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Instructor:
Anastasia Salter
anastasia.salter@ubalt.edu
Office Hours:
12:30-1:30 Thursdays and by appointment

Course Description

This course will explore the science fiction world of the future in which we now live: a world in which one can go online and take on another identity, connect with a virtual bot, band with elves battling through the land of Warcraft, or join a chat community with people from around the world -- people who may or may not be what they seem. These are the realities of the Internet Age, in which cyberpunk visions extend into new digital narratives, out of which new myths have materialized: The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, Minority Report, and many more, appearing both in popular culture and on the Internet. Digital Culture is shaped by the availability of more content on the web in terms of pure data than can be found within the Library of Congress, and the citizen turned user is left to sort through the virtual experience to find meaning whether engaged in work or play. McLuhan's vision of a "Global Village" has come to pass in the era of the World Wide Web. Digital Media creates a culture where high art and "low" art meet and mingle in an interchange of ideas where information doesn't have to flow from one to many but instead is an exchange where every user is also a potential speaker.

We will survey the terrain of cyberspace, in both its current form and in the imagination of storytellers, as we confront the question: how are these evolving technologies changing our idea of humanity itself? Studying these "myths" of cyberspace is an interdisciplinary endeavor. We will draw upon literary texts and criticism, postmodern theory, film, games, and social/psychological critiques of the Internet and related phenomena to connect the dots in our image of cyberspace. The range of content we can focus on is seemingly infinite, and students are expected to steer conversation through their own engagement as citizens of the virtual world.

Awareness and active involvement in Internet communities is mandatory for this course. Students will be seeking out unusual bulletin board discussions to join, watching for new developments, and participating actively in an online community of their choice. This practical engagement will be reconciled with theoretical discussion through weekly blog entries building to the cumulative project for this course.