Alan Liu, English 236 (Culture of Information) Schedule

Schedule of Readings (printer version)

(Full course site: http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/courses/liu/english236/)

(see also instructor's prospectus for each class)

South Hall 2635, Tue., Thurs., 2-3:15; Office Hours,SH 2521, Th. 3:30-4:30

Click on the title for each class to see the instructor's advance prospectus for the class.
Readings not marked with one of the following icons are from required books for the course:

= Reader

= Online Only

= Assignment Due

= Supplementary Links


CLASS 1: Jan. 11	INTRODUCTION (click on the title of each class to see the instructor's prospectus for the class)
	William Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey" (1798) William Gibson, Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) (1992) (notes to facilitate class discussion) Fill out the online course entrance questionnaire asap (required). Buy required books at UCSB Bookstore & reader at Alternative Copy Shop.

The Age of Knowledge Work


CLASS 2: Jan. 13	"LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS" (click on the title of each class to see the instructor's prospectus for the class)
	Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942), pp. 82-84 (on "creative destruction") Boyett and Conn, Workplace 2000 (1992), pp. 1-58, 276-83 Peter F. Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society (1993), pp. 19-47 Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline (1990), pp. 3-16 [Optional: William H. Davidow and Michael S. Malone, The Virtual Corporation (1992), pp. 184-205, 214-16 ] (notes to facilitate class discussion) Be prepared to choose a class in which to open discussion.


CLASS 3: Jan. 18	"NETWORK ENTERPRISE"
	Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (1996), pp. 151-72, 195-216 (with accompanying tables on 282-83, 296, 304), 240-51, 264-72 (notes to facilitate class discussion)


CLASS 4: Jan. 20	"SYMBOLIC ANALYSTS"
	Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973), pp. 76-80, 112-19, 174-77, 212-21, 358-64 Robert B. Reich, The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st-Century Capitalism (1991), pp. 3-9, 81-91, 171-84, 268-81, 301-305 [Optional: Browse Palinurus: The Academy and the Corporation ] (notes to facilitate class discussion)


CLASS 5: Jan. 25	PROJECT WORKSHOP 1
	[Workshop for Online Projects] Begin reading ahead for next class Brainstorming about possible projects. Notes to facilitate workshop.

Introduction to the Prehistory & History of Information


CLASS 6: Jan. 27	FROM NATURE TO INFORMATION
	Albert Borgmann, Holding On to Reality, Intro & Chaps. 1-5 Andy Goldsworthy's "land art" (photos and selected text) (password needed; restricted to students in this course) (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Robert Adlington


CLASS 7: Feb. 1	(continued)
	Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1936) (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Carly Andrews


CLASS 8: Feb. 3	PROJECT WORKSHOP 2
	[Workshop 2 for Online Projects] (notes to facilitate class discussion) Prospectuses for team project posted to the course e-mail list.


CLASS 9: Feb. 8	SPEAKING, WRITING, READING, INFORMING
	Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (1982), pp. 16-27, 31-83 Plato, from Phaedrus (use your browser's search function and read from the following sentence to the end: "Shall we discuss the rules of writing and speech as we were proposing?") (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Jeen Yu E-mail to Prof. Liu a breakdown of how you have distributed individual responsibilities for your team project. From this class on, each student must submit a weekly project log.


CLASS 10: Feb. 10	(Continued)
	Archibald MacLeish, "Ars Poetica" (1926) Cleanth Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" (1947) Borgmann, Chap. 8 (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Katie Berry


CLASS 11: Feb. 15	(Continued)
	M.D. Coverley, Fibonacci's Daughter Raine Koskimaa, "Visual Structuring of Hyperfiction Narratives" (1997) George P. Landow, Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Critical Theory and Technology (1997), pp. 115-26 Steven Johnson, Interface Culture, Chap. 4, "Links" [Optional: Stuart Moulthrop, "The Shadow of an Informand: An Experiment in Hypertext Rhetoric" (1992-94) ; John Tolva, "The Heresy of Hypertext: Fear and Anxiety in the Late Age of Print" ] (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Jennifer Jones


CLASS 12: Feb. 17	PROJECT WORKSHOP 3
	[Workshop 3 for Online Projects] Show-and-tell about progress on team projects.

Acts of Information, 1948-2000


CLASS 13: Feb. 22	COMMUNICATING
	Borgmann, Chap. 11 Claude E. Shannon, "The Mathematical Theory of Communication" (1948), pp. 3-6 Warren Weaver, "Recent Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Communication" (1949), pp. 95-109, 114-17 Daniel Chandler, "The Transmission Model of Communication" (1994) (notes A to facilitate class discussion) (notes B to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Michael Perry Between Classes 13 and 16, each team is assigned one other team's project to critique.


CLASS 14: Feb. 24	MEDIATING
	Hans Magnus Enzensberger, "Constituents of a Theory of the Media" (1974), [in Druckrey] Baudrillard, "Requiem for the Media" (1972) Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (1982), pp. 135-38 (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Mary Dudy


CLASS 15: Feb. 29	(Continued)
	Marshall McLuhan, "The Medium is the Message" and "Media Hot and Cold" (1964) Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (1999), 3-50 (notes to facilitate class discussion) Guest presentation: William Warner on his book-in-progress, Media Determinism:


CLASS 16: Mar. 2	INTERFACING (SEEING/DESIGNING)
	Borgmann, Chap. 13 Martin Heidegger, "The Age of the World Picture," pp. 55-end (beginning with the sentence, "When we reflect on the modern age, we are questioning concerning the modern world picture") [in Druckrey] Shoshanna Zuboff, excerpts on "informating" and computing "overview" from In the Age of the Smart Machine (1988) (notes A to facilitate class discussion) (notes B to facilitate class discussion) (notes C to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Gisela Kommerell


CLASS 17: Mar. 7	(Continued)
	Roger Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France (1987), pp. 158-67, 180-82 Johanna Drucker, The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and Modern Art, 1909-1923 (1994), pp. 91-104, 238-47 Jan Tschichold, The New Typography (1928), pp. 52-99 Matt Kirschenbaum, "A White Paper on Information" (1998) (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Diana Solomon


CLASS 18: Mar. 9	SIMULATING
	Borgmann, Chap. 14 Steven Johnson, Interface Culture, Chap. 1 Kim H. Veltman, "Electronic Media: The Rebirth of Perspective and the Fragmentation of Illusion" [in Druckrey] Jonathan Steur, "Defining Virtual Reality," Journal of Communication 42 (1992): 79-90 Brenda Laurel, Computers as Theatre (1992), pp. 1-22 Slavoj Zizek, "From Virtual Reality to the Virtualization of Reality" (1996) [in Druckery] William Gibson, "Academy Leader" (1991) (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Caroline Brehm


CLASS 19: Mar. 14	SECURING
	Winn Schwartau, Information Warfare (1996), p. 33 Donn P. Parker, Fighting Computer Crime (1998), pp. vii-xii, 1-25 Donna J. Haraway, "The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse" (1989) [Optional: Review the materials for classes 2, 3, & 4 relevant to job insecurity; see also Andrew Long, "Jobless Higher Ed: An Interview with Stanley Aronowitz" (1998) ] (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Christy Cannariato

Art 2000


CLASS 20: Mar. 16	THE STRANGE WEB: ART, HACKING, TERRORISM
	Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Prologue Bruce Sterling, Hacker Crackdown (1992/1994), Section 2.2 (Full text of the book available here) Steven Wray, "The Electronic Disturbance Theater and Electronic Civil Disobedience" (1998) Critical Art Ensemble, The Electronic Disturbance (1994), Chaps. 2, 4, 5 (notes to facilitate class discussion) Student presentation: Christopher Johnston


DATE/TIME TBA	FORMAL PRESENTATION OF ONLINE PROJECTS
	[Formal Presentation of Team Online Projects] Explanation.

Final online essay due Monday, March 20th.

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