Gender and Technoculture
WMST 320 - Spring 2012
Women and Gender Studies
Cal State, Fullerton
Prof: Karyl E. Ketchum, Ph.D.
kketchum@fullerton.edu
Cell: 714.625.3616
Course Documents:
Key Terms and Concepts in Gender Studies
First Project Gudelines: WordPress Photoshop Gallery
Principles of FIlm Theory Guide
CSUFullerton Women & Gender Studies and Queer Studies website
***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.
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.
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!!
"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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!

2007 FCC Oversight Hearing -- John Kerry
Shareware Links:
Convert online video clips for mash-ups at savevid.com-download as an MP4, then use WinFF codec below to translate into editable Movie Maker file.
After you download file with savevid [link above] use WinFF decoder available here to translate into AVI file/MS compatible AVI-- this will make the video editable in Movie Maker! ***If you are using MovieMaker on a PC with Vista, you will need to save your file as a Microsoft file (top WINFF window) and as a WMV2 Generic (bottom preset WINFF window).
Download Photoshop-like software for FREE here. This software is called "Paint.net" and it is very much like Adobe Photoshop minus the $! WARNING: do pay close attention to which download link you select as there are alot of advertisements on this page.
Download free trial version of DREAMWEAVER and PHOTOSHOP HERE [* Note: this is a free 30 day trial and it will stop working after this period. Be strategic in deciding when to download it.]
Free trial of Adobe "Captivate" for video screen capturing
Exercise/Tutorial Links:
Photoshop Retouching Tutorial Page
Windows Movie Maker Instructional Sheet
On creating mashup or re-mix videos:
Penn State "Sparky Awards" for video mashups
The Film Techniques of Hitchcock--a great treatise on technique in film-making!
Lo-fi Lounge Re/Mixed Media Festival
Some additional online editing tools and programs
Visual Theory Links:
Visual Theory: Understanding "Framing"
Visual Theory: Appropriation and the relationship between images and text
Visual Theory: Roland Barthes "Commutation Test" and the Johnny Deere Doll
Visual Theory and HTML
The Postmodern Psychodynamics of Visibility [deconstructing images with rollovers]
The PINK Project [theorizing images through Hypertext and "hotspots" or image mapping]
Does Language Influence Vision? [creating a game for your viewer]
Roland Barthes conception of the sign [interactive diagram]
"Marina's Gift" [mimicking the physical world]
Other Readings of Interest:
Goffman, Erving. Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper and Rowe, 1976.
Other Stuff to Check Out:
Daniel's site on gaming and violence
Ashley Contreras's Page on "Images of War"
Anonymous Student Myspace "Technology Not 4 Me"
Raymond Fernandez's Page on "Mail Order Males"
PBS's Art 21: Art in the 21st Century
Wikileaks: militqary video over Baghdad
WIRED's coverage of the Iraqi military video leaked by Wikileaks
George Washington University's National Security Archive
Amistad Digital Resource for Teaching African American History--Columbia University
CSUFullerton Women & Gender Studies and Queer Studies website
Free-of-charge website service that locates convicted sex offenders in a particular geographic area
Stanford University's Project Documenting the Proteus Effect
Stanford's Proteus Effect Research
Jeremy Bentham, Michel Foucault and the PANOPTICON
Nanotechnologies and anti-bacterial underwear???
Text of E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Sandman"
The aesthetic of Postmodernism
Benjamin Button with FaceGen-like technology
VIsibleworld.net a place for social justice and non-profit organizations to put their web sites
Student Podcasts
The Electronic Frontier Foundation [Advocates for Internet Freedom and net neutrality]
The Patriot Act: How it Affects You
Jon Ippolito "Hacking Copyright for Fun and Profit"
"The Couple in the Cage" by Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez -Peña to see
stills of this performance piece select "video" on the main page
Electronic Writing Research Ensemble
Meet Lynn Hershman Leeson's Agent Ruby from her film "Teksnolust"
Artist Kara Walker's intrigueing cutouts on race and whiteness
Spring 2010 Final Project Web Design Gallery!!
Technlogies of Vision--"Film Making Techniques"
"If Chat Rooms Were Real"
"Photoshop Extreme"
Heather Hunt, Gender and Technoculture, Spring 2009