BRAITBERG Course Proposal Syllabus Bodies and Machines

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BODIES AND MACHINESCOURSE PROPOSAL FOR GENERAL EDUCATIONCOURSE/INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETIES TIER 2

The Honors CollegeUniversity of ArizonaDr. Victor BraitbergFALL 2012

COURSE DESCRIPTIONFrom the world of industrialmachines to the world of digitaldevices, the changing landscapeof technology in our everydaylives has a profound effect on

how we think about andexperience our bodies. Usinghistorical and cross-culturalperspectives this class exploreshow configurations of bodies andmachines shape what we defineas normal or natural, how weexperience space and time, andhow we understand thedifferences between humans andnon-humans.

Our point of departure will beideas and images of technologyand the body from the scientificand technological revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries. Ouraim will be to understand howthese imaginaries have informedour contemporary experience of technology, the body and notionsof the ideal society. We will thenturn our attention to the

scientific and technologicalmovements of Eugenics and Taylorism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to explore the ways thatconcerns about industrial production and population growth intersected withvisions of bodies perfectly tuned to the rhythms of the factory and whosereproduction would be engineered to remove all hereditary imperfections. Ourexamination of the mid-20th century to the present will be concerned with theemergence of computing technologies and communication networks. We will



focus in particular on the histories of cybernetics and post-industrialism whichhave reimagined the boundaries between the human and the machine as wellas the social and the biological. Our discussions, written assignments, andclass projects will be based on a broad, interdisciplinary range of sourcesincluding but not limited to popular films, scholarly works, visual arts, andnovels.

REQUIRED BOOKS (AVAILABLE FROM UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONABOOKSTORE)1. Mary Shelly (1818) Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus2. Carolyn Thomas de la Pena (2003) The Body Electric: How StrangeMachines Built the Modern American. New York, NY: New York University Press.

3. Aldous Huxley {1932) Brave New World.4. David Serlin (2004) Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar

America.

5.

Jean Baudrillard (1987) The Ecstasy of Communication. New York,NY: Semiotexte6. Philip K Dick (1968) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERSAll required and recommended articles and book chapters will be madeavailable through the course web page.

FILMS AI Avatar Blade Runner

FrankensteinGATACCAThe Matrix MetropolisModern TimesStar Trek THX 1138

COURSE OBJECTIVES1. Identify how scientific and technological modifications of the body

articulate social and political ideals.2. Identify how visions and techniques for technologically transforming

the body articulate dissatisfaction with existing social and politicalorders.

3. Critically examine the political, economic, and cultural contexts for thescientific and technological modification of the human body..

4. Evaluate how technological bodies transgress existing social andpolitical arrangements, or conversely, how they reinforce andnormalize them.

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EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES1. Increased understanding of the interdependent relations between

ideas about science, technology, and the body.2. Increased understanding of the historical relationships between

science, technology, the body and social thought.3. Improved ability to think critically about social and political ideals and

their relationship to understandings of science, technology, and thebody.

4. Expanded proficiency in expository writing and the use of primarysources.

TEACHING METHODOLOGY The following methods will be used to explore course topics:

• Instructor lectures• Group discussion• Online journals• Individual short papers• Team-based learning activities• Peer presentations

GRADESClass participation 200ptsOnline Journal 300ptsPaper #1 100ptsPaper #2 100pts

Team Project 300pts

Total: 1000ptsA = (1000-900)

B = (890-800)C = (790-700)D = (690-600)F = (below 590)

COURSE EXPECTATIONSAttendance: In-class discussions and activities will be a central feature of this class. You will be expected to attend all classes for the full scheduledtime. Arriving to class late on two or more occasions will be counted as anabsence. You are allowed two absences for any reason. Fifty points will betaken from your final grade (out of 1000) for each additional class missed.

You will be responsible for submitting assignments ahead of time and for

getting notes from your classmates if you miss class.

Readings: All readings must be completed prior to the class meeting forwhich they are scheduled. You are required to bring the scheduled readingswith you to class. Required and recommended articles and book chapterswill be made available online.

Participation: The course will require full participation (including activelistening, facilitating, note-taking, and asking questions). Successful

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participation in this class will mean engaging with the readings in athoughtful way that integrates and builds upon the ideas of others. Studentswill be expected to treat each other and the instructor with respect when itcomes to differences of interpretation and opinion.

Technology: Laptop computers and other digital devices should be used onlyfor instructional purposes during class. Checking email browsing the web,

texting, etc... will be considered disruptive behavior. You will receive averbal warning for the first occurrence. Any recurrence will result in losing aminimum of fifty points from your final grade (out of 1000).

COURSE ASSIGNMENTSOn-Line Journal (300pts = 6 X 50pts): Starting in Week 2 on-line journal entriesof approximately 750 words (3-4 double spaced pages) will be due Saturdays bynoon. The questions for your entry will be based on our class discussions and/orreadings and will be posted on D2L.. The first question will be posted in Week 1of the course. Journal entries should be based primarily on the required readingfor the week (you are encouraged to write about readings in the coursebibliography that are not scheduled in the syllabus). Your journal entries shouldreflect engagement with the reading and class discussion. Your entry should bewritten in essay form. The essay should have a theme and a criticalperspective. A critical perspective does not require that you be against theideas expressed in the reading and/or class lectures. “Critical” means that youhave considered alternative interpretations to those presented in the readingand lectures.

There will be questions for every class. You will be required to submit six

journal entries out of 13 journal questions. Each will be worth 50 pts for a totalof 300pts.

Submitting more than the six required journal entries will count as extra credit.

Individual Papers (200pts = 2 x 100pts): Two papers of approximately 6-8double-spaced pages will be required. Detailed instructions for writing thesepapers will be made available on our course web page during the first week of classes.

Paper #1 (100pts) (Due Week 4): The instructions for the first paper willbe posted on D2L by week 1. This paper will require you to reflect on

your personal experience of bodies and machines as well as drawing on aminimum of three secondary sources from our syllabus.

Paper #2 (100pts) (Due Week 7): The instructions for the second paperwill be posted on D2L by week 2 .For this paper, you will write about adimension of bodies and machines using two primary sources and threesecondary sources from the course syllabus.

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Team Project (300pts): Your team project will be due on the last day of classes.It will be a team based research paper and class presentation. The paper willbe 20 pages and collectively authored. Detailed instructions for this paper willbe made available on D2L during the first week of classes.

The purpose of the team project is to document a particular dimension of therelationship between bodies and machines and to present what you have found

to the class. This research project will consist of locating primary sources whichdocument the particular topic that you will have chosen by the third week of class. These might include newspaper articles, web pages, industry reports,advertisements, cartoons, interviews, etc....

You are encouraged to have fun and be creative with your presentation.

To receive full credit for this assignment, you will be expected to clearly address all six of our course objectives as they relate to your topic. Thisassignment will count as your final exam.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1 Introduction: Approaches to the body, technology and

society.

Film excerpts: Metropolis, Modern Times, and Avatar

Week 2 History and Anthropology of the BodyREADING:• Farquhar and Lock, An Emergent Cannon, Or Putting Bodies on theScholarly Agenda, 19-82. Part 1, Beyond the Body Proper.

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Week 3: Critical Perspectives on Bodily ExperienceREADING:• Farquhar and Lock, Philosophical Studies, or Learning How to ThinkEmbodiment, 107-175, Part 2, Beyond the Body Proper.

Week 4: Early Modern Science and Mechanical Bodies

READING:• Otto Mayr (1986) The Clockwork Universe, 54-101. Authority,

Liberty, & Automatic Machinery in Early Modern Europe.Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Gaby Wood (2003 ) Edison’s Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life. New York, NY: Anchor [EXCERPTS]

FILM: AI

DUE: Topic for Group Paper and Presentation

DUE: PAPER #1

Week 5 Nature, Technology, and the BodyREADINGS:• Mary Shelly, Frankenstein• Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter (1992) Foreward, 12-15.Incorporations. New York: NY: Zone.• Donna Haraway (1992) When Man™ is on the Menu, 39-43.Incorporations. New York: NY: Zone.

FILM: Frankenstein (1931)

Week 6 Industrial BodiesREADING:• Anson Rabinbach (1990) The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue, and theOrigins of Modernity . Berkley,CA: University of California [EXCERPTS]

• Harry Braverman (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital: TheDegradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York, NY:MonthlyReview[EXCERPTS]• John Kasson (2001) Who is the Perfect Man? Eugen Sandow and a NewStandard for America, 21-76. Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The WhiteMale Body and The Challenge of Modernity in America. New York, NY: Hill andWang.

FILM: Modern Times (1936)Week 7 Industrial Bodies in Time and MotionREADING:

• Hillel Schwartz (1992) Torque: The New Kinaesthetic of the Twentieth Century, 70-127. Jonathan Crary and SanfordKwinter, Eds Incorporations. New York, NY: Zone

• Anthea Callen (2008) Man or Machine: Ideals of the Laboring Male Bodyand the Aesthetics of Industrial Production in Early Twentieth Century Europe,

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139-161. Fae Brauer andAnthea Calen (2008) Art, Sex, and Eugenics: CorpusDlecti. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.• Joel Dinerstein (2003) Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and

African American Culture between the World Wars. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

DUE: PAPER #2

Week 8 Making Normal BodiesREADING:• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

FILM: THX 1138

Week 9 EugenicsREADING:• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World • Christina Cogdell (2004) Products or Bodies? Streamline Design and

Eugenics as Applied Biology, 33-83. Eugenic Design: Streamlining America inthe 1930s. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.

FILM: GATTACA

Week 10 Electric Bodies and HealthREADING:• Carolyn Thomas de la Pena (2003) The Body Electric: How StrangeMachines Built the Modern American. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Week 11 Remaking Identity with Medical TechnologyREADING:

•David Serlin (2004) Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar

America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Week 12 Cybernetic BodiesREADING:

• Norbert Wiener (1950) The Human Uses of Human Beings. New York,NY: De Capo[EXCERPTS]

• Donna Haraway (1991) A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late TwentiethCentury, 149-181. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: TheReinvention of Nature. New York, NY: Routledge.

FILM: Star Trek

Week 13 Electronic PresenceREADING:

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• Carolyn Marvin (1988) Locating the Body in Electrical Space and Time, 109-151. When Old Technologies were New: Thinkingabout Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth-Century .Oxford, UK: Oxford University

• Jeffrey Sconce (2000) Static and Stasis, 124-166. Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television.

Durham, NC: Duke University.• Jean Baudrillard (1987) The Ecstasy of Communication. New York,NY: Semiotexte

FILM: The Matrix

Week 14 The Post Human Condition?READING:

• Philip K Dick (1968) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?• N. Katherine Hayles (1999) How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodiesin Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago, IL: University of ChicagoPress. [EXCERPTS]

FILM: Blade Runner

Week 15 Presentations

DUE: Group Papers and Presentations

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COURSE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Raymond Barglow (1994) The Crisis of the Self in the Age of Information:Computers, Dolphins, and Dreams. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jean Baudrillard (1987) The Ecstasy of Communication. New York, NY:Semiotexte

Harry Braverman (1974) Introduction, 3-30; Scientific Management,59-85; The Scientific-Technicalm Revolution and the Worker, 117-126.Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in theTwentieth Century. New York, NY:Monthly REview. [for section on Taylorism]

Anthea Callen (2008) Man or Machine: Ideals of the Laboring Male Body and theAesthetics of Industrial Production in Early Twentieth Century Europe, 139-161.Fae Brauer andAnthea Calen (2008) Art, Sex, and Eugenics: Corpus Dlecti.Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Christina Cogdell (2004) Products or Bodies? Streamline Design and Eugenics asApplied Biology, 33-83. Eugenic Design: Streamlining America in the 1930s.Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter (1992) Foreward, 12-15. Incorporations.New York: NY: Zone.

Joseph Dumit (2006) Neuroexistentialism,182-189. Caroline Jones, Ed.Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art .Cambridge,MA: MIT

Joel Dinerstein (2003) Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African American Culture Between the World Wars. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

Donna Haraway (1991) A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, andSocialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, 149-181. Simians,

Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York, NY:Routledge.

Donna Haraway (1992) When Man™ is on the Menu, 39-43. Incorporations. New York: NY: Zone.

Margaret Lock and Judith Farquhar (2007) Beyond the Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of Material Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

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Michel Foucault (1975) Discipline and Punish: Birth of the Prison. New York, NY:Vintage.

Sigmund Freud (1932) Civilization and Its Discontents. New York: Norton.

Siegfried Giedion (1949) Medieval Comfort: The Middle Ages andMechanization, 258-304. Mechanization Takes Command: A Contribution to

Anonymous History . New York, NY: WW Norton.

Carma Gorman (2006) Educating the Eye: Body Mechanics and Streamliningin the UnitedStates, 1925-1950 American Quarterly , Volume 58, Number 3.pp. 839-868 (Article) Taylorism, Time and motion]

Chris Hables Gray (1995) The Cyborg Handbook. New York, NY: Routledge.

Katherine Hayles (1999) How We Became Posthuman. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press.

John Kasson (2001) Who is the Perfect Man? Eugen Sandow and a New Standardfor America, 21-76. Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and The Challenge of Modernity in America. New York, NY: Hill and Wang.

Jennifer Alexander Karns, Efficiency and Pathology: Mechanical Discipline and Efficient Worker Seating in Germany, 1929-1932 Technology and Culture -Volume 47, Number 2, April 2006, pp. 286-310 [Taylorism, time and motion

Nancy Knight (1986) “The New Light”: X Rays and Medical Futurism, 10-34.From Joseph Corn (Ed) Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology, and the

American Future. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Carolyn Marvin (1988) Locating the Body in Electrical Space and Time,109-151. When Old Technologies were New: Thinking about ElectricCommunication in the Late Twentieth-Century . Oxford, UK: OxfordUniversity

Otto Mayr (1986) The Clockwork Universe, 54-101. Authority, Liberty,& Automatic Machinery in Early Modern Europe. Baltimore, MD: JohnsHopkins University Press.

Marshall McLuhan [1964] (1994) The Medium is the Message, 7-21.

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

Horace Miner (1956) Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist , New Series, Vol. 58, No. 3. 503-507.

John O’Neil (1985) The World’s Body, 26-47. Ch. 1 of The Human Shape of Modern Society . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

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Anson Rabinbach (1990) The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity. Berkley,CA: University of California

Hillel Schwartz (1992) Torque: The New Kinaesthetic of the TwentiethCentury, 70-127. Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter, EdsIncorporations. New York, NY: Zone

Hillel Schwartz (1986) The Thin Body and the Jaksonians, 21-46; The MeasuredBody, 147-188; The Weightless Body, 303-318. Never Satisfied: A CulturalHistory of Diets, Fantasies and Fat . New York, NY : Anchor.

Jeffrey Sconce (2000) Static and Stasis, 124-166. Haunted Media:Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television. Durham, NC: DukeUniversity.

Howard Segal (1986) The Technological Utopians, 119-136. From Joseph Corn(Ed) Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology, and the American Future.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Mark Seltzer (1992) The Problem of the Body in Machine Culture, etc.., 1-22.Bodies and Machines. New York,NY: Routledge.

P.W Singer (2009) Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict inthe 21st Century . New York, NY: Penguin.

Carolyn Thomas de la Pena (2003) The Body Electric: How Strange MachinesBuilt the Modern American. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Norbert Wiener (1950) The Human Uses of Human Beings. New York, NY: DeCapo

Gaby Wood (2003) Edison’s Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for MechanicalLife. New York, NY: Anchor

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BRAITBERG Course Proposal Syllabus Bodies and Machines

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