Emerging Cultural Movements Fall 2013 T Th 11:00-12:20 College Apartments 9 Instructor: Ali Colleen Neff E-Mail: alineff@wm.edu Office: 8B College Apartments Office Hours: T Th 1-3p.m., W by appointment Overview In this introductory writing seminar, we will examine the relationship of social media, mobile technologies, global connectivity, and the digital arts to the emergence of cultural undergrounds. We will look to subcultural movements of the past to imagine how they resonate with the undergrounds of today, and ask how the technologies of the era shape, and are in turn shaped by, them. With special attention to the role of pan-American artists and industries in global media, we ask what it means to be part of an underground and how these movements make their mark on the world. Students will have the opportunity to integrate new media into their critical writing assignments and to research the emergence of a particular cultural movement as it moves from its local, hidden, radical, or otherwise different spaces into an ever-changing global mainstream. Goals In this course, we work toward a dual series of goals as we engage the topic of media studies in our progress toward becoming better critical thinkers and writers. 1.We will better understand the role of media technologies in cultural formation, and how they shape and are shaped by the groups who engage them 2.We will learn to design projects, and to communicate complex, critical ideas clearly and with a measure of personal and intellectual style. We will gauge our progress toward these goals by checking in with course keywords (listed for each week) and through a series of discursive writing assignments leading to our final research project. Requirements You will be graded on a series of five written assignments, a final test, and course participation. 2.Complete and critically engage all required reading and media 3.Complete all assignments on time and with intellectual and academic integrity 4.Participate fully in the classroom community 5.Communicate your needs and issues with your classmates and teachers responsibly. 6.Turn off all internet and social media when in the classroom (very important) 7.Grow intellectually, as an emerging authority on the world of culture, and as a critical thinker and writer Materials Course materials for this multimedia course can be found by class date in this syllabus. 1 Most materials are available as articles through our Blackboard site, or e-books through Swem Library 2 One book required: How to Wreck a Nice Beach by David Thompkins 3 It is recommended to print these materials and mark them up, and to engage them specifically in class discussion. Milestones Unit One Understand how new cultural movements emerge, and practice methods in writing about them Unit Two Engage basic concepts and practices in media studies and articulate critical arguments about how processes of power work through them Unit Three Think about how digital media create emerging global communities and develop a personal style in writing about them Attendance, Participation, Delays 1. Attendance is required at all lectures and discussion sections; more than two unexcused absences will result in a full final grade letter grade deduction 2. While all students prefer different modes of engagement, participation in classroom discussion is a must; communicate with me if you have issues 3. Late work will, unless excused by a documented medical emergency, be docked a full letter grade per day 4.As a rule, communicate responsibly and mindfully about any issues ahead of time Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground Lecture Issues/Keywords/Themes Thursday Materials 8/29-8/30 Course/Personal Introductions, Syllabus Fostering Class Discussion 9/2-9/6 Subcultures in the digital age: Why do they matter? Introduction to essay writing. How to talk about subcultures, power, di!erence, and other tricky topics in the classroom. Thinking about interdisciplinarity and cultural criticism. Read all of this for this week: Helen Swords _Stylish Academic Writing_ (Available online through Swem LIbrary) Media to Consider: 1. A Tribe Called Red: http://atribecalledred.com 2. RookieMag: http://rookiemag.com 3. Bronies: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=t2EOfhvvURY 4. Turng: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=JQRRnAhmB58 5. Roller Derby: http://rivercityrollergirls.org Politics: http://mashable.com/2011/11/17/ows- tea-party/ Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: The role of blogs and cultural-critical video in intervening in public discourses (Ill Doctrine). Watch at least 7 of the videos: http:// www.illdoctrine.com Small Groupwork KEYWORDS: subculture, digital culture, new media, culture, American Studies, interdisciplinarity, cultural criticism KEYWORDS: subculture, digital culture, new media, culture, American Studies, interdisciplinarity, cultural criticism KEYWORDS: subculture, digital culture, new media, culture, American Studies, interdisciplinarity, cultural criticism Unit One: Emerging Cultural Movements (and writing about them) Unit One: Emerging Cultural Movements (and writing about them) Unit One: Emerging Cultural Movements (and writing about them) 9/9-9/13 Emerging Cultural Movements in the Digital Age: Hidden Practitioners Read all of these for today: 2. Barry Shanks The Political Agency of Musical Beauty (PDF on BBoard) 3. Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Politics of Style (PDF on BBoard) 4. Kyra Gaunt, all of Chapters 1, 5, and 7 from The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop (available as an e-book through SWEM) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Greg Tate, Black Jazz in the Digital Age: http://www.criticalimprov.com/article/ view/287/431 2. Selections from Danah Boyds Apophenia: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/ 2009/08/16/twitter_pointle.html http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/ 2009/12/29/race_and_social.html http://www.danah.org/papers/2009/ WhiteFlightDraft3.pdf KEYWORDS: practitioner, emergence, style, politics, agency, practice, digital age, digital divide KEYWORDS: practitioner, emergence, style, politics, agency, practice, digital age, digital divide KEYWORDS: practitioner, emergence, style, politics, agency, practice, digital age, digital divide Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground 500-600-word writing assignment due Tuesday, 9/10 (Assignment 1): Write about a digital subculture. 500-600-word writing assignment due Tuesday, 9/10 (Assignment 1): Write about a digital subculture. 500-600-word writing assignment due Tuesday, 9/10 (Assignment 1): Write about a digital subculture. 9/16-9/20 Locating and listening to undergrounds Read all of these for today: 1 Kara Keeling, Josh Kun Introduction: Listening to American Studies. American Quarterly, Volume 63, Number 3, September 2011, pp. 445-459 (PDF on BBoard) 2 Fikentscher, The Underground as Cultural Context (PDF on BBoard) 3 Victor Turner, Liminality and Communitas (Scanned on BBoard)
Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Wired article on Anonymous: http:// www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/06/ anonymous-parmy-olson-review/all/ 2. bell hooks: Cultural Criticism and Transformation. Watch the entire 6-part series available on youtube (60 minutes or so) , starting with part 1: http:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=zQUuHFKP-9s
KEYWORDS: liminality, marginalization, underground, subaltern, alternative, other, binary, inversion KEYWORDS: liminality, marginalization, underground, subaltern, alternative, other, binary, inversion KEYWORDS: liminality, marginalization, underground, subaltern, alternative, other, binary, inversion 9/23-9/27 The Others to Media Studies Read all of these for today: 1. From Shobat and Stahm, Unthinking Eurocentrism, Introduction and Chapter 9 (PDF on BBoard) 2. From Ginsburg, Abu-Lughod, Larkin: Media Worlds, Selections (PDF on BBoard) 3. Selections from Marshall McLuhan TBA (PDF on BBoard) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Yasmin Moll, Islamic Televangelism: Religion, Media and Visuality in Contemporary Egypt, Issue 10, Spring 2010http://www.arabmediasociety.com/ index.php?article=732&p=0 Library Research Day: Meet in Swem to work with Reference Librarians
KEYWORDS: nation, di!erence, power, empowerment, disempowerment, race, eurocentrism, modernity, resistance KEYWORDS: nation, di!erence, power, empowerment, disempowerment, race, eurocentrism, modernity, resistance KEYWORDS: nation, di!erence, power, empowerment, disempowerment, race, eurocentrism, modernity, resistance 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 9/24 (Assignment 2): Critically unpack an sample of digital culture 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 9/24 (Assignment 2): Critically unpack an sample of digital culture 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 9/24 (Assignment 2): Critically unpack an sample of digital culture 9/30-10/4 Social di!erence and the idea of the underground Read all of these for today: 1. Stuart Hall, from Representations, Chapter 1: The Work of Cultural Representation 2. Selections from Gelder and Thornton, The Subcultures Reader (PDF on BBoard) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Carefully read this hypertext version of Arjun Appadurais Disjuncture and Di!erence in the Global Political Economy and do searches on each of the key terms within: http://www.intcul.tohoku.ac.jp/ ~holden/MediatedSociety/Readings/ 2003_04/Appadurai.html# KEYWORDS: subculture, digital culture, new media, culture, American Studies, interdisciplinarity, cultural criticism, representation, communication KEYWORDS: subculture, digital culture, new media, culture, American Studies, interdisciplinarity, cultural criticism, representation, communication KEYWORDS: subculture, digital culture, new media, culture, American Studies, interdisciplinarity, cultural criticism, representation, communication Unit Two: Engagements with Digital Media (and building a critical argument) Unit Two: Engagements with Digital Media (and building a critical argument) Unit Two: Engagements with Digital Media (and building a critical argument) Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground 10/7-10/1 1 How Americanness circulates globally via digital media Read all of these for today: 1. Michel Foucault, from Archaeology of Knowledge 2. Daniel Sharp: Foucaults genealogical method: http://philforum.berkeley.edu/blog/ 2011/10/17/foucaults-genealogical-method/ 3. Ted Friedman, Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2005). Introduction, selections (PDF on BBoard) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Ali Colleen Ne!, The New Masters of Eloquence(PDF on Bboard) 2. Social Text Online article: http:// www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/ 2011/11/in-one-all-senegalese-women- freestyle-artists-unify-the-global- ghetto.php 3. Freestyle video: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0qg05IBWKGM Class visit from Toussa Senerap KEYWORDS: circulation, history, genealogy, methodology, Americanness, postmodern, alternative knowledges, discourse, communicative complexity, social capital, cultural capital, labor, consumption KEYWORDS: circulation, history, genealogy, methodology, Americanness, postmodern, alternative knowledges, discourse, communicative complexity, social capital, cultural capital, labor, consumption KEYWORDS: circulation, history, genealogy, methodology, Americanness, postmodern, alternative knowledges, discourse, communicative complexity, social capital, cultural capital, labor, consumption 500-600-word response due Tuesday, 10/7 (Assignment 3) 500-600-word response due Tuesday, 10/7 (Assignment 3) 500-600-word response due Tuesday, 10/7 (Assignment 3) Fall Break 10/12-10/15 Fall Break 10/12-10/15 Fall Break 10/12-10/15 10/16-18 Youtube and the Immediacy of Web Video/The Visual Read all of these for today: 1. Nick Salvato Out of Hand: YouTube Amateurs and Professionals, TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 53, Number 3, Fall 2009 (T 203) , pp. 67-83 (PDF on Bboard)) 2. Christine Bacareza Balance, How It Feels to Be Viral Me: A!ective Labor and Asian American YouTube Performance (PDF on BBoard) 3. Maria A. Kopacz (bio) and Bessie Lee Lawton Rating the YouTube Indian: Viewer Ratings of Native American Portrayals on a Viral Video Site (PDF on BBoard) 4. William Merrin , Still Fighting the Beast:Guerrilla Television and the Limits of YouTube (PDF on BBoard) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Instagram and the impact of immediate visuality: http://www.pewresearch.org/ fact-tank/2013/06/20/instagram-vine-and- the-evolution-of-social-media/ 2. Moira Burke and Robert Kraut, Social Capital on Facebook: Di!erentiating Uses and Usershttp://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ viewdoc/download? doi=10.1.1.227.6644&rep=rep1&type=pdf 3. Jessica Winter, Instagram is even more depressing than Facebook. Heres why.http://www.slate.com/articles/ technology/technology/2013/07/ instagram_and_self_esteem_why_the_pho to_sharing_network_is_even_more_depres sing.html KEYWORDS: visuality, moving image, immediacy, sensory communication, visual anthropology KEYWORDS: visuality, moving image, immediacy, sensory communication, visual anthropology KEYWORDS: visuality, moving image, immediacy, sensory communication, visual anthropology 10/21-25 Queering the Media, Digitally Read all of these for today: 1. Esther Milne , FCJ-010 Email and Epistolary technologies: Presence, Intimacy, Disembodiment http:// two.breculturejournal.org/ 2. Selections from: Kate O'Riordan and David J Phillips, eds., Queer Online (PDF online) 3. Mary Gray, Out In The Country, Selections (PDF Online) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. The Queer Zine Archive: http://qzap.org/ v5/index.php? option=com_gallery2&Itemid=28 2. A Queer Social & Cultural Media Study: http://qcsms.tumblr.com 3. Queerty: read at least ve blog entries from this site: http://www.queerty.com/i Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground KEYWORDS: queer/queerness/queering, presence, intimacy, embodiment, disembodiment, experimentation, coming out KEYWORDS: queer/queerness/queering, presence, intimacy, embodiment, disembodiment, experimentation, coming out KEYWORDS: queer/queerness/queering, presence, intimacy, embodiment, disembodiment, experimentation, coming out 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 10/21 (Assignment 4) 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 10/21 (Assignment 4) 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 10/21 (Assignment 4) 10/28-11/ 1 Digital Music Production Read all of this for today: 1. Read all of Dave Thompkins, How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks (Available through amazon.com) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Visit Dave Tompkins website at: http:// howtowreckanicebeach.com and read over at least 5 blog entries 2. Read all of the Wayne and Wax blog entries from may 10th to the present: http://wayneandwax.com KEYWORDS: medium, vocality, audibility, futurism, Afro-futurism, organic/inorganic, jazz, experimentation KEYWORDS: medium, vocality, audibility, futurism, Afro-futurism, organic/inorganic, jazz, experimentation KEYWORDS: medium, vocality, audibility, futurism, Afro-futurism, organic/inorganic, jazz, experimentation Unit Three: Global Networks (and the elements of critical style) Unit Three: Global Networks (and the elements of critical style) Unit Three: Global Networks (and the elements of critical style) 11/4-11/8 Digital Diasporas: What is digital Americanness? Read all of these for today: 1. Rivera, Marshall, and Hernandez, Reggaeton: Introduction (PDF on BBoard) 2. R. Niezen, 2005, Digital Identity: The Construction of Virtual Selfhood in the Indigenous People's Movement, Comparative Studies in Society and History 47.3, 532-551 (PDF on BBoard) 3. Lisa Nakamura and Peter A. Chow-White , eds., Race After the Internet (Selection) (PDF on BBoard) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Beit Hatfutsot: The Museum of the Jewish People http://www.bh.org.il Additional Media TBA KEYWORDS: globalization, diapsora, transatlantic, The Americas, Caribbean, KEYWORDS: globalization, diapsora, transatlantic, The Americas, Caribbean, KEYWORDS: globalization, diapsora, transatlantic, The Americas, Caribbean, 11/11-15 Utopia and the possibilities/limitations of new media Read all of these for today: 1. Article contextualizing digital utopia: http:// www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/arts/ 25conn.html?pagewanted=all 2. Selections from Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture : Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Chapters 1, 2, and 8. Available as an e-book through Swem library. 3. Ulises A. Mejias, FCJ-147 Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyondhttp:// twenty.breculturejournal.org Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: 1. Visuality.com and the grassroots political campaign: http://visuality.com/orida- education-association Additional Media TBA KEYWORDS: utopia, access, cyberculture, counterculture, liberation KEYWORDS: utopia, access, cyberculture, counterculture, liberation KEYWORDS: utopia, access, cyberculture, counterculture, liberation Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground Course Schedule: Digital Underground 11/18-22 Bringing it all back home Read all of these for today: 1. Mark Katz, from Groove Music: Falling Barriers (PDF on BBoard) Read/engage all of these for today, and revisit Mondays readings: Multimedia TBA KEYWORDS: TBA KEYWORDS: TBA KEYWORDS: TBA Final Paper Draft Due Tuesday 11/17 (Assignment 5) Final Paper Draft Due Tuesday 11/17 (Assignment 5) Final Paper Draft Due Tuesday 11/17 (Assignment 5) 11/26 Screening Day--Thanksgiving Break 11/27-12/1 Screening Day--Thanksgiving Break 11/27-12/1 Revisit all of the week one readings during this screening and review timewe will loop back to discuss them in class again as it comes to a close, and you are expected to know them well for the nal. Also, be sure you have mastered the course keywords and concepts. Revisit all of the week one readings during this screening and review timewe will loop back to discuss them in class again as it comes to a close, and you are expected to know them well for the nal. Also, be sure you have mastered the course keywords and concepts. Review Review Review 12/2-12/6 Read all of these for today: Revisit the rst full week of media studies readings: Minimal Review Materials T.B.A. Final Exam: Monday, December 9 th , 2-5 p.m. Final Exam: Monday, December 9 th , 2-5 p.m. Final Exam: Monday, December 9 th , 2-5 p.m. Graded Item Number of points (of 100 total) Assignment Sheets will be available for each assignment as it is presented in class Graded Item Number of points (of 100 total) Assignment Sheets will be available for each assignment as it is presented in class 500-600-word writing assignment due Tuesday, 9/10 (Assignment 1). This assignment asks you to choose a text, website, multimedia sample, or other example of digital media and discuss its relationship to a particular subculture. You will draw from your keywords from the rst week of class in shaping an argument about this relationship that will convince your classmates that this object represents a cultural group, idea or movement that is an alternative to the mainstream, dominant, or hegemonic digital status quo. 5 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 9/24 (Assignment 2). This is a keyword-centered essay that asks you to analyze the ways in which a particular subculture with which you are familiar (or will become familiar) uses multimedia in critical ways. Educate your peers about how this group's engagement with digital media is distinctly its own. 15 500-600-word response due Tuesday, 10/7 (Assignment 3) You will respond critically to one of your classmates' essays from 9/24 (I will distribute these blindly on 9/26) with a critique suggesting that another interpretation of this subculture's engagement with media is possible. Your work as a co-critic and peer is to challenge your partner to make his or her analysis more complex, rather than to break down or destroy their work, thereby strengthening the power of their analysis. 5 1,000-word essay due Tuesday, 10/21 (Assignment 4) 15 First Draft of nal paper due Tuesday, 11/19 (Assignment 5) 5 12/5 Final paper due (Assignment 6) This research project involves approximately 15 written pages and accompanying multimedia. You will receive an in-depth assignment description by Tuesday, September 10th. 25 Final Exam: Thursday, December 12th, 9a.m.-12 p.m.: Short Answer 15 Course Participation 15
(Progress in Brain Research 203) Stanley Finger, Dahlia W. Zaidel, François Boller and Julien Bogousslavsky (Eds.)-The Fine Arts, Neurology, And Neuroscience_ Neuro-Historical Dimensions-Academic Pres