QUESTIONING NEW MEDIA
COURSE SYLLABUS
Spring 2010
CNM 201/IEOR 298-3: Questioning New Media
M 5:30-6:30PM (class), M 7:30-9:00PM for ATC lectures
340 Moffitt Library (the BCNM Commons)
Professor Ken Goldberg
goldberg@ieor.berkeley.edu
TAs:
Alenda Chang
alenda@berkeley.edu
Kris Fallon
krisfallon@berkeley.edu
Course Description:
CNM 201/IEOR
298-3 (cross-listed under Center for New Media & Industrial
Engineering and Operations Research) will be held in conjunction with
the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium, a monthly lecture series
that brings internationally known speakers to campus to present their
work on advanced topics in new media.
Students will enhance skills in "questioning" new media: how to think critically about advanced topics in new media, how to use new media resources such as the Internet to research pioneering work in new media, how to formulate effective questions about new media, and how to evaluate and create persuasive presentations on topics in new media.
Students will research each speaker and formulate incisive questions regarding each speaker's work. Students will attend each lecture, take careful notes, and ask relevant questions. During the week after each lecture, students and instructors will review and evaluate the strengths (and weaknesses) of the presentation and discuss pertinent advanced topics in new media.
This course is open to graduate students from any department and upper-level undergraduates (upon instructor approval).
This course fulfills one of the core course requirements for the Designated Emphasis in New Media.
Requirements:
Students must attend class meetings and every ATC lecture. Please
see the attached course schedule for the specific dates of classes and
lectures. Students must research each speaker and are responsible for
generating discussion and contributing to a course blog as well as the Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive blog. Each student must participate in one group presentation during the semester, and each student must write a short, three-page final paper regarding a selected speaker. Required readings are available on the course website.
Grading:
This is a 3-credit course. Students will receive a letter grade. To do well in the class, students must come prepared to each class and ATC lecture, contribute to class discussions and the class and BAM blogs, and develop incisive and relevant questions for each visiting speaker in the ATC lecture series. Attendance is expected: students with more than two unexcused absences will receive a lower grade.
Class Schedule (dates with ATC lectures in bold):
| January 18 | Academic and Administrative Holiday - NO CLASS |
| January 25 | Introduce Joe McKay
Read: Bill Joy's "Why the future doesn't need us" (April 2000); Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (July/August 2008) Browse: Joe McKay's web site; McKay's "Big Time" project at the Berkeley Art Museum |
| January 29 | ATC Lecture: Joe McKay, "Something Besides Super Monkey Ball," 7:30-9PM, 160 Kroeber Hall |
| February 1 | Discuss Joe McKay lecture
Introduce Shari Frilot Read: "An Elegy for Film" from David Rodowick's The Virtual Life of Film (2007); "2010 New Frontier at Sundance Film Festival" |
| February 8 | Present research and questions for Shari Frilot
ATC Lecture: Shari Frilot, "Physical Cinema: Curatorial Strategies at the New Frontier," 7:30-9PM, 160 Kroeber Hall |
| February 15 | Academic and Administrative Holiday - NO CLASS |
| February 22 | Discuss Shari Frilot lecture |
| March 1 | Introduce Leo Villareal
Read: "Leo Villareal" Conner Contemporary Art review in Artforum (February 2007); N. Katherine Hayles's "The Regime of Computation" in My Mother Was a Computer (2005) Browse: Leo Villareal's web site; National Gallery of Art's "Dan Flavin: A Retrospective" |
| March 8 | Introduce Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick
Read: TBA; TBA Browse: Projects on the ARCHIVE web site |
| March 15 | Present research and questions for Leo Villareal
ATC Lecture: Leo Villareal, "Complex Simplicity: Investigating the Medium of Light," 7:30-9PM, 160 Kroeber Hall |
| March 22 | Academic and Administrative Holiday - NO CLASS |
| March 29 | Discuss Leo Villareal lecture
Read: Wendy Chun's introduction to New Media, Old Media |
| April 5 | Present research and questions for Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick
ATC Lecture: Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick, "Conversing, Considering, Condensing, Conjuring: 7 Years of Collaboration," 7:30-9PM, 160 Kroeber Hall |
| April 12 | Discuss Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick lecture |
| April 19 | Introduce Eugene Thacker
Read: "Biophilosophy for the 21st Century" |
| April 26 | Final class and wrap-up
Present research and questions for Eugene Thacker ATC Lecture: Eugene Thacker, "Darklife," 7:30-9PM, 160 Kroeber Hall |
| May 3 | Reading/Review/Recitation Period - NO CLASS |