julian dibbell, a rape in cyberspace (from "my tiny life," originally published in the village voice, subtitled "or how an evil clown , a haitian trickster spirit, two wizards, and a cast of dozens turned a database into a society). read with particular attention to the construction of community, of utopia, of law and (or as?) code.

olia lialina, "my boyfriend came back from the war" - please explore this hyperfiction. not in the sense of comparing and contrasting with dibbell or gibson: try to see what the writing does, take notes on what works for you, what you feel and think.

this nice u of m site (journalism school) allows you to browse through the last few decades (start with the 60s and work your way up to the "2000s") for technological and social developments, year by year. try to form an idea of what cultural impact other technologies have had (1960 to now).

Increasingly, reading and writing take place in front of the computer screen, and the expectations concerning new forms of interaction with data storage and access are high. Computer-mediated communication in particular and screen media in general seem to put into question what older institutions and archives had to offer (the university?). But the transition from analog to digital media is perhaps too readily understood as a shift from continuity to fragmentation, from narration to archeology. One might instead view it as a process of translation, since what is completely untranslatable into new media will disappear as fast as what is utterly translatable. Such threats of disappearance tend to lead to symptomatic cultural formations ("screen memory"). The implications of digitalization for learning and pedagogy are the topic of numerous scholarly efforts; the most widely used hypertextual systems seemed to bear witness to the creation of a “new economy.” But while some saw the Internet conquering the world, others formed their neo-Luddite resistance. Their discontent concerned not so much the machine as its purported effects. Both positions pivot on the same unquestioned assumption: that something irreversibly, incontrovertibly "new" is intruding on the turf of cultural production and reception.

Brian Carpenter, RFC 1958: Architectural Principles of the Internet

David Bennahum, Untied Nodes of Internet -- are we forming a digital nation?

John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace

1996 brought a number of crucial changes on the Internet. The backbone was privatized, more and more access providers began to police the use of the lines and servers they leased to their customers, and Congress created the Communications Decency Act, also cited as the Telecommunications Act of 1996, to censor obscenity and violence on screen media, including the Internet.

The case brought netizens to the barricades; it seemed to question everything the Internet had come to stand for. The CDA was enacted by the U.S. Congress on February 1, 1996, but struck down by the US Supreme Court who declared it unconstitutional on June 26, 1997; it was considered a violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech. As Judge Stewart Dalzell warned: "Any content-based regulation of the Internet, no matter how benign the purpose, could burn the global village to roast the pig."

In discussing the stucture of the Internet between legal code and Unix code, consider the positions of John Perry Barlow, David Bennahum, and Brian Carpenter.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Books for purchase are available at the bookstore. Any additional material will be handed out in class. Attendance is crucial to this course. Your class participation and attendance record will account for 20% of your final grade. All students are required to meet with Professor Krapp at least once during the semester. You may make an appointment only if you cannot come to office hours. The course will take place as lecture/discussion and students will be required to write two papers (8-10 pages in length) (80% of the final grade). Late work will be accepted only if prior approval has been granted. To request an incomplete, you must download and complete an Agreement for the Completion of Incomplete Work at http://advisingtools.class.umn.edu/cgep/gradingpolicies.html. Students with disabilities should inform the professor immediately, and any special arrangements that are required will be made at the beginning of the semester. Students with questions should consult the Disability Services Website at http://ds.umn.edu/ The Student Dispute Resolution Center website covers issues of academic misconduct and sexual harassment at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~sos/

SYLLABUS: Classes meet weekly in Blegen 440, a west bank computer lab, on Wednesdays Wed 1/21/03 to 5/8/03, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM. Details tba (see www.hydrapoetics.com). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

William Gibson: Neuromancer, 0441569595

Lev Manovich: Language of New Media, 0262632551

Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash, 0553380958

Geert Lovink: Dark Fiber, 0262621800

John Johnston: Literature Media Information Systems, 9057010615

Steven Levy: Hackers; Heroes of the Computer Revoluation, 0141000511

Douglas Thomas: Hacker Culture, 0816633452

ENGL 3070: NEW MEDIA

Blegen 440, Wed 1/21/03 to 5/8/03, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM, TC WESTBANK

New media promise to transform our experience of language and reality, space and time, publicity and privacy, memory and knowledge. But what is truly new about new media? The premise of this course is that competence in the virtual realm builds on our knowledge about fiction and art as well as media history and theory. At the same time, we need to immerse ourselves in the web and its precursors online (remember MUDs?), in email and blogging, GPS and surveillance, data mining and security, as well as in the dynamic of gadgets like cellphones and PDAs. This introduction to digital culture examines a variety of old and new media to investigate the ways in which information technologies are challenging and changing inherited ideas about thinking and acting in relation to others. Authors include Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Geert Lovink, Julian Dibbell, Lev Manovich, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson. No special expertise with computers or other gadgets is a prerequisite, but seminar work involving one or several of them will be assigned.

Class time: 30% lecture, 50% discussion, 20% other

Work load: 50 pages of reading per week, 20 pages of writing per semester