ENGLISH 407A

Special Topics in Cultural Studies:
Cyberculture

Winter 2003, T & Th, 12:30-2:20pm
082 & 082A Mary Gates Hall

Steven Shaviro (shaviro@shaviro.com)
Office: A303 Padleford, T & Th 3:00pm-4:00pm

As recently as fifteen years ago, computer-mediated communication (CMC) was in its infancy. The Internet as we know it today scarcely existed. Email accounts were few and far between, 300-baud modems were the rule, and the World Wide Web had not yet been invented. In an astonishingly short time, everything has changed. Today we take the Net so much for granted, that it's hard to gauge the distance we have gone, or the difference it has made. This course will consider the many ways that contemporary culture has been reshaped--and is still in process of being reshaped--as a result of the growth of the Internet, and associated electronic technologies. We will look into the new electronic forms of culture, and try to decode the new messages that are being conveyed by the new digital media: personal computers and world-wide information networks, above all, but also video, multimedia, interactive games, online communities, and virtual reality technologies. We will look at a wide range of material: from theoretical writings about the nature of virtualization to policy debates about issues such as copyright and encryption, and from speculative science fiction to experiments in interface design to "net art" projects.


Class requirements:


January 7: INTRODUCTION


January 9: APPROACHING CYBERSPACE


January 14: THE PHILOSOPHY OF CYBERSPACE--TECHNOLOGY


January 16: THE PHILOSOPHY OF CYBERSPACE--VIRTUAL REALITY


January 21: GLOBALIZATION AND THE ECONOMICS OF CYBERSPACE


January 23: THE NETWORK SOCIETY


January 28: COMMUNITIES, VIRTUAL AND "REAL"


January 30: LIVING IN CYBERSPACE


February 4: VIRTUAL BODIES


February 6: POSTHUMAN DREAMS


February 11: VIRTUAL IDENTITIES


February 13: BLOGS, CAMS, AND HOMEPAGES


February 18: HYPERTEXT AND DIGITAL AESTHETICS

February 20: LEXIA TO PERPLEXIA


February 25: COMPUTER GAMES


February 27: FILMTEXT


March 4: PRIVACY, OWNERSHIP, HACKING, AND SURVEILLANCE


March 6: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND COPYRIGHT


March 11 and 13: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS


March 18: FINAL PAPERS DUE


Required Texts


SOME CYBERCULTURE RESOURCES


SOME BLOGGING RESOURCES