You should complete all readings in advance of the class in which they will be discussed, as listed below. In addition, you should produce a brief (approximately 200 words) blog post each week exploring your initial thoughts and questions about the reading; this post should be available to your colleagues by 6:00 pm the evening before class. Then, before each class you should read through your colleagues’ blog posts and comment on at least one of them, making connections and elaborating on your shared thoughts. Finally, make note of the due dates below for the various stages of your semester project.
7 January: Introduction; Bill Brown, “Thing Theory” (478A; 819)
14 January: Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
21 January: No class, Martin Luther King Day
28 January: Vilém Flusser, Does Writing Have a Future? (noelle facilitating)
First draft of semester project proposal due
4 February: Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
(819: Jerome McGann, Radiant Textuality)
11 February: Matthew Kirschenbaum, Track Changes (mrsdalloway facilitating)
Revised semester project proposal due
18 February: Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist
25 February: Lisa Gitelman, Paper Knowledge (matthewraymond facilitating)
4 March: No class, spring break
11 March: Branden Hookway, Interface (478A: excerpt) (temporality facilitating)
Alex Galloway, The Interface Effect (478A: excerpt)
Semester project outline due
18 March: Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark
25 March: Lori Emerson, Reading Writing Interfaces
1 April: Amaranth Borsuk & Brad Bouse, Between Page and Screen
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
Élika Ortega, “Not a Case of Words”
8 April: Work week! Professor Fitzpatrick out of town
Semester project draft due via email, 7:00 pm
15 April: Stephen Ramsay, Reading Machines
Paul Ford, “What Is Code?”
Jon Bois, 17776
22 April: Final presentations and wrap-up
29 April: Semester project due via email, 7:00 pm