Visual Studies 295 Media Theory and History Winter 2006, Wed 4:30-7:30 pm, HIB 220
Professor Mark Poster
Office KH 230 Office Hour Wed 3-4pm Email: poster@uci.edu
Texts to be Purchased:
Course Reader (available in the Library)
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (MIT Press)
Mark Poster, ed., Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings (Stanford UP)
James Der Derian, The Virilio Reader (Blackwell)
John Johnston, ed., Friedrich Kittler: Essays (G and B Arts International)
Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation (MIT Press)
Wendy Chun and Thomas Keenan, eds., New Media, Old Media (Routledge)
Recommended Texts:
Mark Poster, What’s the Matter with the
Internet? (
Félix Guattari, “Machinic Heterogenesis,” in Verena Conley,
ed., Rethinking Technologies,
Anna McCarthy, Ambient Television (Duke UP)
Adrian Johns, The Nature of the Book (
Raymond Williams, Television (Routledge
Week 1 (January 11): Introduction to Media History and Theory
Optional
Week 2 (January 18): Media as Object of Knowledge
Marshall McLuhan,
Understanding Media – Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 20,
21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33
Recommended:
W.J.T. Mitchell, “There Are No Visual Media,” Journal of Visual Culture (August 2005) 4:2, 257-266
Week 3
(January 25): The
Bertolt Brecht, “On Radio” [in Reader]
Theodor Adorno & Max Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry” and “The Culture Industry Revisited” [in Reader]
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” [in Reader]
Week 4
(February 1): Media as Culture
Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings Chapters 1, 2, 7, 9, 11
Week 5 (February 8): Information Machines and Humans
Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto” [in Reader]
Jack Johnston, Friedrich Kittler Reader, Chapters 1, 7, 8
Week 6 (February 15): Race and Media
Stuart
Hall and Paddy Whannel, "Popular Art and Mass
Culture," from The Popular Arts (1964) [in Reader]
Stuart Hall, "Introduction to
Media Studies at the Centre," "Encoding/Decoding," and
"Recent Developments in
Theories of Language and Ideology: A Critical Note," from Culture,
Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies,
1972-1979 (1980) [in Reader]
Stuart Hall,
"The Meaning of New Times," from New Times: The Changing Face of
Politics in the 1990s (1989) [in Reader].
Lisa Nakamura, “The Race in/for
Cyberspace” (online at www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/ click on the
“History 182: The Internet” button and you will
find it)
Week 7 (February 22): Media and History
The Virilio Reader – Chapters 1, 4, 7, 9, 10,
12
Week 8 (March 1): Media and History
Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation
Week 9 (March 8): Media, History and Theory
Wendy Chun and Thomas Keenan,
eds., New Media, Old Media
Week 10
(March 15): Media, History and Theory
Wendy
Chun and Thomas Keenan, eds., New Media,
Old Media
Student Assignments:
1. Students will be responsible for the discussion part of each class, coming to class prepared with questions, comments, etc. about the readings.
2. In the fifth
week of the quarter, each student will turn in a two page paper proposal,
indicating the argument and the content of their project along with a list of
10 references, either articles or books.
3. Starting in
the sixth week, each student will present a critical discussion of one or two
chapter(s) from the Chun/Keenan reader evaluating how the author treats the
problem of theory and history in relation to media.
4. On the basis
of the proposal, each student will write a 20 page paper that relates material
from the course to their own research project. The papers will be due early in
finals week.