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This is a graduate seminar in the UCSB's English Department's Transcriptions Project.The purpose of the course is to think about the nature of knowledge in an age when the dominant discourse is "information" and the dominant socio-economic form is "knowledge work." Included topics: knowledge work and business, "natural" versus "conventional" and "technological" information, the interrelations of orality, literacy, and hyper-literacy, communication theory, media theory, interface design (especially the relation between visual and textual information design), virtual reality and cyberspace, the metaphysics of computer "security", and the role of art in the age of information. The ultimate goal of the course is to look at information in such a deep and large way that it will not be surprising that its magic is imaginable in the same frame as literature, and vice versa. There is also a practical goal: to introduce humanities students to skills and technologies that are increasingly necessary in many future careers. The course requires a brief informal presentation to open a class and a team online project that incorporates an individual critical essay or hypertext essay. This graduate seminar will be run on the model of a research institute or think tank stressing the identification "directions of research" within particular topics. Overview of the idea behind the Transcriptions Project. Class Location and Time: South Hall 2635, Tue., Thurs., 2-3:15 Instructor's Office Hours: South Hall 2521, Thurs., 3:30-4:30 Technology Help: TBA Required Texts (see Materials and Schedule) Assignments (Details):
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