Schedule

“What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me - into us - clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we’ll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.” (Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly )

Doing the reading

First-year seminars tend to read about 25 pages per day. That number is an average - which means some days we read more and other days we read less. There will be days of class for which we need to read closer to 50 pages, and days of class where the entire reading is half a page. It’s hard to have anything to say (or to write) if a person doesn’t read very much. Good ideas come from the way we process the ideas of others, and this is a list of readings that will give you new ideas to make your own ideas and writing original and interesting to other people and to yourself.

It is not possible to do well in this class without doing the reading.

Our detailed schedule of readings is below. Any reading that is not hyperlinked is available in Blackboard - so you should go there and download it.

Supplementary readings are optional and you are not required to read them, though you are encouraged to!

Assignments

All assignments are posted here (click). Remember you can only access that page with your @drake.edu email account. The expectations of the assignments are described on the ‘Grading’ page. Check that page often and make sure to submit on time!

Detailed Schedule

Aug 25 | Topic: Welcome to Drake! Reading for this day: (Nothing for the first day - but read the course syllabus for next time, and start on the readings for next week)

Reading for this day: The course syllabus (this entire website - yes, all of it, starting from the main page), and the Drake Academic Honest Policy (College of Arts and Sciences)

Skimming it is not very useful, as you are on the hook for understanding all of it. So take your time and read carefully - it’s the only reading for this week.

Please take the syllabus quiz on Blackboard by the end of this week!

Sept 1 | NO CLASS - LABOR DAY

Sept 3 (Virtual lecture) | Topic: What is Aesthetics? & Aesthetics of the Everyday

Readings for this day: Brummett - Rhetoric of Machine Aesthetics Ch. 1 Wikipedia: Everyday Aesthetics

Viewing for this day (please do not watch the entire 4.5 hour loop): Solarpunk aesthetic, Machine fabrication, Coding, Hacking, Cybercore

Supplementary: Stanford Encyclopedia: Everyday Aesthetics CARI - Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute

Sept 8 | Topic: Aesthetic Theory Reading for this day: Susan Sontag - Against Interpretation Supplementary: SEP - Heidegger’s Phenomenological Approach to Art

Step 10 | Topic: Aesthetics and the Unconscious Reading for this day: Slavoj Zizek - section on antisemitism from The Sublime Object of Ideology Daniel Kahneman - Systems 1 and 2 Perceived randomness (Apophenia) Supplementary: Zenil, Soler-Toscano, Gauvrit - Aesthetic Preferences Bill Livant - The Hole in Hegel’s Bagel

Sept 15 | Topic: Machine Aesthetics Reading for this day: Brummett - Rhetoric of Machine Aesthetics, Ch. 2 (Mechtech), Bauhaus Viewing for this Day: Howl’s Moving Castle, Steam engine, Anime steampunk aesthetic, Massive machines, Supplementary: (WARNING: pretty weird, uncanny, sexual themes, etc. - not required) H.R. Giger Le Corbusier’s Machines for Living

Sept 17 | LEARNING COMMUINITY DAY IN Old Main Sheslow Hall - Sheslow Auditorium - MEET THERE

Sept 22 | Topic: Electronic Aesthetics Reading for this day: Brummett - Rhetoric of Machine Aesthetics, Ch. 3 (Electrotech) Viewing for this day: Neon Genesis Evangelion - Control Room, A circuit, Circuit diagram, 2001: A Space Odyssey Trailer

Sept 24 | Topic: Computers Themselves Reading for this day: Abigail Cain - What Steve Jobs Learned from the Bauhaus Viewing for this day: Vetroo K1 Pangolin Tower Case, Kanto mATX, HYTE Y70 ATX Mid-Tower Case, Windows 95 Ad, Apple vs PC, Supplementary:

Sept 29 | Topic: Analog and Biological Computation

Viewing for this day: Watch the Matrix (required! Will be available for free via Drake - link to be shared later)

Reading for this day: Chapter 1 of Joshua Clover’s The Matrix Matrix Digital Rain

Listening and viewing: The Analog Thing audio improv Analog hybrid music - start around 34:00, Computing with Fungi

Supplementary: (WARNING: pretty weird, uncanny, sexual themes, etc. - you don’t have to watch it) Revisiting H.R. Giger, Analog computers, Ancient and analog mechtech - the Antikythera mechanism

Oct 1 | Topic: Cyberpunk Reading for this day: Neuromancer Chs. 1 - 10

Supplementary: Donna Haraway - Cyborg Manifesto

Oct 6 | Topic: Cyberpunk Viewing for this day: Watch the movie Ghost in the Shell Viewing for this day: Ghost in the Shell 1, Ghost in the Shell2

Oct 8 | Topic: The Uncanny and the Sublime

Readings for this day: The Uncanny Valley Edmund Burke - A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

[Freud - The Uncanny (Unheimlich)]

Supplementary: The “uncanny” is the experience of a loss of control

FALL BREAK - NO CLASS - NO READING - YOU MUST ENJOY

Oct 15 | Topic: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (Guest Lecture) Reading for this day: Manovich - AI Aesthetics (Limits of Statistical Reason - end) Scientific American - Google Engineer Claims AI Chatbot Is Sentient: Why That Matters

Supplementary: Marinos Koutsomichalis - A HYPERSITIONAL MACHINE APPROPRIATING HUMAN CULTURE NVIDIA - Understanding Aesthetics Using Deep Learning

Oct 20 | Topic: Nostalgia and Retro Reading for this day: Interview V. Mannucci, V. Mattioli, Mark Fisher - Nostalgia and Lost Futures Tech Nostalgia matters because it’s the history of us (skim) Vaporwave Supplementary: old games Is electronic music a threat to culture? Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms Halt and Catch Fire - 90s Nostalgia

Oct 22 | Topic: Aesthetics of Machine Decay Reading for this day: Brummett - Ch. 4 (Chaotech) Viewing: Abandoned mechtech, Abandoned electrotech - focus on the device, not its environment Listening for this day (you don’t need to listen to the entire album): The Caretaker - All You Are Going to Want to do is Get Back There Supplementary: watch some NieR Automata gameplay footage more

Oct 27 | Topic: Video Games Reading for this day: Dithering Microtransactions

Viewing for this day: How do video game graphics work? Games that don’t fake the space Procedurally generated city Procedurally generated dungeons

Supplementary: How Computer Graphics Work Creating a scene in Unity First generation of console games Video game crash of 1983 Architects react to Elden Ring Architecture Myst

Oct 29 | Topic: Cybernetics Reading for this day: Stafford Beer - Designing Freedom Ch.1 Viewing for this day: Cybersyn, living plant controls a machete through an industrial robot arm Supplementary: Norbert Wiener - Cybernetics

Nov 3 | Topic: Computer and Electronic Music Reading for this day:
Fisher - Interview w/ Burial Viewing for this day: Wendy Carlos Listening for this day: Burial - Archangel, Sample breakdown of Archangel, (some of) Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 Nils Frahm - Says Supplementary: Burial - Forgive Ikonika - Please William Basinski - Disintegration Loops oneohtrix Point Never (feat. The Weeknd, Caroline Polachek) - No Nightmares Quarta 330 - Sunset Dub (Documentary) Delia Derbyshire - The Delian Mode

Nov 5 | Topic: The Drake University Library Today: Field trip to the library for a session about resources, academic search, etc. MEET IN COWLES LIBRARY ROOM 45

Nov 10 | Topic: Coding, Hacking, Virality

Reading for this day: Computer programming, Hacker, Hacker Culture Viewing for this day: Machine code, High-level code, More high-level code, Mr.Robot - ‘I live for this’ Viral phenomenon Meme

Supplementary: Drake Computer Science Courses, How to Learn Coding, Hacker Interview - Gummo

Nov 12 | Topic: Algorithms Reading for this day: Sieve of Eratosthenes Binary Search Viewing for this day: Sieve of Eratosthenes animation Supplementary: Quicksort

Nov 17 | Topic: AI Art, Pixel Art, and Slop Reading for this day: : (skim) Wikipedia - Artificial Intelligence Art Harvard Gazette - Is Art Generated by AI Real Art? Quiz - Real or AI? Welcome to Slop World: how the hostile internet is driving us crazy Viewing for this day: Waneela - pixel art landscapes and slice of life
Supplementary: This Machine Kills (podcast) - </i>ScamGPT - How AI Supercharges Fraud, ft. Alice Marwick </i>

Nov 19 | Topic: Noise and Chaos Reading for this day: Perlin noise in No Man’s Sky Viewing for this day: Pause for reflection (half-day)

Nov 24 | NO CLASS (but I’ll be in my office and you are welcome to stop by!) - SPEND TODAY READING AND/OR WRITING

Nov 26 | NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING BREAK

Dec 1 | Topic: Theory of Computation Viewing for this day: Why theory of computation?, the P vs NP Problem, the Halting Problem, Note: You do NOT need to comprehend the mathematics of these ideas. Focus on the big picture and getting the main ideas: “the limits” of computation, programs that read other programs, “how solvable” a problem is, etc.!

Working on papers in class together.

We’ll sit down together to look at how your paper’s coming along. Some of your score will come from showing me on this day that you’ve made good progress towards your paper’s completion, that you’ve sharpened your ideas and have a clear concept of what you’re trying to do. Good time to ask me last-minute questions, clarifications, etc. before the due date. Office hours are also a good time for that. I will expect your FINAL versions next week!

No meeting during finals week. You’ve learned a lot and worked plenty hard - put the finishing touches on it all and submit a quality project, meeting all of the specified criteria, to me by TBD.