The ISIS120 course in the Interactive Multimedia Interface is a study in the creation, implementation, and analysis of digital media centering around the human-user-interface. “This is Your Brain on the Internet” is open to any student fascinated by how we know and how we may or may not know differently in the Information Age. It is conceived as a trans-disciplinary exploration in which we will consider the deep structure of cognition in a digital age. We’ll learn from theoretical and expressive books and articles ranging from neuroscience to travel literature, as well as from a range of non-traditional sources (websites, media art exhibits, forest walks with experts, Virtual Reality tours, etc.) We will also learn from engaged collaboration (what management specialists call “collaboration by difference”) with others who have complementary skills, strengths, attitudes, and assumptions. “This is Your Brain on the Internet” is an educational remix that examines the aesthetic, digital, linguistic, psychological, political, philosophical, computational, ethical, and socio-cultural factors influencing how we know ourselves and our worlds. For students proficient in science or technology, “This is Your Brain on the Internet” will provide insights into the cultural assumptions that shape the quantitative methods and scientific assumptions of our time. For students in the humanities and social sciences, “This is Your Brain on the Internet” will examine how the computational capacities that make ours one of the great scientific eras also shape global social and cultural flows.
We will meet twice a week in the IMPS (Interactive Multimedia Project Space) at the Franklin Center, with Monday classes devoted to discussion of the core readings and Wednesdays for hands-on, project-based creativity that draws upon the insights and skills of the class members. (If you know how to write code, you might lead us in a session on authoring in 3D environments; if you are English major, you might analyze the narrative forms are at work in that authoring.) We will experiment with online environments, games, virtual worlds, and collaborative multimedia digital publication. The class will include guest speakers as well as labs, performances, technology demos, installations, or whatever else captures our interest.
Course requirements: Students will write weekly blog posts (approximately 300-500 words) on the assigned readings and in-class and out-of-class projects. Some of these posts will be shared with a larger public and at least one must be converted into a public multimedia presentation. Our class will have a dedicated “This is Your Brain on the Internet” space on the HASTAC website and a group on Facebook, Ning, or another social networking site. Students will also be expected to contribute to public knowledge through editing Wikipedia entries or by contributing to online collaborative book projects such as Daniel Levitin’s This Is Your Brain on Music, Jean-Dominique Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Christopher Kelty’s Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software and the Internet or Siva Vaidhyanathan’s The Googlization of Everything. Grades will be based on class participation, the weekly blog posts, an in-class midterm exam, a final portfolio of revised and selected writing from the course, and a final project (either individual or collaborative). |
