Syllabus
Department of Media Study
The State University of New York at Buffalo
DMS415 SCH/ DMS515 SCH
T R, 1700-1850
Instructor's website:
<http://collectivate.net>
Week1
Tues, January 17
Thurs, January 19
INTRODUCTION
How should you approach the assigned readings? Print out the course reader in the library until Tuesday, January 24th. Set up a del.icio.us account. Set up your blog and post a short narrative biography as your first entry. Email instructor the URL of your delicious site and weblog by Tuesday, January 24th. We will read the blog entries aloud in class that day.
Blog Set Up:
http://www.schoolof.info/signup/
Help:
http://www.schoolof.info/help/mynewblog.swf
http://schoolof.info/help/gettingstarted.html
Terminology:
Blog, blogger, blogosphere, blogroll, blogware, real simple syndication (rss), moblog, permalink, podcasting, post.
Read:
Mattelart, Armand (1996) The Invention of Communication. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents
<http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/handbook_bloggers_cyberdissidents-GB.pdf>
<http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15000&PHPSESSID=4b1af045e8feea493187af91dacedb36>
Questions:
Why are we asked to blog? Why do cooperative skill sets and the ability to participate in online networks matter a great deal? What is meant when we refer to the public sphere? Who is the audience?
Week2
Tues, January 24
Thurs, January 26
Part 1)
HISTORY OF GROUP FORMATION IN THE INTERNET
Read:
Tracing the Evolution of Social Software by Christopher Allen
<http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/10/tracing_the_evo.html>
Technologies of Cooperation by Howard Rheingold
<http://molodiez.org/tech_coop.pdf>
Questions:
What are key events in the history of group formation in the Internet?
Which milestones mark the development of social software?
Week3
Tues, January 31
Thurs, February 02
Extra Class: Wednesday February 01 (no class on March 28)
5-6:50pm, CFA atrium
Guest: Mark Shepard Read his essay "The Tactical Sound Garden (TSG) Toolkit"
<http://molodiez.org/shepard_web.pdf>
Part 2)
RE-CONSIDERING THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Read:
K. Ludwig Pfeiffer (1994) "The Materiality of Communication" in Gumbrecht, H. U. & Pfeiffer, K. (eds.). Materialities of Communication. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
The Radio As An Apparatus of Communication by Bertolt Brecht
<http://telematic.walkerart.org/telereal/bit_brecht.html>
Die Resurrection Co. by W. Hartenau, Louis Kaplan
<http://molodiez.org/resurrection.pdf>
Questions:
Who are the many online flaneurs?
For whom do we write in the digital commons?
What are pros and cons of the networked lifestyle?
Online References:
Wikipedia
<http://www.wikipedia.org>
OurMedia
<http://ourmedia.org>
Odeo
<http://odeo.com>
Del.icio.us
<http://del.icio.us>
Flickr
<http://www.flickr.com>
Week 4
Tues, February 07
Guest Lecture by Dr. Judith Rodenbeck, 7-8pm, room 235
Download class presentation slides ( 6 MB, pdf)
Thurs, February 09
Discussion of Rodenbeck Lecture
Download lecture presentation slides (16MB, pdf)
QUIZ
Part 3)
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PARTICIPATION AND INTERACTION IN ART
Read:
Gere, Charlie (2002) The Digital Avantgarde. in "Digital Culture." London: Reaktion Books, pp. 75-111.
Jenkins, H. (2003) Games, The New Lively Art in Hartley, J. (2005) Creative Industries. London: Blackwell, pp. 313-327.
Questions:
What are some precedents of interactions and participation since the 1960s. How do artists use blogs, wikis and other social software? What makes an artistic blog successful? When does a blog become art? What are effecive ways in which cultural producers use blogs as portfolio? How can filmmakers make use of video blogs as documentation, artwork, and discursive collaborative site? How do you critically assess Nicolas Bouriaud's notion of relational aesthetics?
Online Resources:
Blog Art
<http://blog-art.blogspot.com/>
Blogging as Curating
<http://vercodigofonte.blogspot.com/2005/11/on-blogging-as-curating.html>
Make Magazine
<http://www.makezine.com/blog/>
Week5
Tues, February 14
Thurs, February 16
Participatory Cultural Production (continued)
Online References:
<http://www.universalacid.net/>
<http://blog-art.blogspot.com/>
<http://myboyfriendcamebackfromthewar.blogspot.com/>
<http://screenfull.net/>
<http://americanidolauditiontraining.blogs.com/marisa>
Week6
Tues, February 21
Thurs, February 23
Video Blogging
Read:
NYT article on Rocketboom
<http://molodiez.org/videoblogging.pdf>
Review Examples:
<http://del.icio.us/Trebor/vlog>
Manuals:
RSS feeds of vlogs:
<http://getfireant.com/>
Vlog manual
<http://freevlog.org>
Online References:
David Weinberger on vlogs
<http://www.blogumentary.org/video/weinberger_akma.mov>
THURSDAY FEB 23:
Distributed Research, no class meeting
post to blog
Week7
Tues, February 28
Thurs, March 02
Part 3)
NEW PUBLICS, PLATFORMS AND ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIES
Read:
Siegert, B. (1999) In the Presence of Noise in Relays. Literature as An Epoch of the Postal System. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 247-264.
Snyder, b&J. (2003) Embrace file sharing or die, The New York Times.
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/02/01/file_trading_manifesto/print.html>
Questions:
Do cultural producers still need the gallery, museum, non-profit space? Or, does the Internet provide sufficient opportunities for dialogue and intellectual community? How can an hybrid approach be best described? How realistic is the potential of various online communities to build alternative, online knowledge repositories that effectively challenge the content hegemony of traditional institutions? Can self-organized networks challenge the power of inspiration of brick and mortar institutions?
Week8
Tues, March 07
Thurs, March 09
Mid-semester assessment
Part 4)
PROPERTY IN THE COMMONS
Read:
Lessig, L. (2003) Commons on the Wires. in Hartley, J. (2005) Creative Industries. London: Blackwell, pp. 55-69.
Week9
Tues, March 14
Thurs, March 16
Spring Recess
Week10
Tues, March 21: Class (see below)
Thurs, March 23: No class meeting. Work on Wikipedia Entry.
March 23 Trebor in Zurich
<http://collectivate.net/currently/>
Part 6)
GATE KEEPING VS. CITIZEN JOURNALISM
Read:
Kidd, D. "Indymedia.org: A New Communications Commons" in McCaughey, M., and Ayers, M. (2003) Cyberactivism: online activism in theory and practice. New York: Routledge, pp. 47-70.
Questions:
How true or romantic are the promises of e-democracy? Which role do citizen reporters, and other bloggers play in shaping public opinion? What is the importance of the interlinkage between such environments that make up the blogosphere?
Online References:
Mediachannel
<http://www.mediachannel.org/>
MoveOn.Org
<http://www.moveon.org/>
Howard Deanﾕs Campaign Site
<http://www.deanforamerica.com/>
Daoud Kuttab's blog
<http://www.daoudkuttab.com/blog/>
Week11
Tues, March 28: no class (this class is taught Feb 01)
Thurs, March 30: Liz Knipe
March 28/30 Trebor in Liverpool
<http://collectivate.net/currently/>
Writing and the Digital Life
Read:
Burroughs, W. (1961) The Cut-Up Method by Brion Gysin. in Wardrip-Fruin, W., Montfort, N., eds. (2004) The New Media Reader. Cambridge: The MIT Press, pp. 89-91.
Siegert, B. (1999) Introduction in Relays: Literature as an Epoch of the Postal System
Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 1-19.
Online References:
trAce Online Writing Centre
<http://trace.ntu.ac.uk>
Writing and the Digital Life
<http://writing.typepad.com>
Recommended Reading:
Gitelman, L. (19999) Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Week12
Tues, April 03
Thurs, April 06
Part 6)
SOCIAL SOFTWARE AND RADICAL SOCIAL CHANGE
Read:
Wark, M. (2002) The Weird Global Media Event and the Tactical Intellectual [version 3.0] in Hui Chun, K., Keenan, T. (2005) New Media. Old Media. A history and Theory Reader. London: Routledge, pp.265-275.
Mailing List thread iDC List:
<http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/2005-December/thread.html>
Questions:
What does a radical aesthetical and political position entail for today's cultural producer given the changed media landscape of the *network society* that this course discusses?
Week13
Tues, April 11
Thurs, April 13
Part 7)
PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE SPACES
Read:
Mauss, M. (1950) The Exchange of Gifts and the Obligation to Reciprocate (Polynesia). in The Gift. London: Routledge, pp. 10-48.
<http://molodiez.org/marcel_mauss.pdf>
Questions:
What do the new roles of the artist as public intellectual, cultural tool builder, and cultural context providers entail? What are new role models of the artist since the formation of online communities is possible? What is meant by hierarchies of the gift economy? What are different critical views on the economy of gift giving? Is civic participation online and off the default in the US? What are incentives for online participation? Why Do People Contribute to the public? What makes online collaboration work? Why do some online pieces remain completely private while others gain high public visibility? What is a *produser*?
Week14
Tues, April 18
Thurs, April 20
Read:
Coyne, R. (2005) The Gift of Information in Cornucopia Limited. Design and Dissent on the Internet. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 99-149.
Week15
Tues, April 25
Tues April 25, Lecture by Joasia Krysa, 7-8pm, room 235
Thurs, April 27
Readings from student blog entries throughout the semester