Feb. 24 Tutorial

We'll be meeting in Vari Hall on Friday.

For the first half we'll talk about group projects, confirm the groups, and share with the class your ideas. Make sure you've had at least one group discussion, however brief, about what you plan to do for the project and be prepared to share your ideas informally with the rest of us. Some of you have not sent me your group rosters yet; can one memeber of your group please do so before tutorial?

We'll then be taking 5 minutes to draw for group presentation times, which will take place Mar. 24 and 31.

For the second half of the class we'll be discussing Frankenstein and Haraway reading on cyborgs. Please have Frankenstein finished by Friday. Think about why we're making you read the book. Here are some questions you might want to ask yourselves after having read it: Why would Frankenstein be relevant in a course on network culture, art, and technology? Who does Dr. Frankenstein's character represent for our times? How about the monster? And what about the author, Mary Shelley? Is the fact that she's a woman writing when she is important? What about the people the monster encounters in his struggles? Whom do they represent? What does the monster desire and why? Is he just a monster or is he something/somebody else? Why is the book subtitled "The Modern Prometheus"? Should you be looking back to the Greek myths to see how it might relate to Frankenstein? How might an interactive artist be relating to such a tale? How does Haraway's essay on cyborgs relate? Can you come up with five or six (or more) concepts that you can glean from the book? Finally, go back to the simple question we posed at the beginning of the year: Why are human beings -- especially us late moderns -- either so enamoured with or despondant about all this technology stuff, anyway? Is Shelley's Frankenstein trying to grapple with this most fundamental of issues for modernity?

Finally, I'll be holding my office hours: 1:30-2:30 in Founders College. I'll tell you how to get there on Friday -- it's kind of tucked away. You can find out all of your marks then. Also, for those of you writing blog entries in lieu of last semester's paper, please come and talk to me either after tutorial or during my office hours.