This course’s first meeting is in the Board Room of the Heyman Center, Thursday’s meeting is in the Komoda Room of the Heyman Center (East Campus).
Instructor: Grant Wythoff
Over the past decade, digital media have made strange the very fabric of our conversations, movements, aesthetic experiences, and political consciousness. These changes were prepared for by information theorists in the 1940s, cyberneticians in the 1950s and 60s, and the architects of networked computation in the 1970s and 80s. But only now have we begun to live out the futures that were dreamed of by these technologists. Today with our digital devices, we experience their dreams as habits, beliefs, and compulsions.
This class will introduce students to the history and theory of digital media. We will begin by examining the historical roots of the concept of “information,” and then proceeds with units on each of the following key concepts in digital studies: platforms, networks and power, code, interface, and theories of the self. Each of these concepts will be explored through a comparative framework, using readings from across the disciplines and hands-on lab activities. We will think historically (how have media been experienced as “new” at different moments in time?), theoretically (how exactly do we address “medium” as an object of study), and tactically (how can we use our local experience of digital devices as a framework for thinking global networks?).
