CMC are examined.
Emphasis is on the effects on work environments. Lee Sproull and Sara Kiesler
have spent more than a decade studying established electronic mail communities
to learn about how they change patterns of communication within
organizations. Various articles
to be made available on the Web page attached to the course. The Second
Self by Sherry Turkle. Reference to Stewart Brand's work on the Media
Lab with connections to the MIT Web site. Technoscientific Imaginaries
edited by George Marcus (on reserve). Specific chapters include, Mind, Body,
Science, Science Incorporated, Science and the hope of Nations.
Further discussion of Communications,
Computers and Networks
. An account of the introduction of electric technologies, especially
the telephone, in America. The focus is on the impact on the individual
and society .
These are useful examples of the new writing which is going on through the
use of the WWW for hypertext experimentation.
Week Six
Feb 20
C Levin
TOPICS: Negroponte and Landow. The conceptual basis for rethinking culture
through digitization
. Notions of textuality and computerization.
Transformation of text into image. The cultural
impact of Negroponte's futuristic outlook and what is both attractive and
distressing about it. Reference here to the work of McLuhan and possibly other historians
of communications. Check into this course on Computer
Mediated Communications for a useful example of work in this area. The
approach overemphasizes the technology
, but is very representative of strategies
in this area.
Living
Inside the (Operating) System: Community in Virtual Reality by John Unsworth
at the University of Virginia.
Week Seven
March 5
R Burnett/C Levin
TOPICS: Discussion of class material to this point. Summary and further
details on debates. Discussion and examination of Virilio with reference to
Kroker and to Wired Magazine. The Third Wave - Toffler. A broad-reaching
synthesis, classifying human history
into three ages: agricultural, industrial, and information.
The Third Wave is a sweeping change, marked by information technology and
computers, with effects on all spheres of human life.
First and second presentation.
Week Eight
March 12
R Burnett/C Levin
TOPICS: Intensive discussion of Rheingold's The Virtual Community.
Related materials to be available on the Web site. Further discussion of ethical
issues related to digitization. Information about you accretes slowly, invisibly,
like a continuous quiet snowfall of private and public data. Each invocation of
a credit card, each form filled out with name, address, social security number,
triggers an electronic flash in computers around the globe
; information about you, your spending habits, your preferences and dislikes
are placed into databanks. Information
gathering devices of unprecedented subtlety and sophistication are
instruments of power ; how do
governments and private corporations wield it?
Connect here for the most important experiment in Internet
based civic democracy currently being developed in the United States.
Further information on the uses of the Internet for development
and political action can be found at this address.
Third and Fourth Presentations
Week Nine
March 19
R Burnett/C Levin
TOPICS: Where is the Digital Highway really heading? (A case for a
Jeffersonian Information Policy.) The Jeffersonian ideal
- a system that promotes grass-roots democracy , diversity
of users and manufacturers, true
communications among the people, and all the dazzling goodies of home shopping, movies
on demand, teleconferencing, and cheap, instant
databases .......what does this mean? Telecomputing, telework......Thousands
of movies, mail-order catalogs, newspapers
and magazines , educational
courses , airline schedules, and other information databases will be
available with a few clicks of a remote control. Two-way video conferencing -
which would allow you to hold a business meeting or check with the doctor, for
example - will become integral to the family, social
life , and to business. The information
and communication infrastructure of the future
, based on fiber optics, will provide the principal conduits for global
entertainment, commerce, information , and
communication in the next century.
Fifth and Sixth presentations.
Week Ten
March 26
R Burnett/C Levin
TOPICS: Work on Virilio and Baudrillard. Reference back to earlier topics.
Seventh and Eighth presentations.
Week Eleven
April 4
R Burnett/C Levin
Wrap-up of course. Left-over presentations.
Grades: One presentation for 35%
or One bibliographical essay 35% One long essay for 65%
Some Web-Based Hypermedia Texts: