Key thinkers on technology will be introduced, including Martin Heidegger, Lewis Mumford, Siegfried Giedion, Jacques Ellul.
For the seminar portion of the session - which will occur within the three hour block each week - you should read at least one of the following:
Heidegger, M. (1949)The Question Concerning Technology.
Pay close attention to Heidegger’s notion of enframing.
Benjamin, W. (1936) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
Updating Benjamin think about the implications of digital replicability of images
Forster, E. M. (1909) The Machine Stops.
Forster’s short story is a vision of a world depending on ‘the machine’ and is over a century old: it couldn’t happen, could it..., or has it...?
In addition to this reading, you should come to the session - if you can - equipped with the means to take photographs and either load them wirelessly to your Instagram photostream or E-mail address, or with the necessary wired connection to a USB port. You may be split into smaller groups and asked to picture something(s) and discuss your image(s) in front of the whole room.
Further important background reading for the module includes:
Mumford, L. (1934) Technics and Civilization, Routledge and Kegan Paul
Mumford, L. (1967) The Myth of the Machine, London: Secker and Warburg
Giedion, S. (1948) Mechanization Takes Command, New York: Oxford University Press
Ellul, J. (1964) The Technological Society, New York: Knopf
Marcuse, H. (1964) One Dimensional Man, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
There is no week by week textbook that the module will follow, however, the following texts will be helpful:
Johnson, D. and Wetmore, J. (Eds) (2009) Technology and Society: Building our Sociotechnical Future, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Mackenzie, D. and Wajcman, J. (Eds) (1999) The Social Shaping of Technology, 2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press
Matthewman, S. (2011) Technology and Social Theory, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Miller, D. (2010) Stuff, Cambridge: Polity Press
Miodownik, M. (2013) Stuff Matters, London: Viking
Woodward, I. (2007) Understanding Material Culture, London: Sage
The assessment for the module invites you to write a 5,000 word essay about a topic/object/technology of your choice. A good way of orienting yourself to this task is to read case studies of technologies, artefacts and objects, however esoteric they may seem. Examples relevant for this week include:
Nye, D. (1990) Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Ribbat, C. (2013) Flickering Light: A History of Neon, London: Reaktion Books
The full reading list will be posted as a word document at the top of the module’s Moodle page by the end of September.
