PHI: 3272: Media
Philosophy
This course addresses the broad
shift from the Gutenberg technology and philosophy of communication that have
dominated academe since the 16th century to the media of mass communication
like film, television and computational forms of digital media that have come,
since the mid 20th, to pervade Postindustrial Society (in the Language of
Daniel Bell), the Global Village (in the language of Marshall McLuhan), or
global culture in the Mode of Information (in the words of Mark Poster). The
range of subject matter that may be included in the course is extensive:
cultural movements such as postmodernism, poststructuralism; emerging forms of
writing, visual media and arts; multi- and digital-media constructions; virtual
communities emergent on the World Wide Web; the alteration of human identities
by communicative practice; the transformation of biology into bio-informatics
and the emergence of genetic engineering; the related reconceptualization of
organisms under the paradigm of robotics, "of machines that think and
want" (in the language of pioneer technologist Warren McCulloch);
the convergence of microbiology with cybernetics—the science of "control
and communication in the animal and the machine" (as Norbert Wiener
subtitled his originary 1948 treatise in the field); and related forms of
inquiry across the arts and sciences.
Specifically, Media
Philosophy concentrates on the way in which different media of communication
shape knowledge, value, and reality. It in turn subjects issues in media and
communication to philosophical analysis and explores the relationship between
philosophical outlooks and the media in which they are articulated. Is it true,
as Nietzsche said, that “We have not got rid of God because we still believe in
grammar?” Broadly, our study will be concerned with the grammar and semantics
of diverse media of communication. The course is organized historically and
thematically, focusing on axial points in the twin histories of communications
media and world perspectives. The historical sequence begins with the communications
revolution that shaped the early modern period to yield what Marshall McLuhan
called “The Gutenberg Galaxy.” It then steps to the inventions of photography
and film, exploring their ramifications for ideas of knowledge and value. It
proceeds to the discussion of television and the mass communications developed
in the wake of WWII. Finally, it considers the rise of personal computing, the
Internet, and virtual reality as they bear on ideas of knowledge, reality,
ethics, and aesthetics.
Gordon Rule: 3,000 words:
Students will write a series
of three critical essays, each
in at least two drafts, on key themes of the course. Each essay will require: a) the use of
standard English composition, grammar, and mechanics; b) the use of an
established documentation style; c) the clear development of a thesis (based on
theory) in terms of topics and examples (drawn from media sources). Each essay will be graded in terms of
composition and content. The final draft of each essay must be at
least 1,000 words in length, totaling a minimum of 3,000 words of
final-draft writing for the term. Rough drafts are required though their word
counts are in addition to the Gordon Rule.
A basic writing manual is required: Harris, Muriel Writer's FAQ's, A Pocket
Handbook, 2/e Publisher: Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0-13-183125-9.
Students enrolled in this
course agree to abide by the Honors College
Honor Code. Please review this
important document.
Class Presentation: Each student will present an analysis of a selection
from the media—e.g., a medieval manuscript (facsimile online), an early book
(facsimile), a television program, an advertisement, a music video, an digital
artwork—to discuss with the class. Power point or other visual and auditory
media should be used for support. Group presentations are encouraged.
Late Work: Late papers or other late assignments will be
downgraded in accordance with the degree of lateness. Missed class work may not be made up unless
absence is approved in advance by the instructor.
Attendance: Regular attendance and participation are required;
they make up a significant part of the grade (see below).
Course Requirements and
Grades:
1) Regular Attendance and Class
Participation (including
in-class writing assignments, discussion, etc.) 20% of final grade;
2) Three 1,000 word essays, 60%;
3) Presentation, 20%.
A philosophical perspective on
“media philosophy”; see Film Philosophy for more
perspectives.
Required Texts:
Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit
451
Burnett, Ron How
Images Think
Eisenstein,
Hansen, Mark, New
Philosophy for New Media
Kittler, Friedrich, Gramophone,
Film, Typewriter
McLuhan, Marshall, Quentin Fiore, The
Medium is the Massage
Rentschler, Eric, Ministry
of Illusion : Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife
Key Links:
Krzysztof
Wodiczko: Projections
Web
Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems
Useful News Media
Sources:
Al-Jazeera
Retrospective: A bin Laden Special
FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Frontline World:
India, Starring Osama bin Laden
Le
Monde Diplomatique English Language Edition, in FAU Electronic Journals via EzProxy
List of Addional Texts
& Reserve
Adorno, Theodor, Critical
Models 0231076355
Benjamin, Walter, “The Function of the Work of Art in
the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Selected Writings, Vol. 3,
1935-1938, pp. 99-133; online version "The
Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction";
---. Selections from The
Burke, Peter. A Social
History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot
Brennan, Bonnie and Hanno Hardt,
Picturing the Past: Media, History, and Photography (The History of
Communication)
Burnett, Ron, How Images
Think 0262025493 MIT
Diringer, David, The Book
Before Printing
Eisenstein,
Flusser, Towards a
Philosophy of Photography
Friday, Aesthetics &
Photography
Habermas, Juergen, The
Theory of Communicative Action, 2. vols.
Hansen, Mark, New
Philosophy for the New Media 0262083213 MIT
Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in
Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics
Illich, Ivan, In the
Vineyard of the Text
Irwin, William, The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of
the Real
Jarvie, Ian, Philosophy
of the film : epistemology, ontology, aesthetics (on library reserve)
Kellner,
Kittler, Friedrich. Discourse
Networks 1800/1900
---. Grammophone, Film, Typewriter
Koyre, Alexandre, From the
Closed World to the Infinite Universe
Kroker, Arthur, The Will
to Technology & the Culture of Nihilism: Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marx
Landow, George P. Hypertext
2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Parallax -
Re-Visions of Culture and Society)
Landy, Marcia, The Historical Film: History & Memory in Media
Mander, Jerry. Four
Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Manovich, Lev, The Language of New
Media
McLuhan, Marshall, The Gutenberg Galaxy
---. The Medium is the Massage
Moore, Michael, Fahrenheit
9/11 (2004)
Oshii, Mamoru, Ghost
in the Shell (1996)
Paul, Christina, Digital
Art 0500203679 Thames &
Poster, Mark. The Mode of
Information
Rodowick, David Norman, Reading the Figural, Or, Philosophy After the
New Media (Post-Contemporary Interventions)
0822327228 Duke UP
Riefenstal, Leni, Triumph
of the Will (1934)
Ryan, Marie-Laure. Cyberspace
Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory
Sontag, Suzan, "Fascinating
Fascism"
---. On Photography
Taylor, Mark and Asa
Saarinen, Imagologies: Media Philosophy
Turing, Alan M., "Computing Machinery &
Intelligence", Mind (VOL. LIX. No.236. [October, 1950])
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah (Editor), Nick Montfort (Editor),
The New Media Reader, (ISBN 0262232278, MIT Press 2003).
Wiener, Norbert. The Human
Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society
Films: Film Night, Wednesday, HC 114, 8:00—10:30
Dunning, George, Yellow
Submarine (The Beatles, 1968)
Frontline, The Persuaders
Gilliam, Terry, The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Hitchcock, Alfred, Alfred
Hitchcock Presents
Linklater, Richard, Waking Life
Ley, Robert Television
Under The Swastika: The History of Nazi Television
Vertov, Dziga, Man
With the Movie Camera (1929)
von Baky, Josef Münchhausen (The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
Riefenstal, Leni, The
Blue Light
---. The Holy Mountain
Wachowski, Andy and Larry The
Matrix (1999)
Online Journals:
Baudrillard Studies: http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/index.html
Ctheory: Theory,
Technology, & Culture: www.ctheory.net
Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies: Taylor & Francis Journals; sign in first at FAU Library’s EZproxy.
Leonardo
Electronic Almanac MIT
Postmodern Culture: Project Muse via EZproxy
Some reference
interdisciplinary programs in media studies:
NYU's doctoral program in
Media Ecology http://www.nyu.edu/education/culturecomm/programs/graduate/graphics/index.html
and its Media Research Lab http://mrl.nyu.edu/;
MIT's Media Lab http://www.media.mit.edu/;
UT Austin's ACT Lab (http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/);
U of Toronto's Graduate Programme in Communication & Culture http://www.yorku.ca/comcult/prospect.htmhttp://www.yorku.ca/comcult/prospect.htm;
the MFA in Computer Arts and Animation at FAU www.fau.edu/animasters.
Syllabus: From Gutenberg to Cyberspace
Note: in-class responses my
be required in any class period; they may not be made up without a valid
reason: please attend class regularly!
Week 1
Course Introduction
The Gutenberg Revolution:
McLuhan, The Medium is the
Massage, An
Inventory of Effects; Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, Translator’s
Introduction, Author’s Preface and Introduction; also see Turing, "Computing Machinery &
Intelligence" and the technical definition of a random walk whose only
rule is not to return to the place just left: Markov Chain.
Week 2
The relationship between
communications revolution and knowledge:
Eisenstein, The Printing
Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Part 1, sections 1-3; Habermas, The
Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Introduction & Ch. 1:
“Modernity’s Consciousness of Time,” in FAU Libraries Electronic Collection via
EZproxy; Web Toons posted by
Gia: Double-Edged
Media Sword ; A Rough Map
of the Internet .
Week 3
The consequences of
typography: shifts in perception,
identity, epistemology, the catalogue of knowledge (encyclopedia); Eisenstein,
continued, Part 1, ch.. 4; Part 2, ch.. 5;
Kittler, Grammophone, Film, Typewriter, chapter 1: “Grammophone”;
Images: Leonardo's
Paintings; Raphael's
Paintings; Velázquez’s
Paintings; Delacroix's
Liberty Leading the People; Seurat's Sunday Afternoon;
Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Prelude.
Week 4
Technology, Epistemology,
Ethics, Aesthetics: Mozart and
Sid Vicious
Eisenstein, Part II, secs.
6-8, and Afterword; Kittler, ch. 2: “Film”
Film: Vertov, Man with a
Movie Camera; Commentary
on Vertov; Biosketch of Vertov; Music and Vertov's Camera.
Week 5: Essay I Due
The
Industrial-Communications Revolution:
Photography, Film, and the Dynamics of Knowledge
Benjamin, "The
Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"; Sontag, "Fascinating
Fascism"
Rentschler, Ministry of
Illusion, Introduction: “The Power of Illusions,” Part 1: Fatal
Attractions, ch. 1, “A Legend for Modern Times: The Blue Light (1932);
Films: The Blue Light /
The
Week 6
Film Tuesday: The
Film: Wednesday, Television
Under the Swastika. For a ‘scary’ look at a range of Nazi productions in
various media see Third Reich Books.
Thursday, discussion.
Rentschler, Ministry of Illusion, ch. 2, “Emotional Engineering: Hitler
Youth Quex.”
Week 7
“Specters & Shadows,” ch. 8, “Self-Reflexive Self-Destruction: Münchhausen
(1943)”: Film: Tuesday, Triumph of
the Will (excerpts)
Wednesday: Munchausen (and
excerpts from Terry Gilliam, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen).
Thursday: Hitler Youth
Quex or Hitler Youth; discussion.
"Total War" (Der
totale Krieg) 1943; Goebbels
"Sprortspalast Speech" on Total War; Erich Ludendorff, and the
Origins of "Total War".
Week 8
Kittler, ch. 3: “Typewriter”;
Habermas, The
Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, ch. XI, XI: “An
Writing and the body: Franz
Kafka, "In
the Penal Colony";
Film: Beatles, Yellow
Submarine (1968); Hearts & Minds (excerpts): the Imaginary and
the Real.
Week 9 Essay II Due
Hansen, New Philosophy for
New Media, Introduction.
Burnett, Introduction & ch.
1: “Vantage Point and Image-Worlds”1960’s Media Culture: See Burnett’s Critical Approaches to Culture +
Communications + Hypermedia .
Film: Waking Life,
philosophy in animation.
Week 10
Hansen, Part 1: “From Image
to Body,”
Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
Burnett, ch. 2, “Imagescapes,
Mind & Body”; Jeffry Shaw, Web of Life.
Film: The Matrix
Burnett, ch. 6, “Humans, Machines”
Week 11
Oral
Presentations & Discussion
Burnett, ch. 3, “Foundations
of Virtual Images”; ch. 4, “Imagescapes as Ecology”
Hansen, ch. 2, “Framing the
Digital”; ch. 3, “The Automation of Sight and the Bodily Basis of Vision”
Film: The Matrix
Week 12
Oral
Presentations & Discussion
Burnett, ch. 5
“Simulation/Viewing/Immersion”
Film: Frontline, The Persuaders
Hansen, ch. 4, “Affect as
Interface: Confronting the Digital Face Image”
Hansen, ch. 5, “What’s
Virtual about VR? “Reality as a Body-Brain Achievement”
Week 13
Oral
Presentations & Discussion
Burnett, ch. 7, “Peer-to-Peer
Communications, Visualizing Community”
Krzysztof
Wodiczko the cinematic City
Krzysztof
Wodiczko: Projections
Hansen, ch. 6, “The Affective Topology of New Media Art”
Week 14
Oral
Presentations & Discussion
Burnett, ch. 8 “Computer
Games and the Aesthetics of Human and Nonhuman Interaction”
Hansen, ch. 7, “Body Times”
Ctheory: Theory, Technology, Culture; Ctheory Multimedia
Week 15 Essay III Due
Tuesday, April 25th at 12:30 PM
Oral
Presentations & Discussion
Burnett, ch. 9, “Reanimating
the World: Waves of Interaction”
Week 16
Oral Presentations &
Discussion as needed
Return of final work,
discussion.
