Week One: Interactivity, Agency, and Change

Theoretical Perspectives on Interactivity

H79.2440 (Douglas Rushkoff)

The emergence of interactive technologies has profoundly altered our relationship to media and art from the position of passive spectators to that of active players. For longer than we might imagine, cultural theorists have foreseen these shifts, feared them, fought for them, celebrated them, and, clearly, misunderstood them.

In this seminar, we will explore the thread of interactivity in cultural media as well as the opportunities and perils posed by the associated rise of mass interpretation, authorship, and bottom-up organization. We will trace the interactive imperative, from animated cave paintings and the alphabet to cut-and-paste novels and open source programming. We will encounter literary perspectives from Walter Benjamin to William Burroughs, media theory from Walter Ong to Baudrillard, social critique from Adorno to Deleuze, cultural programming from William Burroughs to Donna Harraway, and play theory from Huizinga to Howard Rheingold, all in the context of the relationship of interactivity to autonomy and agency.

We will also cover the ideas and intentions of some of networking technology's pioneers, from Vannevar Bush to Norbert Weiner. Students will be required to read approximately one book per week, lead one class discussion, supplement one class discussion with audio-visual resources, and write two short papers arguing a cogent theoretical perspective on new media. The tentative reading list for this course will be found at: http://www.rushkoff.com/itp/theory2006.html

I’ll be giving handouts wherever possible – but it’s always advised to read the whole book when you can afford the time and cost. You will be given handouts the first week of class. If you have not been given a handout for a reading and there is no link to the text below, then you will have to obtain the book itself. These books are all available in the NYU Bookstore, on a shelf in the basement that they have dedicated to this course. Most are also available in limited supply in the Bobst Library.

Week One: Interactivity, Agency, and Change 9/7

Introduction to Course.

Week Two: Media Transitions 9/14

1. Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy. New York: Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 0415281296
read at least selections handed out in class.

2. Logan, Robert. The Alphabet Effect (2004) Hampton Press. ISBN 1-57273-522-8

3. McLuhan, Marshall. The Essential McLuhan. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone, eds. New York: Basic Books, 1995. ISBN: 0465019951 (Focus on chapters 8, 9 10, and 13 - read the Playboy Interview first).

Week Three: Media, Technology, and Power 9/21

Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944): The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/adorno.htm

Week Four: Readers and Receptions 9/28.

1. Read intro material by John Lye at: http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/author.html
and http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/rr.html

2. Read Robert Fiske's piece at: http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/vampkiss.html

3. Roland Barthes: Myth Today (Handout - from "Mythologies")

Week Five 10/5
with Richard Metzger: Cut and Paste

***RE/Search #4/5: W.S. Burroughs, Brian Gyson, Throbbing Gristle

For more on Richard Metzger, check out:
http://www.webdelsol.com/The_Potomac/issue2/fried02.htm
http://www.life-enhancement.com/NeoFiles/default.asp?id=18
http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle53.html

Write and post 800-word papers to class BBS (http://www.rushkoff.com/class) by Friday, 3pm, after Week Five class.

The assignment is to make any argument about media or new media, in about 800 words. See standard OpEd formats in any of Rushkoff's columns at the end of Cyberia, or on http://www.rushkoff.com

NO CLASS ON OCTOBER 12

Week Seven: Short Papers, part one 10/19
be prepared to discuss first batch of papers: Terence, Summer, Catherine, Alex, Leif, Fernando, Robert Torres .

Week Six: Short Papers, part two. CLASS DATE IS changed to MONDAY OCTOBER 23 AT 12:30PM
be prepared to discuss second batch of papers - (all papers not listed above).

Week Eight: Technology - Beyond Command and Control 10/26

***Packer, Randall and Ken Jordan. Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality. New York: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 0393049795

Chapters covered:
Foreward (sic)
Overture
Weiner
Licklider
Vannevar Bush
Englebart and interview at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/mouse.html

Week Nine: Applications 11/2

***Packer, Randall and Ken Jordan. Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality. New York: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 0393049795

Chapters covered:
Nelson
Berners-Lee
Canter
Viola
Curtis

Week Ten: Play and Panic 11/9

Huizinga: Introduction to Homo Ludens. (Handout)

Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation. Translated by : Sheila Faria Glaser. Read Precession of Simulacra and at least 2 other pieces of your choice. (or just read handout selections)

Week Eleven: Plastic Identity 11/16

Orlan http://www.orlan.net/

Donna Harraway Cyborg Manifesto

Special Event: 11/17 – counts as Week Twelve
La Tempete at BAM, November 17th, 7:30pm. Followed by dialogue with the creators of 4d Art.
I'd suggest becoming familiar with Shakespeare's Tempest.

NO CLASS MEETING ON NOVEMBER 23 or NOVEMBER 30

Week Thirteen: Designer Reality12/7

Rushkoff, Douglas. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace. Clinamen Press Ltd., April 2002. ISBN: 1903083249 original text also available online at http://www.rushkoff.com/cyberia.html

If you’ve already read that one, read Screenagers: Lessons in Chaos from Digital Kids Hampton Press. ISBN 1-57273-624-0

ALSO: Begin to discuss final paper topics in class.

Week Fourteen: Immersion and Interactivity12/14

Handout From: Ryan, Marie-Laure, Wendy Steiner and Gerald Prince Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, November 2003. ISBN: 0801877539

Handout: Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. "Rhizome," in A Thousand Plateaus.
also available at http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/kellner/deleuze.html

PDF of Rushkoff, Open Source Democracy
http://www.rushkoff.com/downloads/opensourcedemocracy.pdf

Turn in and "present" final papers. 5 minute discussion each. Final paper format and criteria will be discussed in class after the midterm papers are read and evaluated.

Required Reading (buy, steal, or borrow these books):

Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation. Translated: Sheila Faria Glaser.

***Packer, Randall and Ken Jordan. Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality. New York: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 0393049795

McLuhan, Marshall. The Essential McLuhan. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone, eds. New York: Basic Books, 1995. ISBN: 0465019951

Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy. New York: Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 0415281296 (Selections)

***RE/Search #4/5: W.S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle. ISBN: 0965046915

Rushkoff, Douglas. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace. Clinamen Press Ltd., April 2002. ISBN: 1903083249

*** Means there are no handouts given from this book, and no suitable Web pages with this material.
If you do not have a copy of this book, you will not be capable of doing even the minimum required reading from it.

Recommended Reading:

Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens : A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. ISBN: 0807046817

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media - The Critical Edition.

ISBN 1584230738

Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. ISBN: 0738208612

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York: Noonday Press, 1973. ISBN: 0374521506

Foucault, Michel. The Foucault Reader. Paul Ranibow, ed. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1984. ISBN: 0394713400

Horkheimer, Max, Theodore Adorno and Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Stanford Univ. Press, 2002. ISBN: 0804736332

de la Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co., 1988. ISBN: 0812690230

Spinoza, Benedict De. A Spinoza Reader. E. M. Curley, ed. Princeton Univ. Press, February, 1994. ISBN: 0691000670

Himanen, Pekka. The Hacker Ethic. 0375505660

Book of Lies, Disinformation. ISBN: 7998725

In the Beginning was the Command Line, Neal Stephenson. ISBN: 0380815931

Leary, Timothy. Chaos and Cyberculture. ISBN: 0914171771 (used only)

Laurel, Brenda. Computers as Theatre. ISBN: 0201550601

Strate, Jacobson, and Gibson, editors. Communication and Cyberspace, second edition. ISBN: 1572733934.

Futureritual. Publication Date: September 1995 ISBN: 1573531073

Electronic Revolution, Publication Date: December 1998, ISBN: 388030002X

Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation. UMP; (February 15, 1995) ISBN: 0472065211

Back in No Time : The Brion Gysin Reader, Publication Date: January 2002, ISBN: 0819565296

Raymond, Eric S. The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. ISBN: 0596001088

Rushkoff, Douglas, Open Source Democracy. Demos: UK Open Source Publisher. http://www.demos.co.uk

Rushkoff, Douglas. Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture. ISBN: 0345397746

Rushkoff, Douglas. Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say. ISBN: 157322829X

Ryan, Marie-Laure,

Wendy Steiner and Gerald Prince Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, November 2003. ISBN: 0801877539