COMM 339 Communication, Technology and Culture

Fall 1998
T/TH 2-3:20
Annenberg 221

Prof. Marita Sturken
office: ASC 314
tel: 740-3950
email: sturken@usc.edu
Office Hours: Mon 4-6, Thurs 12-2 and by appointment.

Course description:
This course examines the cultural impact and popular representations of technology from the origins of western culture to the present. It focuses on the ways in which technologies from writing and the printing press to the telephone and television have prompted ambivalent and complex attitudes toward the effects of technology on everyday life. The course traces the concept of technology from its origins in Greek philosophy through 19th and 20th century philosophies of technology. It examines popular culture representations of technology from Frankenstein to contemporary science fiction in terms of their utopian and dystopian technological narratives. It is followed in Spring semester by 340 Cultures of New Media, which examines computers and new media.

Readings:
--A course reader with photocopied articles is mandatory for the course and available at University Graphics.

Course requirements and attendance:
Students are required to do all of the reading, to attend all classes, to complete all assignments, and to participate fully in discussion. Attendance will be taken, and those who miss more than four classes without an excuse will have their grades lowered. Because the Technological Visions conference will take place during the semester, on issues related to class topics, students will be required to attend at least one day of the conference. This class will have an ongoing on- line email listserv discussion in addition to class discussions, and several short writeups on the films we screen and the Technological Visions conference.

Assignments and grading:
You are responsible for the material covered in class and in the reading. You will be evaluated on (1) the level of your engagement with the class materials (as evidenced in your written work and class participation), (2) your capacity to explain your ideas and analysis in articulate and well-written forms, (3) and your ability to creatively explore these theories and methodologies. All of your written work will be graded on two primary evaluative scales (1) how well it demonstrates an understanding of the theories and methodologies of the class (2) how well it articulates and structures its argument.

There are two papers, a take-home final, several short writeups, and one group project in this class. These assignments will be worth the following portion of your grade:

paper 1 15%
paper 2 20%
3 short writeups 10%group project 10%
take-home final 25%
class participation 20%
--You must complete all of these assignments. Failure to complete one of the them will result not only in an F for that assignment but also a lowering of your overall grade.

--Grades will be assigned as follows: A's are reserved for outstanding, thoughtful, and enthusiastic work. B+ and B are above average, demonstrating effort. B- and C+ show little effort, and need improvement on ideas and argument. C and below mean just fulfilling the bare minimum and showing little understanding of the material.

--Papers will not be accepted late without prior discussion with Prof. Sturken.

Academic Integrity:
When taking this class, you enter into a contract that states that all the work you are turning in has been your own and no one else's, and that you have not turned in any work for which you have received credit in another class. Do not take this policy lightly!

The School of Communication is committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and ethical support. It endorses and acts on the SCampus policies and procedures detailed in the section titled "University Sanction Guidelines." These policies, procedures, and guidelines will be assiduously upheld. They protect your rights, as well as those of the faculty. It is particularly important that you are aware of and avoid plagiarism, cheating on exams, fabricating data for a project, submitting a paper to more than one professor, or submitting a paper authored by anyone but yourself. Violations of this policy will result in a failing grade in the course and be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. If you have doubts about any of these practices, you must confer with the professor.

Week 1:
Sept. 3 Introduction

PART 1: THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE

Week 2:
Sept. 8 Politics of Technology from Greeks to Present
Reading:
Langdon Winner, "Technologies as Forms of Life" and "Do Artifacts Have Politics?"

Sept. 10 Stories of Invention--Frankenstein
Reading:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, pp. 55-60, 98-127

Week 3:
Sept. 15 Frankenstein and the Critique of Science
Reading:
Frankenstein, chapters 10, 11, 16, 20, 24
Screening: clips from Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley's Frankstein (1994)

Sept. 17 Technology and Nature
Reading:
Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature
Langdon Winner, "State of Nature Revisited"

Week 4:
Sept. 22 The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
Reading:
J.D. Bernal, Science in History
First paper assignment given.

Sept. 24 The Printing Press and the Technology of Typography
Reading:
Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy, Chapter 5

PART 2: MODERNITY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Week 5:
Sept. 29 Modernity and Modern Power
Reading:
Michel Foucault, "Panopticism"
Anne Friedberg, "The Mobilized Gaze in Modernity"
Screening: clips from The Crowd

October 1 Modernity and the Shape of Time
Reading:
Stephen Kern, "The Culture of Time and Space"
Carroll Pursell, "Step Right Up"

Week 6:
October 6 Metropolis, the Modern City
Reading:
Andreas Huyssen, "The Vamp and the Machine"
Screening: clips from Metropolis (1927)
First paper due.

October 8 Marxism and the Modern Worker
Reading:
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Ron Westrum, "Marx's Theory of Technology"
Screening: clips from Modern Times (1936)

Week 7:
October 13 Photography, the Modern Medium
Reading:
Susan Sontag,"In Plato's Cave"
Geoffrey Batchen, "Desiring Production Itself"

October 15 Art in the Mechanical Age
Reading:
Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright,"Reproduction and Representation"
Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

Week 8:
October 20 Cinema
Reading:
John Ellis, "Visible Fictions--Cinema"
Daniel Czitrom, "American Motion Pictures and the New Popular Culture"
Screening: clips from Lumiere, Melies, Sherlock Junior
Second paper assignment given.

October 22 The Luddites, and the Rejection of Technology
Reading:
Kirkpatrick Sale, Rebels Against the Future

Week 9:
October 27 Taylorism and Technologies of the Workplace
Reading:
Carroll Pursell, "Makes No Sense"
Martha Banta, Taylored Lives

PART 3: ELECTRICITY, ELECTRONICS AND THE SPACE AGE

October 29 Electricity and the Frontier
Reading:
Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New, pp. 9-38
David Nye, Narratives and Spaces, Chapters 4 and 5

Week 10:
Nov. 3 The Telephone, the Telegraph and Transmission
Reading:
Daniel Czitrom, "Lightning Lines"
Second paper due.

Nov. 5 No class--Prep for Technological Visions Conference

Nov. 6-7 Technological Visions Conference, Davidson Conference Center

Week 11:
Nov. 10 Radio
Reading:
Daniel Czitrom, "The Etheral Hearth"

Nov. 12 Television
Reading:
Lynn Spigel, "Television in the Family Circle"
Screening: Ernie Kovacs, 1950s TV

Week 12:
Nov. 17 Technologies of War: From the Battlefield to the Marketplace
Reading:
Carroll Pursell, "War in the Age of Intelligent Machines"
William Broyles, "Why Men Love War"

Nov. 19 Robots and Other Helpful Companions: Domestic Technology
Reading:
Judy Wajcman, Feminism Confronts Technology
Screening: Forbidden Planet

Week 13:
Nov. 24 Nuclear Technology--Fathers and Bombs
Reading:
Elaine Tyler May, "Containment at Home"
Carol Cohn, "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals,"
Screening: clips from Dr. Strangelove and Atomic Cafe

Nov. 26 No class Thanksgiving

Week 14:
Dec. 1 The Space Race from Sputnik to the Challenger
Reading:
David Nye, Narratives and Spaces, Chapter 9

Dec. 3 The Domestic Space Age
Reading:
Lynn Spigel, "From Domestic Space to Outer Space"
Screening: clips from The Jetsons, I Dream of Jeannie

Week 15:
Dec. 8 Blade Runner and the Modern Day Frankenstein
Reading:
Kaja Silverman, "Back to the Future"
Screening: clips from Blade Runner (1982)

Dec. 10 Conclusion

Take-home final due: Dec. 15.