 TEACHING
Note: I am on sabbatical for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Fall 2009:
To be announced.
Spring 2008:
MEDIA ARCHAEOLOGY
Over the last decade or so, scholars in several disciplines have
embarked on a series of media-archaeological excavations, sifting
through the layers of early and obsolete practices and technologies of
communication. The archaeological metaphor evokes both the desire to
recover material traces of the past and the imperative to situate those
traces in their social, cultural, and political contexts--while always
watching our steps. This doctoral seminar will examine some of the most important
contributions to the field of media archaeology and, most importantly,
provide an ongoing research studio in which participants undertake
archaeological projects of their own. Cotaught by professors Galloway
and Kafka.
Other courses taught:
DOCTORAL SEMINAR 1
This is an advanced graduate seminar designed primarily for
first-semester PhD students in the Department of Media, Culture, and
Communication. The aim of the course is to provide students with a set
of foundational readings in the areas of media studies, cultural theory,
and communications. Attention will be given to debates around ideology,
subject formation, representation, meaning, and interpretation. Together
with the spring doctoral seminar, this course serves as the basis for
the PhD candidacy exam in the Department of Media, Culture, and
Communication
DEAD MEDIA RESEARCH STUDIO
This course is devoted to media archaeology, that is, historical
research into forgotten, obsolete, or otherwise "dead" media
technologies. This might include papyrus, Athanasius Kircher's
seventeenth-century magic lantern, or the common slide projector,
discontinued by Kodak in 2004. Our goal is to introduce students to the
skills and resources necessary for producing rigorous research on such
obsolete and obscure media. It will include an exposure to scholarship
in media archaeology; an intensive introduction to research methods;
instruction on the localization and utilization of word, image, and
sound archives; and an emphasis on restoring media artifacts to their
proper social and cultural context. The course stems from the premise
that media archaeology is best undertaken, like any archaeological
project, collaboratively. Hence the course follows a research studio
model commonly used in disciplines such as architecture or design.
MARXISM AND CULTURE
The purpose of this course is to read key works from western Marxism and
to understand the various political and philosophical debates with which
they engage. The course emphasizes Marxism as a scholarly methodology
for critique, applicable across disciplines. Particular attention is
given to the so-called cultural turn in twentieth century Marxist
thought, including Marx's influence on feminism, postcolonialism, and
theories of mediation. Themes include: the commodity, alienation and
reification, surplus value, ideology, hegemony, and subjectivity.
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MEDIA
This course is an introduction to digital media, focusing on networks,
computers, the Web, and video games. Theoretical topics include the
formal qualities of new media, their political dimensions, as well as
questions of genre, narrative, and history.
MEDIA, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION: THEORY AND RESEARCH
This course examines core theoretical approaches to the study of media
and communication. It provides students with an historical and critical
overview of theory and research on communication, everyday social
practices, systems of representation, and media environments. Readings
include: Marshall McLuhan, Martin Heidegger, Hans Magnus Enzensberger,
Janice Radway, Michel Foucault, Lev Manovich, and Donna Haraway.
THE POLITICS OF CODE
This seminar is on political critiques of "new" media. We begin with an
overview of cybernetics, information theory, systems theory, and
distributed communications networks. Next, we examine the rise of
immaterial labor in the service enonomies and the extension of codified
labor practices into the domain of life itself. Section three considers
the ramifications of informatic capture and the formation of coded
objects and bodies. Finally, we explore networked struggle and, through
it, a political theory of the present moment. The seminar
will favor close readings of specific technologies, rather than social
or cultural claims about the information age.
GAME STUDIES
The goal of this graduate seminar is to develop a critical approach to
the medium of the video game. We will examine the concept of "play"
using methods from literary criticism, cultural anthropology,
poststructuralism, and cinema studies, then look at approaches to the
philosophy of action, ludology, and theories of machinic and gamic
visuality. Themes will include simulation, social realism, and war
games. The seminar will include screenings and require game play.
INTERNET PROTOCOLS
The goal of this graduate seminar is to gain a critical understanding of
Internet protocols and the distributed computer networks they support.
Internet protocols are, at first glance, simple bureaucratic standards
that control how communication happens over networks. However, closer
investigation reveals a sophisticated mechanism of technical and
cultural control. Drawing from theoretical and technical sources alike,
we cover the historical emergence of protocols as well as their
contemporary context. First we examine the technology behind network
protocols, exploring how the seemingly anarchical relations of the
Internet are in fact highly regimented. Special attention will be paid
to both technical protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
and formal protocols such as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Next
we examine those places where artists and activists have tweaked,
twisted, or otherwise wrestled within the constraints of protocol.
Special attention will be given to hacking, computer viruses, net art,
cyberfeminism and tactical media. While there are no strict
prerequisites, students should be versed in critical theory and have a
rudimentary knowledge of Internet technologies.
LANGUAGE, THOUGHT, AND CULTURE
This course is an introduction to the role played by language in human
society and culture. We will examine how language structures our ways of
perceiving, knowing, thinking, communicating, and behaving. Language
refers not only to speech and writing, but also to visual languages such
as film and television, as well as the code-based languages of
computers.
MOSTLY MCLUHAN
Few theorists have influenced our understanding of the electronic media
more than Marshall McLuhan. This seminar will focus on an in-depth
reading of McLuhan's complete body of work, with the goal of moving
beyond the well known slogans to arrive at a more nuanced understanding
of this unique thinker. Attention will be paid both to his primarily
textual efforts (The Gutenberg Galaxy, Understanding Media) as well as
his more visual experiments (The Mechanical Bride, War and Peace in the
Global Village). Supplementary readings from Friedrich Kittler,
Buckminster Fuller, and others.
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