The schedule and readings are subject to change with appropriate notice. Prior to the first class meeting, all scheduled class meetings and readings should be considered provisional.
Date |
Theme/Readings |
Assignments |
| Week 1 Jan. 12 |
Course Introduction: Us and (our) things Complexity theory, or: What can things do? Waldrop, Complexity |
Reading response |
| 1/16 | Last day to register, add new courses, make section changes, change pass/fail, and audit | |
| Week 2 Jan. 19 |
No Class: Martin Luther King’s Birthday Recess | |
| Week 3 Jan. 26 |
Holland, Hidden Order | Reading response |
| Week 4 Feb. 2 |
Hawk, A counter-history of composition | Reading response |
| Week 5 Feb. 9 |
Hutchins, Cognition in the wild | Reading response |
| Week 6 Feb. 16 |
Posthumanism, or: How do things change us? Hayles, How we became posthuman |
Reading response, Object lessons part 1 |
| Week 7 Feb. 23 |
Clark, Natural born cyborgs | Reading response, Object lessons part 2 |
| Feb. 27 | Mid-semester | |
| Week 8 Mar. 2 |
Turkle, Alone together | Reading response, Object lessons part 3 |
| Week 9 Mar. 9 |
Braidotti, The Posthuman | Reading response |
| Week 10 Mar. 16 |
OOO, or: How should we understand things? Bogost, Alien phenomenology |
Reading response |
| Mar. 20 | Last day to drop a class with a “W” | |
| Mar. 21-29 | Spring recess | |
| Week 11 Mar. 30 |
Harman, Tool-being | Reading response |
| Apr. 3 | Friday before Easter recess | |
| Week 12 Apr. 6 |
No class – Proposal meetings | Bring 1-page description of project to meeting |
| Week 13 Apr. 13 |
Rice, Digital Detroit | Reading response |
| Week 14 Apr. 20 |
Bryant, “Scattered Remarks on Object-Oriented Rhetoric” Barnett, “Toward an Object-Oriented Rhetoric” Rivers & Söderlund, “Speculative Usability” (I will distribute a pdf)And pick one: Brown, “RSA: Toward An Object-Oriented Rhetoric” |
Reading response |
| Week 15 Apr. 27 |
Course wrap-up, presentations | Presentation and Research paper due |