Course Outline and Readings
The course outline, if you don’t have it, is available here. However, please note that this will remain unchanged. All new information as the course proceeds will be found on this site.
I’ve also placed the list of readings and occasional “necessary explorations” below, with links to those that can be found online (that is, all the compulsory readings except for those from the books). You should make sure you read the full course guide for each week as well as checking this site. What is below is only a list of readings. Please also note that online readings are great because they’re free, but they can also appear and disappear. Some have already moved since I put them in the course guide. I’ll update the web addresses below as much as I can if things move.
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Week One – No readings
Week Two – Circuits and Bodies
Necessary Readings
* Tofts, Darren (2005) Interzone: Media Arts in Australia Craftsman House: Sydney: 7-11
* Clark, Andy (2003) Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence Oxford: Oxford University Press: 3-34
Week Three – Art, Technology and Everyday Life
Necessary Readings (mostly online)
* at least Marinettiʼs The Founding and Manifesto for Futurism, and two other manifestos, found at <http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/>
* read the material on the history of the Bauhaus, found at <http://www.bauhaus.de/english/bauhaus1919/index.htm>
* Tofts, Darren (2005) Interzone: Media Arts in Australia Craftsman House: Sydney: 32-50
* Barnet, Belinda and Eldredge, Niles (2004) ʻMaterial Cultural Evolution: An Interview with Niles Eldredgeʼ, the Fibreculture Journal, 3, at <http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue3/issue3_barnet.html>
Necessary Explorations (Spend some time exploring these sites)
http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/New_Media_Art_-_History
http://art.colorado.edu/
Week Four – Art, Technology and Everyday Life Now
Necessary Reading
* Tofts, Darren (2005) Interzone: Media Arts in Australia Craftsman House: Sydney: 12-31
* Clark, Andy (2003) Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence Oxford: Oxford University Press: 35-58
* ʻParasite visions: alternate, intimate and involuntary experiencesʼ and ʻThe involuntary, the alien and the automated: choreographing bodies, robots and phantomsʼ, both found at http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/articles/index.html [you should also look generally at the Stelarc site]
Extra Readings (only if you’re interested in pursuing things)
* De Landa, Manuel (n.d.) ‘Meshworks, Hierarchies, and Interfaces’, <http://www.netbase.org/delanda/meshwork.htm>
* Massumi, Brian (1998) ‘The Evolutionary Alchemy of Reason’ (the best essay on Stelarc) <http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/emassumi.html>
* Murphie, Andrew (2000) ‘The Dusk of the Digital is the Dawn of the Virtual’ in Enculturation (Post-Digital issue) (on Stelarc and Rebecca Horn), <http://enculturation.gmu.edu/3_1/murphie.html>
* Bush, Vannevar (1945) ‘As We May Think’, <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush>
* Turkle, Sherry (1995) ‘Artificial Life as the New Frontier’ in Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet New York:Simon and Schuster:149-174
Week Five – Copies and Copies of Copies
Necessary Readings (three of these are very short)
* Tofts, Darren (2005) Interzone: Media Arts in Australia Craftsman House: Sydney: 51-103
* ʻSimulation, Simulacrumʼ, University of Chicago Theories of Media Site <http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/simulationsimulacrum.htm>
* Wilson, Louise (1994) ʻCyberwar, God And Television: Interview with Paul Virilioʼ, Ctheory, 20, <http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=62>
* ʻThe Mystic Writing-Padʼ (n.d.) at the Electronic Labyrinth site, <http://elab.eserver.org/hfl0257.html
Please note that I am assuming you have read the following in the past. I will be
summing it up in the lecture but you can find it online.
* Benjamin, Walter (1973) ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ .. you can find it online here <http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ ge/benjamin.htm> (or in Illuminations London:Fontana:219-253) (this is one of the great essays on media of the twentieth century – in fact, it’s just one of the great essays of the twentieth century, full stop).
Extra Reading
* Massumi, Brian (1987) ʻRealer than the Real: The Simulacrum according to Deleuze and Guattari’ http://www.brianmassumi.com/textes/REALER%20THAN%20REAL.pdf
* Baudrillard, Jean (2004) ʻThe Matrix Decoded: Le Nouvel Observateur Interview With Jean Baudrillardʼ, International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, 1(2) <http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol1_2/genosko.htm>
Week Six – Electronic and Digital Aesthetics
Necessary Readings
* Tofts, Darren (2005) Interzone: Media Arts in Australia Craftsman House: Sydney:104-137
* Armstrong, Keith (2005) ʻIntimate Transactions: The Evolution of an Ecosophical Networked Practiceʼ, the Fibreculture Journal, 7 ,<http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue7/issue7_armstrong.html> [it is worth going to Keithʼs site here - <http://www.embodiedmedia.com/>]
* Clark, Andy (2003) Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence Oxford: Oxford University Press: 143-165
Week Seven – Sampling and Mixing, Selecting and Combining
Necessary Readings
* Paul D. Miller (2003) ʻLoops of Perception: Sampling, Memory and the Semantic Webʻ, Horizons, 8, <http://www.horizonzero.ca/textsite/remix.php?is=8&file=3&tlang=0> [NB: you might have to click the menu on the left hand side]
* Paul D, Miller (n.d.) ʻNotes for Paul D. Miller’s “Rebirth of a Nation” – remix of D.W. Griffithʼs 1915 film “Birth of a Nation”ʼ, at <http://www.djspooky.com/articles/rebirth.php>
[and watch the video excerpt]
* Boisvert, Anne-Marie (2003) ʻOn Bricolage: assembling cullture with whatever comes to handʼ Horizons, 8 <http://www.horizonzero.ca/textsite/remix.php?is=8&file=4&tlang=0> [NB: you might have to click the menu on the left hand side]
* Barnet, Belinda (1999) ‘Machinic Heterogenesis and Evolution: Collected Notes on Sound, Machines and Sonicform’ M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.6 (1999). <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/9909/sonic.php>.
Week Eight – the History of Design and Interface Culture
Necessary Readings
* Clark, Andy (2003) Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of Human Intelligence Oxford: Oxford University Press: 89-144
* Heim, Michael (2001) ʻThe Feng Shui of Virtual Realityʼ, Crossings, 1(1) <http://crossings.tcd.ie/issues/1.1/Heim/>
* Ednie-Brown, Pia (2008) ʻPlastic Super Models: aesthetics, architecture and the
model of emergenceʼ, the Fibreculture Journal, 12 <http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue12/issue12_ednie-brown.html>
Extra Readings/Sites
* Eno, Brian (1996) ‘Generative Music’ In Motion Magazine, <http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/eno1.html>
* Roemer van Toorn (1997) ‘Architecture Against Architecture’ (on Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect) Ctheory, 51 <http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=94>
* Thacker, Eugene (1998).ʼ../visible_human.html/digital anatomy and the hyper-texted bodyʼ Ctheory, 60, <http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=103>
* Massumi, Brian (1995) ʻInterface and Active Spaceʼ, <http://www.brianmassumi.com/textes/INTERFACE%20AND%20ACTIVE%20SPACE.pdf>
Week Nine – Images – Still and Moving; Analog, Electronic and Digital
Necessary Readings
* Manovich, Lev (1999) ‘What is Digital Cinema?’ <http://www.manovich.net/TEXT/digital-cinema.html> (Lev surprises us with how much of new media interventions in the cinema might be a continuity of older, pre-cinematic optical invention)
* Makhmalbaf, Samira (2000) ‘The Cinema of Tomorrow’, http://www.makhmalbaf.com/articles.php?a=242
* ʻthe fMRI smackdown comethʼ, blog entry, <http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/06/the_fmri_smackdown_c.html>
* you also need to visit the following sites: <http://www.panoscope360.com/> (the work of Luc Courchesne, a very interesting pioneer in new forms of visual experience, and <http://www.jeffrey-shaw.net/> and perhaps check out the video material under “Interesting Visuals” on the front page.
Week Ten – Public Holiday – No Classes
Week Eleven – Artificial or Transitional?
Necessary Readings
* Clark, Andy (2003) Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies and the Future of
Human Intelligence Oxford: Oxford University Press: 59-87
* Mackenzie, Adrian (2008) ʻWirelessness as experience of transitionʼ the Fibreculture Journal, 13, <http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue13/issue13_mackenzie.html>
* Rinaldo, Kenneth E. (2002) ʻTechnology Recapitulates Phylogeny: Artificial Life Art’, Artnode, <http://www.artnode.dk/contri/rinaldo/index.html> [and go to Rinaldoʼs site at <http://www.ylem.org/artists/krinaldo/emergent1.html>
Extra Readings
* Sutton, John (2002) 'Porous Memory and the Cognitive Life of Things' at <http://www.phil.mq.edu.au/staff/jsutton/CognitiveLifeOfThings.htm> (a lovely essay - both historical and contemporary - linking media and thinking in some surprises ways)
* Whitelaw, Mitchell (2008) ʻArt Against Information: Case Studies in Data Practiceʼ, <http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue11/issue11_whitelaw.html>
Week Twelve - Virtual: Immersion, Ambience, Architecture
Necessary Readings
* ʻVirtual Realityʼ, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality> (one of the
better entries)
* Murphie, Andrew (2004) ʻThe Worldʼs Clock: The Network Society and Experimental ecologiesʼ, Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 11, Spring, special issue on technology and culture: 117-139 (download here - <https://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/topia/article/view/2682/1887>
* Coghlan, Andy (2007) 'Out of Body Experiences are “all in the mind”ʼ New Scientist
<http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&feedId=online-news_rss20>
[watch the video as well]
* You should also read the following page (and follow the links that interest you) – Koolhaas, Rem (2003) ‘The New World: 30 Spaces for the 21st Century’ in Wired June, 11.06 at <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/newworld.html> (short and stimulating essays on the fate of space in the 21st century)
if you wish you can also visit my delicious links at http://del.icio.us/ibbertelsen/vr