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Cyberculture

Objectives

1) Identify the discursive clusters related to the term «cyberculture» and its interpenetrations with the economical, social, technological and cultural fields 2) Be familiar with the founding texts that cast light on the connections between the “pre-history” of cyberculture and its contemporary practice 3) Gather theoretical and methodological tools that allow the identification and the understanding of cyberculture 4) Be able to analyse, in a genealogical perspective, authors and texts relevant to the understanding of the definitions and the disputes surrounding the concept of cyberculture 5) Apply the acquired knowledge to the contemporary technologically based reality 6) Apply the acquired knowledge in an original and autonomous way to a research presented in a clear and logical form

General characterization

Code

02110242

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Jorge Manuel Martins Rosa

Hours

Weekly - 3

Total - 280

Teaching language

English

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

Hayles, N. K. 1999. How we Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: Chicago Un. Press. Wertheim, M. 2000. The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet. NY: W. W. Norton & Co. Benkler, Y. 2007. The Wealth of Networks. New Haven: Yale Un. Press. Mazlish, B. 1993. The Fourth Discontinuity: The Co-Evolution of Humans and Machines. New Haven and London: Yale Un. Press. Haraway, D. 1991. «A Cyborg Manifesto», in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, 149-181. NY: Routledge. Doyle, R. 1997. On Beyond Living: Rhetorical Transformations of the Life Sciences. Stanford: Stanford Un. Press. Sloterdijk, P. 2000. Normas para el Parque Humano. Madrid: Siruela. Chopra, S. and White, L. F. 2011. A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents. Ann Arbor: Un. Michigan Press. Coleman, G. 2014. Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. NY: Verso.

Teaching method

Teaching methods: In class teaching including discussion. The teaching method includes theoretical exposition of contents and real-life examples supported by the active and critical participation of students.

Evaluation method

Método de avaliação - oral presentation of the work in progress in class and its discussion (30%), final written paper(50%), pre-project, with workplan and preliminary bibliography (20% of final grade)(20%)

Subject matter

0. Towards a definition of cyberculture: From «proto-cyberculture» to contemporary practices. 1. Embodiment (of information) x Disembodiment (of the subject). 1.1. Norbert Wiener and the rediscovery of the prefix «cyber». 1.2. Information at large. 1.3. Cyberspace, embodiment and disembodiment. 2. Human x Machine: The Cyborg. 2.1. Positionings: Human, animal, machine. 2.2. Emulation of intelligence or augmentation of the intelect? 2.3. The cyborg as a sociocultural construct. 2.4. The cyborg in everyday life: Queering the cyborg. 3. Mechanic x Organic: The post-human. 3.1. The code instead of the body: Towards the post-vital. 3.2. The body instead of the mind: Towards the post-human. 3.3. The crisis of liberal humanism: Artificial agents, the sharing economy, hacktivism. 4. Other contemporary agencements of cyberculture.