ENGL 306: Topics in Humanities Computing, Fall 2008

http://www.clc.wvu.edu:8080/clc/Members/sbaldwin/courses/engl303f08
Note: this website is the authoritative version of the class syllabus.
Professor Sandy Baldwin
charles.baldwin at mail.wvu.edu
293-9703 (try emailing first)
Office Hours: TR 1000-1115, Colson G21 and by appointment.
The Center for Literary Computing / www.clc.wvu.edu

(from http://www.unc.edu/depts/jomc/academics/dri/idog.jpg)

Course Description

"Just as the Internet provides extensive and interactive ways of displaying, linking and retrieving information and images, it may now allow unexpected ways of accessing, interfacing and uploading the body itself. And instead of seeing the Internet as a means of fulfilling out-moded metaphysical desires of disembodiment, it offers on the contrary, powerful individual and collective strategies for projecting body presence and extruding body awareness. The Internet does not hasten the disappearance of the body and the dissolution of the self- rather it generates new collective physical couplings and a telematic scaling of subjectivity. What becomes important is not merely the body's identity, but its connectivity - not its mobility or location, but its interface...." Stelarc

From the English Department Catalog: "Topics in Humanities Computing. Topics include: literary studies (electronic publications, web-based, interactive fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction), creative writing in digital media, composition on-line, pedagogy, cultural studies of electronic media, online communications, language studies. Topics rotate; check with instructor." The fall 2008 topic is Avatar Identity and Being Online. We take humanities computing literally: computing the human. We examine authorship, self, and identity online. Topics range from social and Web 2.0 authoring to the virtualization of the self. How must we reconfigure our sense of identity in light of our being online? R U N AVATAR?

Required Texts

• Pattern Recognition. William Gibson. Gibson blogging on Pattern Recognition. Readings for this text are noted in the syllabus as PR.

• Play Money. Julian Dibbell. On Dibbell's website. Readings for this text are noted in the syllabus as PM.
• Swoon. Nada Gordon and Gary Sullivan. Readings for this text are noted in the syllabus as SW.
• Stelarc. Edited by Marquard Smith. Stelarc Website. Readings for this text are noted in the syllabus as ST.
• Recommended! Facebook the Missing Manual. E. A. Vander Veer.

Course Format

Lectures, discussion, hand-on workshops. Readings combine theoretical, historical, and literary sources.

Requirements and activities.

The following are brief summaries of activities to be scheduled throughout the semester. There will be other in-class activities, including in-class writing. All technical skills will be taught in class.

Response Posts. 6 at 5% ea for 30%. Posts are graded pass/fail. Each post is a brief writing - at least 300 words - reflecting on the course reading and discussion, posted to your blog, unless otherwise indicated in the syllabus.

Projects. 4 projects, 15% ea = 60%.

• Knowledge 2.0/wikipedia authoring, due Sep 16. There are two parts to this project, both on Wikipedia. First, individually complete two open tasks on Wikipedia. Second, with a group of two or three other students, write a new article on Wikipedia. Deciding on the topic of your tasks and article: 1) choose two different tasks that interest you; ideally they relate to the class topics and reading; 2) for the articles, you may either choose a topic related to the class readings or another topic that you decide on as a group (perhaps something relating to WVU?). Examples from last year's ENGL 303 class
• Network/fakespace persona, due Oct 14. Create a fictional personae using Facebook and at least four other social software sites. Some possible sites: Blogger, Flickr, Google Maps, WordPress, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Twittervision and Twittermap and Twitterwhere, Picasa, Google Video, del.icio.us, etc... Create a detailed and consistent character and biography. Create relationships for your character. Add content (images, video, etc.). Elaborate and grow the personae. Give it depth - think of this as an essay distributed over many sites. Make maximum use of the applications. The final project consists of all the accounts plus an (auto)biography of the persona posted to your personal blog with links to all the sites (300 words minimum) and a meta-text/reflection also posted to your personal blog (300 word minimum).
• Chatline being, due Nov 6. Engage in chat discussions in at least three different chat environments. Examples: Eliza or other chatbots, LambdaMoo, Second Life, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, etc. Chats must not be with your friends. Save transcripts of the chat. Write an analysis of the chats, examining how identity is displayed, verified, constructed, believed in, and so on. Your analysis must draw on Lacan, Turing and other course texts to explain the chats. You may also draw comparisons to Swoon, Pattern Recognition, and The Matrix. The final project consists of the transcripts and the analysis. Minimum of 500 words reflection and analysis in addition to the chats. Suggested format: using Turing and/or Lacan to set up a framework for what happens in discussion/interaction in online environments. Then present the chats. Analysis can come between/within chats or in discrete sections after the chats. The project should be a single blog post.
• Avatar event collaboration, due Dec 8. Two parts. Part 1 With a partner, 1) visit at least 5 distinct islands in Second Life, and 2) create an event in SL that you document, using SL's snapshot function and saving chat. The two tasks are not necessarily related. Events occur on a specific date/time; they could be a discussion on a subject, a dance, a fight, a tea party, whatever... The point is to do something in SL. Use email or Facebook or other means to get some attendance at the event; try to get the class members to attend. Collaboratively, write up a single review and summary document of the event and the islands you visited (500 word minimum). This will be a single document, summarizing what you did, what happened, and your reflections on these activities. Draft of document due Dec 4. Part 2 Individually - though of course you can get input and insight from your partner - write a brief essay (500 word minimum) developing a thesis on virtual identity in SL, based on your collaboration and on the course as a whole; also, the essay must draw on/reference Play Money in some way. The project should be two separate blog posts (identical copies of the first part on each person's blog).

Instigation. Lead the class, 10%. Not a presentation nor a summary, but leading discussion, raising provocative questions, focused on specifics in the reading and on and critical problems. Instigations start Sep 16 - you will sign up for a date. Requirements: background research as necessary; handout for class posted to your blog (300 words minimum).

Participation and attendance

Participation and attendance are crucial. The class is run in a discussion/workshop format, and a great deal occurs in the interactions and collaborations of the classroom. I assume that you will attend and participate in all classes and class activities. I will begin taking attendance after the first week of class. You are allowed two unexcused absences, after which unexcused absences will reduce your overall grade by up to a full letter. If you believe your absence is excusable, it is your responsibility to discuss it with me. I will determine what constitutes an excuse. All reading, writing, and other work is due on the date indicated on the schedule. Unexcused late work will receive no credit. I will determine what constitutes an excuse. Participation is equally important. If it is clear that you are not participating, and this includes not doing the assigned reading for the class, your overall course grade will be reduced by up to a full letter. You should attend class even if you have not done the work, however, since a great deal happens during class and your presence contributes to the communal learning environment.

Grade Descriptors

Adapted from standard grade descriptors for writing courses. These are intended to give general grading guidelines and may not apply in every case.

A Exemplary work that demonstrates originality and initiative. The content is mature, thorough, and well-suited for the audience; the style is clear, accurate, and forceful; the information is well-organized and formatted so that it is accessible and attractive; genre conventions are effectively used; mechanics and grammar are correct.

B Good work. The work generally succeeds in meeting goals in terms of audience, purpose, and genre without the need for further major revisions. It may need some minor improvements in idea, content, presentation, or writing style/mechanics.

C Satisfactory. Work is adequate but requires some substantial revisions of idea, content, presentation, or writing style/mechanics; may require further work in more than one area.

D Work is unprofessional, requires extensive revisions of idea, content, presentation, writing style, and/or mechanics. The writer has encountered significant problems meeting goals of audience, purpose, and genre.

F Not enough information; inappropriate for the situation; and/or major and pervasive problems in terms of content, presentation, or writing style/mechanics that interfere with meaning. May be incomplete, or plagiarism may compromises the work on ethical grounds.

Academic Integrity

West Virginia University expects that every member of its academic community shares the historic and traditional commitment to honesty, integrity, and the search for truth. Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, cheating and dishonest practices; and forgery, misrepresentation, or fraud.

Social Justice Statement

"West Virginia University is committed to social justice. I concur with that commitment and expect to maintain a positive learning environment based upon open communication, mutual respect, and nondiscrimination. Our University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, veteran status, religion, sexual orientation, color or national origin. Any suggestions as to how to further such a positive and open environment in this class will be appreciated and given serious consideration. If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangement with Disability Services (293-6700)."

Schedule

Read Read and be prepared to discuss for class. Look Look at, browse, and familiarize for class. Topics What will be covered in class. Due Assignments due at the beginning of class.

Aug 19

Topics: Course syllabus. On the internet no one knows you're a dog. Identity.

Read: Social Studies (Facebook in the Flesh)

Aug 21

Topics: What is reading on the web? What is writing on the web? What assumptions about reading and writing are made in the essays? What does each author value? Where do the authors' arguments intersect? Where do they disagree? Who is right? What is the difference between reading and skimming? Genre and value? Being online autobiography. Intro to blogging. Create a blog and email the address to Sandy. Remember: you can have multiple blogs under your account.

Read: Kirschenbaum, "How Reading is Being Reimagined" (handout), Gioia and Iyengar, Reading and the Web: What We Know and Don't Know.

Look: Krug, Sample chapter from Don't Make Me Think, Nelson, How users read on the web and Be Succinct!, Internet timeline

Aug 26

Topics: Thinking and Linking. What is a link? The mind and the web. Email Sandy blog addresses!

Read: Bush, As we may think. Read the whole essay but focus on the memex (Section 3 / page 8 to the end).

Look: Nelson, Computer Lib/Dream Machines (this one is long but goes quickly!) and Grusin What is an Electronic Author? (A theoretical essay that sums up arguments about electronic authorship. You must login to Project Muse with your WVU ID). Statements on electronic writing from Grusin.

Due: Response 1. Respond to the following questions - you can focus on one or several. What is the memex, i.e. what familiar technology does it resemble? What model of the writer and reader does Bush describe? How are identity and mind related to the memex machine? What would Gioia & Iyengar say to Bush? Would they approve or disapprove? What would Kirschenbaum say to Bush?

Aug 28

Topics: Wikipedia authoring. From "About Wikipedia": "Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites, attracting at least 684 million visitors yearly by 2008. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 10,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages. As of today, there are 2,534,834 articles in English; every day hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to enhance the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia." Also, an estimated 70% of all Google searches - i.e. any word or string typed into Google - will return at least one Wikipedia hit in the top ten search results. If Google is the dominant source for searching the web, Wikipedia is the dominant source for information. But not everyone likes Wikipedia. Some criticisms are directed at the concept of an open-content encyclopedia, where anyone can post and edit materials. Other criticisms are directed at the amount of coverage of individual topics or the lack of original research. (You could take a look at the Wikipedia entry on Criticism of Wikipedia.) What do you think? Wikipedia good or bad, and why? What opinions of it do you hold, what opinions have you heard? Should it be used in the classroom or for research? Why or why not? Write a post to your blog addressing these questions.

Read: About Wikipedia, Contributing to Wikipedia, What Wikipedia is Not, No Original Research, Neutral Point of View, Verifiability, Vandalism

Look: Login!. Login and try editing!

Sep 2

Topics: 1) Disclaimer and scanner. 2) Style and format of a wikipedia article. What is the structure of an article? What is the Lead Section? Important: references and categorization. Format: [[Category:Name]]. Remember the Big 3 (NPOV, NOR, V) and style/structure. Feedback and talk. 3) Brainstorm.

At the end of the article:
== References ==
{{reflist}}

Read: Your first article, Starting a new page, Writing better articles, The perfect article, Good Articles, Article development, Lead section, Policies and Guidelines, Your first article, Talk Page, Articles lacking sources, Resolving Disputes

Look: General Disclaimer, Non-Wikipedia Disclaimers, Criticism of Wikipedia, Wikipedia Scanner, Wikipedia Woes, Wikipedia vs. Britannica, Wikipedia vs. Britannica 2, Hilary's Wikipedia page

Sep 4

Topics: 1) Read and respond to blog postings. 2) Information wants to be free. Lessig on Wikipedia: "the one surprise that teaches more than everything here." GPL: "the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users." Creative Commons - choose your license! Post to blog on Project 1.

Read: Lessig, Code 2.0, Chap 1 & 2 (up through page 28), GPL Public License, Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto Barlow, Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace

Look: Creative Commons, Lessig, Free Culture Lessig home page, GNU Free Documentation License, Lessig, Code 2.0, Wark, Gamer Theory, ARHIVE.ORG. textz

Due: Response 2. Choose a Creative Commons License for your work. Which one did you choose and why? How does it reflect your beliefs about creativity and ownership? You might also consider Barlow's "Declaration." He writes: "Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here." Is he correct? Why or why not?

Sep 9

Read: Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Bruno’s Adwords Happening, GDay!

Look: Googlism, Elgoog, Google Adwords, Hapax Legomenon, Statistically Improbable Phrases, Googlewhack, Googlefight, Googlewhack site, Google Ad-Libs, Google vs. the Scientologists

Sep 11

Topics:
1) Wikipedia tasks. What tasks are you going to do on Wikipedia? Remember, you must choose two separate tasks from the list of open tasks here. Post to your blog, describing the tasks you will do; if you already completed your tasks, talk about what tasks you did, what problems you encountered, what you learned, etc.
2) Discuss Turkle. Relate to Bush, Google, etc. What is "holding power"? Next, find two distinct passages that are crucial to her argument. Group 1: Beginning to "To Joust and Beyond"; Group 2: "Jarish and the Computer within the Game" to "Altered States"; Group 3: "Losing Oneself in a Simulated World" - end.

Read: Turkle, Life on Screen (excerpt)

Sep 16

Topics: Trolling and identity. 1) In your blog, write a response to the following: The cyberbullying article begins "The mother of a former friend of Megan's allegedly created a fictitious profile in order to gain Megan's trust and learn what Megan was saying about her daughter." What characterizes a "true" and not fictitious profile? How can we tell if a profile is true and how can we make a true one? Also, what do you think of the case in general? Who is at fault? The mother who created the fake profile? Megan? 2) Second prompt for later: What is the aim and pleasure of trolling? More specifically, what understanding and ethics of identity and internet interaction is expressed by Jason Fortuny? How about Weev? What would you say to them - do you agree? are they right or wrong?

Read: PR Chap 1-2, Cyberbullying leads to teen's suicide, Malwebolence: The Trolls Among Us

Look: MyDeathSpace, Megan Meier Foundation

Due: Project 1

Sep 18

Topics: Reading PR. Find passages that are important for understanding the book. Find passages you have questions about.

passages that are important for understanding the book
p 18. "This stuff is simulacra of simulacra"...
p 4. F:F:F as a way of "being at home"
p 23. "They are dressed as they have always been dressed."
p 59. "The future is there."

Read: PR Chap 3-7. Facebook terms of use.

Look: Coolhunting, Trendhunter, Gladwell's The Coolhunt What happened in piedmont, G. H. Hovagimyan, Vanity Search, Social Networks in Investigations, Should a Facebook Poster Be Liable for a Party That Became a Riot?, Raj, Bohemian (New Yorker story)

Sep 23

Topics: 1) Instigations. 2) Google Maps. 3) Race online. 4) PR

Read: PR Chap 8-15. You must be logged in to do that

Look: Read: Black People Love Us, Blackness for Sale, Black Net Art (look at art projects).

Sep 25

Read: PR Chap 16-27, Wikipedia Luther Blissett(nom_de_plume), The Yes Men (wikipedia)

Look: Luther Blissett website, MySpace Luther Blissett, Yes Men Website

Due: Response 3. Write a post to your blog of at least 300 words responding to Pattern Recognition. Don't try to deal with the entire novel, instead focus on a specific passage, theme, pattern of language, etc. You can respond to whatever you choose, but here are three suggestions:
1) The novel begins with consideration of the disordering of the soul and body brought about by contemporary technology, especially by the speed of movement and circulation. In fact, Cayce is continually dealing with the technological displacement/enabling of the body, whether food (lots of coffee) or exercise / sleep, or sex, or violence, etc. How do these issues of embodiment relate to / contrast with the virtual world of the footage and of logos/cool that Cayce hunts?
2) Discuss Cayce's aversion to logos/mass-produced objects and her preference for the authentic object (e.g. the Rickson's jacket). How does this relate to the global setting of the novel? How are the logo objects connected or not to global culture and labor? Also, how do these products relate to pattern recognition?
3) Gibson defines apophenia as an illusion of meaningfulness, faulty pattern recognition." Latter, Cayce "thinks of herself as the center, the focal point of something she doesn't, can't, understand." How does this notion of pattern recognition function as a definition of self in the novel? What different definitions of pattern recognition are there in the novel?

Sep 30

Topics: 1) Sign up for Flickr. 2) Post towards project 2. Write a preliminary autobiography in your blog. 3) Look at links below. 4) Talk about PR. What did you think? Did you enjoy it? On the whole, what does it say about identity and online life?

Read: PR Chap 28-end

Look: All my life for sale, DiaryU, Online Caroline, Walker, How I was played by Online Caroline, Learning to Love us more

Oct 2

• identification "namely, the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image"
• ego defenses: "the fragmented body," the I as "symbolized in dreams by a fortified camp"
• "the mirror stage is a drama whose internal pressure pushes precipitously from insufficiency to anticipation"
• the social I. "the whole of human knowledge" is "mediated by the other's desire"
• "take as our point of departure the function of misrecognition that characterizes the ego"

Read: Lacan, The Mirror Stage This one is tough, but do your best and we'll talk it over!

Look: Gogolchat, Eliza, Eliza

Oct 7

Read (watch by class time): The Matrix. Available in the WVU library. Film Website

Look: Mouchette, Sondheim, The Lost Project

Oct 9

Read: Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace, Mutiliated Furries, Flying Phalluses

Look: LambdaMoo, Encyclopedia_Dramatica

Oct 14

Read: Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence

Look: The Turing Test Page, Turing website on the test, Turing test (wikipedia). Another Eliza program.

Oct 16

No class. Read: Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons Due: Project 2

Oct 21

Topics: Second Life intro.

Read: SW through p. 89

Look: Chatterbot Directory, Chatterbot Central, Chatterbot Collection, Englebart, Augmented Intelligence

Oct 23

Read: SW through 136

Due: (Due by Friday noon) Response 5. Focus on either Lacan's "Mirror Stage" or Turing "Computing Machinery." Choose two passages from the essay that you think are important to understanding online identity, particularly environments oriented around chat and other interaction (e.g. AIM, Second Life). For each passage: put it into your own words and then discuss how you think it is important for understanding online identity. Then, describe in your own words Lacan or Turing's overall theory of online identity. How would Lacan/Turing theorize our identity in chat environments?

Oct 28

Read: SW 137-205

Look: Woman arrested for killing virtual reality husband, Embodied Agent (wikipedia), Ananova (wikipedia), News at Seven, Pippin Agent, Talking Buddy, Microsoft Agent, Guile 3D

Oct 30

Second Life again! Read: SW 205-end

Look: Kurzweil's Ramona, Ramona's Story, All about Ramona, Emily lifelike animation, Emily video

Nov 4 Class Cancelled, Election Day!

Read: Stelarc article, ST Foreword

Nov 6

Read: ST, Chapter 1 and 7, Extropy Principles, Transhumanism

Look: Virtual Humans Home, Second Front

Due: Draft of Project 3

Nov 11

Read: ST Chapter 2 and 3

Look: Extropy, Jackson, Skin

Nov 13

Topics: 1) Talk about Project 4. 2) Instigation. 3) Respond to Project 3.

Read: ST Chapter 4

Due: Project 3 - by midnight. We will work on it in class.

Nov 18

Meet in Second Life. Read: PM

Look: Second Life, What is Second Life?, SL Community Standards (the big 6), SL Map, SL Events for Nov 18, SL BlogHUD,

Visit: Start at Capitol Hill. Then: Memorial Wall, Weather Channel, Dark Life, Galonge. Nakama, Bellagio, Wilder Skies, Summersville, Wizard's Alley, Literature Factory, Bakery of Poets

Nov 20

Read: PM

Look: Avatar Portraits

Due: Response 6. By class time. 500 words minimum. How would Stelarc view SL (in your opinion)? Quote a passage by Stelarc or from one of the essays about him that you feel is pertinent to understanding SL. State in your own words why the quote relates to SL. Then use the quote and your understanding of it to think about your experience in SL so far. You should have visited at least one of the islands for your final project - what does the quote from Stelarc let you see in your experience in SL?

Nov 25 Thanksgiving Break

Nov 27 Thanksgiving Break

Dec 2

Post info about your SL events so we can attend.

Read: PM

Dec 4 Last Class

Review of class topics: 1) What is a virtual author? 2) Becoming avatar: virtualization/commodification of identity online. 3) Chat identity: negotiating a virtual self. 4) Avatar identity and emotion / the body / economics.

Look at Project 4 theses.

Complete SEI Survey

Dec 9

Due: Project 4. By midnight

Class Blogs

Useful Links