In|Formation Year - Invitation

Start: Mar 1 2007 - 7:00pm

End: Mar 1 2007 - 9:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Body:

Site: University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

The Simpson Center’s Invitation year is comprised of four major components:

An In|Formation Year public lecture and webcast by Cynthia Breazeal
Three new graduate seminars on topics including cyborg democracy, the public humanities across the digital university, and visual documentation practices
Three new undergraduate courses that address themes in the digital humanities
A new crossdisciaplinary research cluster on creating community through blogging

Invitation Partners

Cynthia Breazeal > In|Formation Year Public Lecture > March 1, 2007 > 7:00 p.m. Cynthia Breazeal (Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT) directs the Robotic Group at the MIT Media Lab. She is internationally known for seamlessly blending scientific theories, artistic insights, and engineering principles to create compelling robotic creatures that have a lively social presence to those who interact with them. Her current research extends these themes in the area of human-robot relations to create cooperative and capable robots that can work and learn in partnership with people. Her research program strives to revolutionize the art and science of human-robot interaction and cooperation—to develop robots that engage with us as helpful partners that will ultimately play a valuable, rewarding, and unprecedented role in the everyday lives of ordinary people. In addition to her public lecture, Breazeal will also lead a seminar on March 2, 2007.

Graduate Seminars > Autumn 2006 > Winter 2007 > Spring 2007

Cyborg Democracy > Tom Foster (English) > This course aims to assess the political claims made for new media and new technologies and to define possible points of articulation and critique between Marxist traditions and new theories of radical democracy, on one hand, and new technocultural formations, on the other. The course will weave together three strands of inquiry, all of which combine readings in popular culture (understood as a site of critical reflection on and speculation about technocultural developments) and an examination of movements organized around new technologies. The first strand will explore the ongoing structural transformation of the democratic public sphere and the mass mediation of social relations through new communications and computer interface technologies, as these changes affect models of citizenship and collective forms of belonging or “imagined community.” The second strand will focus on new models of collectivity emerging out of intellectual property debates—the copyleft movement, the creative commons licensing system, and attempts to elaborate such movements into a general open source culture. The final strand will trace claims of the progressive potential residing in new forms of technological self-transformation, with a focus on the relation between such “posthumanist” or “transhumanist” movements and social or liberation movements. See the course page and syllabus for more information.

The Public Humanities across the Digital University > Gray Kochhar-Lindgren (Interdiscipinary Arts & Sciences) and Ron Krabill (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences) > This course will examine the relationship between the emergence of the Public Humanities and the Digital Humanities as complementary, praxis-oriented responses to pressing questions about knowledge production that address us at the onset of the 21st century. Beginning from the assumption that the digital revolution is powerfully reshaping the nature of universities, non-institutional collectivities, identity formations, and embodiment practices, the course will enable students to explore and to assess new forms of public scholarship emerging along the interface between corporeal and digital technologies. Workshops (physical and virtual) with several partner organizations—the Tulalip Tribes Cultural Resources Department, IndyMedia, and the University of KwaZulu- Natal’s Culture, Communication, and Media Studies Programme—will allow students to explore (and experience) the implications of these transformations, including the links and ruptures between local and global practices of community, the potential uses of the public humanities as a means of building stronger bridges across various “digital divides,” new pedagogical strategies, and emerging university/community partnerships. See the course page for more information.

Visual Documentation Praxis for Cultural Studies > Daniel Hoffman (Anthropology) and Kari Lerum (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences) > Through visual production exercises, classroom discussion, and halfday on-site workshops held at collaborating institutions (911 Media Arts, SCAN-TV, the Wing Luke Asian Museum, and the Henry Art Gallery), this course will encourage students to explore how diverse forms of visual production can expand their research interests and forge unexpected connections within and beyond the university. By shifting their “vision” of research from reading and critiquing texts to producing digital videos and photographs, students will consider how their work as academics can (and does) intersect with other practices and epistemologies of visual production. See the course page for more information.

Undergraduate Courses > Autumn 2006 > Winter 2007 > Spring 2007

Applications of Digital Technologies to Humanities Research > Stacy Waters (DXARTS) > This course offers students the opportunity to learn about the key technologies influencing and transforming humanities research and scholarly communication while providing students a hands-on project based approach to imaging, new media, electronic texts, databases, metadata, rights management, and other issues central to contemporary humanities research. See the course website for more information.

When Technologies Are New > Philip Howard (Communication) and Simon Werrett (History) > New technologies have a big impact on cultures and communities, but these cultures and communities always adapt technologies in surprising ways. To explore the connections between scientific discovery and social change, this course will draw examples from both the rich history of engineering and the immediate modernity of digital technologies. What role do artists, science fiction writers, and philosophers have in shaping our collective assumptions of and aspirations for science? How is science itself culturally organized? From the development of gunpowder and armaments in China and Russia, to the opportunities for digital surveillance and resistance in Argentina and Tanzania, we will explore the social rhythms to the development of new technologies, analog and digital. This course has several objectives: to teach students about the dynamics of scientific exploration and social change; to give students cultural literacy and practical familiarity with new technologies, both analog and digital; and to inspire students to develop their own sophisticated critiques about the role of technology and innovation in society. See the course website for more information.

The World in Motion: Animation in Theory and Practice > Stephanie Andrews (Digital Arts and Experimental Media) and Phillip Thurtle (Comparative History of Ideas) > This class studies animation to explore what it means to live in a world of constant change and transformation. Students will learn by viewing a diverse selection of animated work, reading about how media informs our perceptions of time and space, and working on creative projects. They will finish the quarter with a piece of creative digital animation that develops the themes of the class in innovative directions. Students will ask: What does it mean to be animated? What techniques are used to create the illusionary gestures of animation? How do animation practices differ in different parts of the world? How has time-based media developed in the West? How can technology expand our perceptions about animation? Join us as we span the globe from Africa to Asia to Europe, pondering what it means to live in an animated world and exploring possibilities for putting this world in motion. See the course page for more information.

Research Cluster: Creating Community through Blogging > 2006-2007 > Led by Matthew Vechinski (English) and Honni van Rijswijk (English), this research cluster will consider the status of blogs as texts as well as ways in which blogs challenge conventional paradigms of research. Through a series of discussions, instructional sessions, and a reading group, the group will explore how blogging becomes an occasion to consider the intersection of relationships between pedagogy and research, university and community. The year-long activities will culminate in a one-day conference that will investigate blogging as a textual practice that has transformative implications for research, pedagogy, and university-community engagement. See the project website for more information.

Event Information:

Site: University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

The Simpson Center’s Invitation year is comprised of four major components:

An In|Formation Year public lecture and webcast by Cynthia Breazeal
Three new graduate seminars on topics including cyborg democracy, the public humanities across the digital university, and visual documentation practices
Three new undergraduate courses that address themes in the digital humanities
A new crossdisciaplinary research cluster on creating community through blogging

Invitation Partners

Graduate Seminars > Autumn 2006 > Winter 2007 > Spring 2007

Cyborg Democracy > Tom Foster (English) > This course aims to assess the political claims made for new media and new technologies and to define possible points of articulation and critique between Marxist traditions and new theories of radical democracy, on one hand, and new technocultural formations, on the other. The course will weave together three strands of inquiry, all of which combine readings in popular culture (understood as a site of critical reflection on and speculation about technocultural developments) and an examination of movements organized around new technologies. The first strand will explore the ongoing structural transformation of the democratic public sphere and the mass mediation of social relations through new communications and computer interface technologies, as these changes affect models of citizenship and collective forms of belonging or “imagined community.” The second strand will focus on new models of collectivity emerging out of intellectual property debates—the copyleft movement, the creative commons licensing system, and attempts to elaborate such movements into a general open source culture. The final strand will trace claims of the progressive potential residing in new forms of technological self-transformation, with a focus on the relation between such “posthumanist” or “transhumanist” movements and social or liberation movements. See the course page and syllabus for more information.

The Public Humanities across the Digital University > Gray Kochhar-Lindgren (Interdiscipinary Arts & Sciences) and Ron Krabill (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences) > This course will examine the relationship between the emergence of the Public Humanities and the Digital Humanities as complementary, praxis-oriented responses to pressing questions about knowledge production that address us at the onset of the 21st century. Beginning from the assumption that the digital revolution is powerfully reshaping the nature of universities, non-institutional collectivities, identity formations, and embodiment practices, the course will enable students to explore and to assess new forms of public scholarship emerging along the interface between corporeal and digital technologies. Workshops (physical and virtual) with several partner organizations—the Tulalip Tribes Cultural Resources Department, IndyMedia, and the University of KwaZulu- Natal’s Culture, Communication, and Media Studies Programme—will allow students to explore (and experience) the implications of these transformations, including the links and ruptures between local and global practices of community, the potential uses of the public humanities as a means of building stronger bridges across various “digital divides,” new pedagogical strategies, and emerging university/community partnerships. See the course page for more information.

Visual Documentation Praxis for Cultural Studies > Daniel Hoffman (Anthropology) and Kari Lerum (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences) > Through visual production exercises, classroom discussion, and halfday on-site workshops held at collaborating institutions (911 Media Arts, SCAN-TV, the Wing Luke Asian Museum, and the Henry Art Gallery), this course will encourage students to explore how diverse forms of visual production can expand their research interests and forge unexpected connections within and beyond the university. By shifting their “vision” of research from reading and critiquing texts to producing digital videos and photographs, students will consider how their work as academics can (and does) intersect with other practices and epistemologies of visual production. See the course page for more information.

Undergraduate Courses > Autumn 2006 > Winter 2007 > Spring 2007

Applications of Digital Technologies to Humanities Research > Stacy Waters (DXARTS) > This course offers students the opportunity to learn about the key technologies influencing and transforming humanities research and scholarly communication while providing students a hands-on project based approach to imaging, new media, electronic texts, databases, metadata, rights management, and other issues central to contemporary humanities research. See the course website for more information.

When Technologies Are New > Philip Howard (Communication) and Simon Werrett (History) > New technologies have a big impact on cultures and communities, but these cultures and communities always adapt technologies in surprising ways. To explore the connections between scientific discovery and social change, this course will draw examples from both the rich history of engineering and the immediate modernity of digital technologies. What role do artists, science fiction writers, and philosophers have in shaping our collective assumptions of and aspirations for science? How is science itself culturally organized? From the development of gunpowder and armaments in China and Russia, to the opportunities for digital surveillance and resistance in Argentina and Tanzania, we will explore the social rhythms to the development of new technologies, analog and digital. This course has several objectives: to teach students about the dynamics of scientific exploration and social change; to give students cultural literacy and practical familiarity with new technologies, both analog and digital; and to inspire students to develop their own sophisticated critiques about the role of technology and innovation in society. See the course website for more information.

The World in Motion: Animation in Theory and Practice > Stephanie Andrews (Digital Arts and Experimental Media) and Phillip Thurtle (Comparative History of Ideas) > This class studies animation to explore what it means to live in a world of constant change and transformation. Students will learn by viewing a diverse selection of animated work, reading about how media informs our perceptions of time and space, and working on creative projects. They will finish the quarter with a piece of creative digital animation that develops the themes of the class in innovative directions. Students will ask: What does it mean to be animated? What techniques are used to create the illusionary gestures of animation? How do animation practices differ in different parts of the world? How has time-based media developed in the West? How can technology expand our perceptions about animation? Join us as we span the globe from Africa to Asia to Europe, pondering what it means to live in an animated world and exploring possibilities for putting this world in motion. See the course page for more information.