Download PDF:
IART401_402_403.pdf
Credit Hours: 3
Instructors:
Location:
Semester: Fall 2002
Course Description:
IART 401 Electronic Culture: Complexity
This course explores connections between networked culture and sciences of chaos and complexity. Field research and conferencing concentrate on the dynamics of evolving systems, visual/spatial models of complexity, and the status of scientific knowledge in electronic culture.
IART 402 Electronic Culture:
Identity Building on the study of complex systems, this course investigates identity in terms of evolution and self-organizing systems. What are the adaptive implications of our interactions with intelligent machines? Weblogs serve as case studies in the emergence of networked identity.
IART 403 Electronic Culture:
Society The complexity of networked culture grows exponentially along with the speed of information processing. This course explores implications for the economy and organizations, and for the conduct of war, privacy, and surveillance. Weblogs serve as platforms for research and dialogue.
Course Objectives:
IART 401
- Assess the status of scientific knowledge in
contemporary culture
- Investigate the rise of complexity science and
networked culture, within the framework of
evolutionary theory
- Use visual and conceptual models of complexity as
interpretive tools for studying electronic culture
- Analyze digital networks as a "self-organizing
systems"
IART 402
- Explain the dynamics of species in evolution and
self-organizing systems
- Critically assess the concept of "survival of the
fittest" from the perspective of culture, sexual
selection, and cooperation
- Analyze the ways in which highly integrated
networks reconfigure self and agency
- Map the information spaces and dynamics of
\"weblogging\" as a case study of networked
identity
IART 403
- Evaluate various applications of complexity theory
to the economy
- Analyze different species of the networked
organization and describe driving forces behind
them
- Construct models of net.warfare that follow from
networked economies and organizations
- Assess the long range implications for privacy and
surveillance
- Envision possible futures for networked society drawing from your research across all 3 courses
Delivery Method:
Computer-Mediated Classroom (CMC).
In this course delivery model students discuss weekly readings and course topics in an online conferencing system. Weekly learning activities also include a Web presentation that integrates readings with resources provided on external web sites or CD-ROMs. Students may be assigned to teams of 4-6 to work on team projects or participate in team conferences. The product of team activities may be presented and discussed with the whole class using the online conferencing system. Assessment is based on assignments, individual and group projects, and participation in online discussions.
Learning Activities + Evaluation:
Learning Activities IART 401: N/A
IART 402: N/A IART
403: N/A
Methods of Evaluation
IART 401: N/A
IART 402: N/A
IART 403: N/A
Texts, Resources + Materials:
IART 401: The Third Culture by John Brockman. Simon & Schuster, 0-684-82344-6
IART 402 Required Texts: “Mapping Cyberspace” by Martin Dodge and Rob Kitchen. Routledge “Social Navigation of Information Space” by alan Munro, Kristina Hook and David Benyon (eds). Springer.
IART 402 Recommended Texts: “Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan„_Meets_Oncomouse‘: Feminism and Technoscience , 1996” by Donna Haraway and Lynn M. Randolph. Routledge, 0415912458. “The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature” by Geoffrey F. Miller. Doubleday, 0385495161
IART 402 Software: Concept mapping for drawing program (free)
IART 403 Required Texts: “The Advent of Netwar” by John Arquilla and David F. Ronfeldt. Rand Foundation. “The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age” by Pekka Himanen. Random House, 037575878X.
IART 403 Recommended Texts: “Information Warfare and Security” by Dorothy Denning “The Rise of the Network Society” by Manuel Castells
IART 403 Software: Blogger (www.blogger.com) Platform requirements: PC
Prerequisites:
IART 401: None
IART 402: IART 403
IART 403: IART 402 and IART 403
Recommended: IART 210, IART 211, IART 212, IART 325, IART 323, IART 327 or other introduction to cultural theory.
Last Updated: May 13, 2008
These course outlines are drafts and are subject to change.
