English 458: Virtual Culture
	Spring 2003 Prof. Stuart Barnett 316 Willard Hall barnetts@ccsu.edu

Once, the future was only a continuation of the present. Its changes loomed beyond the horizon. But now the future is a part of the present. Are they ready for this?

—Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker

This course will examine the fate of art and culture in the era of digitilization. Of particular concern will be the increasing virtuality of culture, its detachment from anything that might be called reality. That being said, however, something this course wants to underscore is the fact that culture was to a great extent always already virtual. It is with advent of writing that culture became irrevocably virtual. With the stylus, culture became techno-culture--a species-defining event that placed technology at the heart of the so-called essence of humanity. And, as already with writing, this technology takes us where we are not, brings absent others and places to us. So that the ongoing process of repressing the real absence of what is virtually present comes to define our self-consciousness, indeed, our very being. The crisis facing the West now is the undeniable virtuality of culture. Repression is no longer possible. The presence of absence is making itself felt; it is, moreover, constituting itself as a liveable environment.

Some time will be spent considering cultural critics such as Benjamin, Baudrillard, Debord, Adorno, McLuhan, and Jameson in order to establish a theoretical framework for the notion of virtual culture. Then a variety of cultural artifacts from a host of media will be examined.
 

Texts:

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle
Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam
Mark Poster, What's the Matter with the Internet?
Regis Debray, Media Manifestos
Pierre Lévy, Cyberculture
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage

Films:

U2: ZooTV
Fight Club
Ghost in the Shell
The Matrix
A.I.

 

Jan 21

Introduction

Plato, The Republic [handout]
Cervantes, Don Quixote [handout]

Jan 28

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage
Jean Baudrillard, "The Precession of Simulacra" [handout]

NO CLASS

Feb 11

Horkheimer/Adorno, "Culture Industry" in Dialectic of Enlightenment R
Benjamin Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld R

Feb 18

Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in Illuminations R
Cultural App: MP3 and Moby

Charles Mann, "The Heavenly Jukebox" [Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4]
Ethan Smith, "Organization Moby"
Gerald Marzorati, "All by Himself"

Feb 25

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle
 (for more on the Situationists)
The Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bullocks R

March 4

Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam
(check out Lasn's magazine Adbusters as well as its website)
Fight Club

Take-Home Midterm Due

Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
Presentation: Cynthia Breazeal, Kismet, and Sociable Robots (check out Breazeal's website)
Julius Wiedemann, Digital Beauties [on reserve; big book mainly with pictures--peruse this, paying particular attention to the Japanese creations, which are called idols. These are digital, virtual women who have modeling and advertising careers and fan websites. Quite a few of the non-Japanese "beauties" are sexually suggestive, so, if you suspect you might be offended by this, feel free not to look at the book]

March 18

Mark Poster, What's the Matter with the Internet? [1-100; 171-188]
Bruce Sterling, "History of the Internet"
Internet Dérive Assignment. You will conduct a dérive through the internet and email me a one-page summary of your experience by March 16. Send it in the body of the email message; do not send attachments. I will explain the nature of this assignment in more detail the week before. For background on the notion of the dérive, see this essay from the Situationist International.

April 1

Regis Debray, Media Manifestos

 

April 8

Pierre Lévy, Cyberculture

April 15

U2, Zoo TV [on reserve; may be checked out for 1 day]
Official U2 Website.

April 22

Ghost in the Shell [on reserve; may be checked out for 1 day]
Lily E. Kay, "Production of Discourse," in Who Wrote the Book of Life?: A History of the Genetic Code [reserve]
Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines [reserve--read chapters 9-13 (don't read fake interview sections of chaps)]

Steven Spielberg, A.I.
Clive Thompson, "Approximating Life," The New York Times Magazine [handout]
"Alan Turing," "Turing Test," EB [e-handout]
AI ASSIGNMENT: Go to Eliza and chat with her for 10 minutes; also go to ALICE and chat with her for 10 minutes. Write a one-page reaction/reflection/meditation on your experience. E-mail a copy to me by the 27th.

May 8

The Matrix [on reserve; may be checked out for 1 day--like you haven't seen it]
(the official web site for The Matrix)

Attendance is expected.  I will take attendance each day.  It is your responsibility to make sure I notice you.  It will take me a couple of weeks to learn names.  If you are busy to talking to someone when I call your name and I mark you as absent, this is your fault, not mine.  If you come in late, it is your responsibility to remind me after class that were present.  Excessive tardiness will affect your grade.  I expect you to be attentive and engaged in the class.  This means not talking to your friends, reading material or doing work not related to the class--like filling out day planners.  I will mark you as absent for the day if you persist in such activities.

Papers should be 10 pages long.  Papers are to be typed or printed and stapled.  Do not use a cover of any kind.  One and a half inch margin on the left hand side; one inch everywhere else.  Do not attempt to fool me with efforts to stretch your paper out.  I have seen them all--three inch margins, triple spacing, 14 point type, etc.  I take a letter grade off for every calendar day a paper is late.

Your oral report should be about 10 minutes.  It should be a focused analysis and argument, not a loose collection of your impressionistic responses.  To receive your oral report grade, send me an email message and I will reply to it with your grade.

Feel free to discuss your idea for your paper with me during my office hours.  You can leave messages for me in my mailbox across the hall from my office.  Be aware that I am usually only in my office on the days I teach, so that I will probably get your message right before I see you.  Your best bet is to speak to me in my office hours or right before or after class or to email me at: barnetts@ccsu.edu.

Cheating.  Plagiarism is a serious offense.  It covers everything from a copied paper to using sources without citing them.  It also includes pretending to paraphrase when you are in fact quoting.  Changing one or two words in a sentence does not make it a paraphrase.  I will fail you for the course if you plagiarize.  Also, I will file an Academic Misconduct Report with the Chair, Dean, and the Academic Judicial Officer, who may determine that futher disciplinary action is required.  You should inform yourself about the consequences of academic misconduct.

Grade:
Midterm: 30%
Final: 30%
Paper: 30%
Oral Report: 10%