Gender and Technoculture...YEAH!

Course Documents:

***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 will be 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 in-class quizzes. For more information on the idea of a flipped classroom go here.

Course Readings:

*The reading responsibilities in this class are uneven but substantial! This means that, while you may not have any readings due for one class meeting, you may have 50 pages or more due by the next class. Accordingly, you will need to parse readings out over the entire week.

** This syllabus will likely adapt and evolve based on group interests and time constraints!

Mon 1/23
Review syllabus, questions

Wed 1/25
Introductions Discussion: Gender Studies 101 Some key terms and basic principles . . . great stuff!

Introduce WordPress & Second Life

Mon 1/30
THEME: A look ahead at some of the BIG Ideas in the course!
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.

THEME: Western Identity and the Disembodied Virtual “Self”
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?”

Please view both vlogs under "Thoughts on the Readings by Stone and Turkle!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!!

Wed 2/1
Lab: WordPress & Second Life

Places in Second Life to check out!

Mon 2/6
THEME: Technology’s Myths & Founding Stories
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.

Kinder, Marsha. "A Cinema of Intelligent Agents." The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson. Ed. Meredith Tromble. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. 169-81.

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

Film: “Conceiving Ada” by Lynn Hershman Leeson [85 min.]

Wed 2/8
Film: Lynn Hershman’s Conceiving Ada (85 min)

Lab: WordPress & Second Life, screen shots and screen recording using “Jing”

Mon 2/13
THEME: Photoshop, Seeing, and the Truth-Value of Images
Kember, Sarah. Virtual Anxiety: Photography, New Technologies and Subjectivity. New York: Redwood Books, 1998. Chap 1 – The Shadow of the Object: Photography and Realism.

“Photo Tampering Throughout History,” On the Four & Six site—a company specializing in “image forensics” *peruse the entire collection but pay particular attention to the more recent fakes on page 11 & 12!

Index of Kember-related Images

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

Wed 2/15
Lab: Bring a pic of yourself to photoshop!!

"Content Aware" tutorial

"Puppet Warp" tutorial--cool stuff!!!

Mon 2/20 - Presidents 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 2/22
Lab: Discuss Photoshop WordPress gallery assignment

Mon 2/27
THEME: Gender, Social Media and Democracy
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 view the vlog under "Thoughts on Social Media & the Arab Spring!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!

Film: For Neda (70 min)

UCLA's Hypercities Project on Egypt

Youtube on UCLA's Iran Hypercities Project

Hypercities Project, Tehran the day Neda was murdered

Wed 2/29
Lab: Open lab —work on WordPress Photoshop project due 3/7!!!

Mon 3/5
THEME: The Semiotics of Gender, Race and Technology

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.

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.

Wed 3/7
Your Photoshop Image Gallery should be on your WordPress site in time for today’s class!!!!!

Mon 3/12
THEME: The Semiotics of Gender, Race and Technology (con’t)
Ketchum, Karyl E. "Facegen and the Technovisual Politics of Embodied Surfaces." Women's Studies Quarterly 37.Special Issue: Technologies (2009): 183-99.

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.

Please view both vlogs under "Thoughts on Cyberporn!" on our Course TITANium/Moodle site!

Wed 13/14
Lab: Facegen Software – bring in three pictures of yourself of friends for use in Facegen (one straight on, one right profile, one left profile)

Youtube: Hitchcock’s “Third Meaning” or the "Kulashov Effect"

**View sample film projects from Fall 2011**

Mon 3/19
THEME: Psychoanalysis and Theorizing the Filmic Gaze
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).

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

THEME 2!!: Technology, Censorship and Freedom

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. Chap 3 and 4.

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

Wed 3/21
Film: This Film is Not Yet Rated [97 min.]
Lab: Camtasia

Mon 3/26 - Spring Break - no class

Wed 3/28 - Spring Break - no class

Mon 4/2
**go over "Principles of Film Theory Guide"**

THEME: Technology Versus Biology: Disciplining the Body

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body. New York: Basic Books, 2000. Chap 3, “Of Gender and Genitals” pg 45-77.

Video: Jamie McCartney’s “Great Wall of Vagina” WE WILL WATCH THIS IN CLASS!!

Film: Is it a Boy or is it a Girl? [60 min.]

Wed 4/4
Film: Is it a Boy or is it a Girl? [60 min.]

Lab: Camtasia/MovieMaker

Mon 4/9
THEME: Technology and the Cultural Construction of “Beauty”
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 4/11
Open lab

Mon 4/16
THEME: Gender, Technology and Discourses of Violence
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.

Wed 4/18
Open lab

Mon 4/23
Open lab

Wed 4/25
Open lab

Mon 4/30
Open lab - LAST LAB DAY!

Wed 5/2
TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!! Attendance is mandatory!

Mon 5/7
TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!! Attendance is mandatory!

Wed 5/9
TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!! Attendance is mandatory!

FINAL EXAM: Mon, May 14, 2:30-4:20, Attendance is mandatory! DAY 4 TECHNOCULTURE FILM FEST WOOT WOOT WOOT!!! If we end up needign to meet this day, 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