Gender and Technoculture...YEAH!

Course Documents & Important Links:

Note: Segments of this course are “flipped”! This means that I will rarely lecture in class; rather, you will be watching several short vlogs (video+blogs) that I have made that discuss the core concepts of this course. This is great news because it means that when we are in class together we can spend our time talking to each other, doing things, and making cool stuff with technology! These vlogs are posted on our course TITANium site and I will remind you when each vlog is due. Not all sets of readings will have vlogs. You should know the material covered in these vlogs for our online quizzes. For more information on the idea of a flipped classroom go here: here.

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Course Readings and Assignments Schedule:

** This syllabus and schedule will adapt and evolve based on group interests, current events, sand time constraints!

Mon 1/28:

Review syllabus, questions, Introductions, TITANium site

Wed 1/30: Introductions & Gender Studies 101
Reading:
Spender, Dale. "Language and Reality: Who Made the World?" The Routledge Language and Cultural Theory Reader. Ed. Tony Crowly and Alan Girvin Lucy Burke. The Politics of Language. London: Routledge, 1980. 145-53.

Gender Studies 101 Some key terms and basic principles . . . great stuff!

Lab: Introduce Second Life

Mon 2/4: THEME: Sex and Identity Online
Reading:
Stone, Sandy. "Split Subjects, Not Atoms; or, How I Fell in Love with My Prosthesis." The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Hables Gray. New York: Routledge, 1995. 393-406.

Some cool Sandy Stone quotes (not required reading but for those interested in her work!) : http://www.egs.edu/faculty/sandy-stone/quotes/

Turkle, Sherry. "Tinysex and Gender Trouble." Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender and Technology. Ed. Patrick D. Hopkins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. 395-416.

Cannon, Robert Alan Brookey and Kristopher L. "Sex Lives in Second Life." Gender, Race and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011. 571-82.

Washington Post article “Does Virtual Reality Need a Sheriff?”

Vlog(s):
Please view both vlogs entitled, "Thoughts on the Readings by Stone and Turkle!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!!

Wed 2/6:
Second Life, screen shots

SL Quick Start Guide
Places in Second Life to check out!

Mon 2/11: THEME: Technology’s Gendered Language
Reading:
Halberstam, Judith. "Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the Age of the Intelligent Machine." Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender and Technology. Ed. Patrick D. Hopkins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991. 468-83.

Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991, pp.149-181.

Vlog(s):
Please view both vlogs under "Thoughts on "Automating Gender" by Judith Jack Halberstam!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!!

Wed 2/13:
Lab: Begin Photoshop Tutorials

Mon 2/18:
President’s Day—no class

Please view the vlog under "Thoughts on Visual Theory!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site! WARNING: it’s a bit long!!

Wed 2/20:
Lab: Discuss Photoshop gallery assignment

Photoshop Tutorials
"Content Aware" tutorial
"Puppet Warp" tutorial--cool stuff!!!

Mon 2/25: THEME: Photoshop, Seeing, and the “Truth-Value” of Images
Reading:
Kember, Sarah. Virtual Anxiety: Photography, New Technologies and Subjectivity. New York: Redwood Books, 1998. Chap 1 – The Shadow of the Object: Photography and Realism.

Bartky, Sandra Lee. Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power. Conboy, Katie, Nadia Medina, and Sarah Stanbur Eds.y. Writing on the Body : Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory. A Gender and Culture Reader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

Please go through this Index of Kember-related Images

“Photo Tampering Throughout History,” On the Four & Six site—a company specializing in “image forensics” http://www.fourandsix.com/photo-tampering-history/ *peruse the entire image archive but pay particular attention to the more recent fakes on page 11 & 12!

Vlog(s):
Please view both vlogs under "Thoughts on "The Shadow of the Object: Photography & Realism" by Sarah Kember!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!!

Video:
Extreme Photoshop (we will watch this together in-class)

Wed 2/27:
Lab:

Film: Unmanned (22 min.)

Mon 3/4: THEME: Gender, Technology and Militarism
Reading:
Strauss, David Levi. "Breakdown in the Gray Room: Recent Turns in the Image War." Abu Ghraib: The Politics of Torture. Berkeley: Terra Nova, 2004. 87-101.

Robins, Kevin and Les Levidow. "Socializing the Cyborg Self: The Gulf War and Beyond." The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Hables Gray. New York: Routledge, 1995. 119-25.

Sanbonmatsu, John. "Video Games and Machine Dreams of Domination." Gender, Race and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011. 571-82.

Video:
Wikileaks and "Collateral Murder" (We will watch this together in class)

Guest Speakers: Pat Alviso & Jeff Merrick from Military Families Speak Out

Wed 3/6:
Lab: Open lab —work on Photoshop gallery due 3/13!!!

Mon 3/11: THEME: Gender, Social Media and Revolution
Reading:
Juan Cole and Shahin Cole, “An Arab spring for women - Le Monde diplomatique - English edition”, April 26, 2011, http://mondediplo.com/openpage/an-arab-spring-for-women

Mona El-Naggar, “Equal Rights Takes to the Barricades - NYTimes.com”, February 1, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/world/middleeast/02iht-letter02.html?_r=1

Video:
“Egypt: The viral vlog of Asmaa Mahfouz that helped spark an uprising – Boing Boing”, February 2, 2011, http://boingboing.net/2011/02/02/egypt-the-viral-vlog.html ***(Please watch this BEFORE coming to class)

Vlog(s):
Please view the vlog under "Thoughts on Social Media & the Arab Spring!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!

Film:
For Neda (70 min) (we will watch this together in-class)

For Discussion:
UCLA's Hypercities Project on Egypt

Youtube on UCLA's Iran Hypercities Project

Hypercities Project, Tehran the day Neda was murdered

Wed 3/13:
Film: For Neda (70 min) (we will watch this together in-class)

Open Lab until 3:30!!

Mon 3/18: THEME: The Semiotics of Gender, Race and Technology
Reading:
Rodriguez, Vernadette V. Gonzlez and Robyn Magalit. "Filipina.Com: Wives, Workers and Whores on the Cyberfrontier." An Introduction to Women's Studies :Gender in a Transnational World. Ed. Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. Vol. 2. New York: Mc Graw-Hill, 2006. 375-79.

Ketchum, Karyl E. "Facegen and the Technovisual Politics of Embodied Surfaces." Women's Studies Quarterly 37.Special Issue: Technologies (2009): 183-99.

Open Lab!

Wed 3/20:
Lab: Open Lab
&
Facegen Software – bring in three pictures of yourself for use in Facegen (one straight on, one right profile, one left profile)

Mon 3/25: THEME: The Semiotics of Gender, Race and Technology (con’t)
Reading:
Nakamura, L. (2009). Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 26, 128-144.

Dines, Gail. "White Man's Burden: Gonzo Pornography and the Construction of Black Masculinity." Gender, Race and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011. 571-82.

Vlog(s): Please view both vlogs under "Thoughts on Cyberporn!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!

Lab: Facegen Software – bring in three pictures of yourself for use in Facegen (one straight on, one right profile, one left profile)

Wed 3/27:

PHOTOSHOP GALLERIES DUE TODAY!!!!

For Discussion: Youtube on Hitchcock’s “Third Meaning” or the "Kulashov Effect"
**View sample film projects from previous semesters**

Lab: Camtasia

Mon 4/1:
César Chávez Day – no class

Wed 4/3:THEME: Technology, Censorship and Freedom
Spring Break – no class
READING:
Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. Chap 1 and 2.

Mon 4/8: THEME: Psychoanalysis and Theorizing the Filmic Gaze
Reading:
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. “Spectatorship, Power and Knowledge,” Practices of Looking : An Introduction to Visual Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". Theories of Representation and Difference.
Ed. Teresa de Lauretis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Koedt, Anne. "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm." CWL Herstory Online Archive (1970).

Vlog(s):
Please view the vlog under "Thoughts on Vision, Visibility and Power!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!

For Discussion: Principles of Film Theory Guide

Film: This Film is Not Yet Rated [97 min.]

Wed 4/10:
Lab:
Film: This Film is Not Yet Rated [97 min.]

http://distance-ed.fullerton.edu/bbpresentations/Karyl_Ketchum/this_film_is_not_yet_rated/player.html
Camtasia

Mon 4/15: THEME: Technology Versus Biology: Disciplining the Body
Reading:
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body. New York: Basic Books, 2000. Chap 3, “Of Gender and Genitals” pg 45-77.

Go over FINAL PROJECT ASSIGNMENT!!!

For Discussion: Principles of Film Theory Guide

For Discussion: Youtube on film techniques

Show Mireya's Project
Show Miriam amd Ashley's Project
Show Eleonor's Project

Video:
Jamie McCartney’s “Great Wall of Vagina” (we will watch this together in-class)

Film: Intersexion [68 min.] or, http://distance-ed.fullerton.edu/bbpresentations/Karyl_Ketchum/intersexion/player.html

Wed 4/17:
Nicolas Berendsen (last image post)
Sarah Stoddard (show post of your choice)
Citlally Contreras (show post of your choice)
Trent Stanton (middle image post)
Leila Huff (Internet Brides post)
Linda Tran (first post)

Jamie McCartney’s “Great Wall of Vagina” (we will watch this together in-class)

Film: We left out at about 10:11!! Intersexion [68 min.] or, http://distance-ed.fullerton.edu/bbpresentations/Karyl_Ketchum/intersexion/player.html

Lab: Camtasia

Mon 4/22: THEME: Technology and the Cultural Construction of “Beauty”
Reading:
Knafo, Danielle. "Castration and Medusa: Orlan's Art on the Cutting Edge." Studies in Gender and Sexuality.10 (2009): 142-58.

Ayers, Robert. "Serene and Happy and Distant: An Interview with Orlan." The Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy. Second ed. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Armstrong, Rachel. "Anger, Art and Medicine: Working with Orlan." The Cyborg Experiments: The Extensions If the Body in the Media Age. Ed. Joanna Zylinska. Technologies: Studies in Culture and Theory. London: Continuum, 2002. 172-80.

Wed 4/24:
Lab: Open lab time

Mon 4/29:
Catch up day!!!

Wed 5/1:
Lab:
Open Lab

Mon 5/6:
Lab:
LAST LAB DAY! You will have all of class time and an additional hour (until 3:30) to work on your film. BY THE TIME YOU LEAVE CLASS TODAY YOUR FILM SHOULD BE LOADED ONTO OUR SERVER AND READY TO PLAY ON 5/8!!!!!

Wed 5/8:

We will begin class today by watching assigned films and filling out our Film Fest Review Sheet!
TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!
Attendance is mandatory!

Mon 5/13:
TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!
Attendance is mandatory!

Wed 5/15:
TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!
Attendance is mandatory!

** Final Exam time: May 20, 2:30-4:20
TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!
FINAL PAPERS DUE IN CLASS TODAY!
Attendance is mandatory and unexcused absence will result in lowering your participation grade by one grade level--yikes!

http://www.stopbigmedia.com

2007 FCC Oversight Hearing -- John Kerry

http://distance-ed.fullerton.edu/bbpresentations/Karyl_Ketchum/intersexion/player.html