ESTHETICS AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY
STS 348, Summer 2007
Office: 409 Cullimore Hall
Hours: By appointment
Mail: Humanities Dep't, NJIT, Newark, NJ  07102
Professor Burt Kimmelman 
Phone: 973.596.3376, 3266
Fax: 973.642.4689
E-Mail: kimmelman@njit.edu
Website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma

Welcome Message

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course aims to lay bare the interrelationships among technology and other human enterprises that shape a society, paying special attention to the arts, and thereby to understand society in terms of its various dynamics.  A central activity in the course is the pursuit of certain definitions, with an eye to the human technological enterprise; these definitions--of sublimity, beauty, art. and esthetics--shade one into the other, as each helps to comprehend the others and technology as well. This course will be conducted in WebCT. As soon as possible, log onto the course at http://webct.njit.edu, and try out some of the tutorials at the WebCT page. Also, please click on "Welcome Message" above.

COURSE TEXTS

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Illuminations. Tr. Harry Zohn. Ed. Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken Books, 1969. (This essay must be downloaded at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm.)

Chaplin, Charlie. Dir. Modern Times. [United Artists, 1936.] Warner Home Video, 2003.

Hardison, O. B. Disappearing through the Skylight. New York: Viking Penguin, 1989. (This book is out of print but there are used copies available from various sources; if necessary, it can be purchased from the NJIT bookstore as a photocopy that is not especially inexpensive; the NJIT bookstore may very well have used copies of the actual book for sale.)

Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought. Tr. Albert Hofstadter. New York: Perennial, 1971, 2001.

Lang, Fritz. Dir. Metropolis. [Universum Film, A.G., 1927.]  Restored Authorized Version. Kino Video, 2002, 2003.

Perloff, Marjorie. Radical Artifice: Writing Poetry in the Age of Media. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, 1994.

Rutsky, R. L. High Techne: Art and Technology from  the Machine Aesthetic to the Posthuman. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Writing Guides

Documentation Guides

Humanities Computing Links (various)

Modern Art and Art Movements Links

Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin

Metropolis by Fritz Lang

Benjamin Links
(also: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/benjaminlinks.html)

Heidegger Links

Perloff Links

Hardison Links

Rutsky Links

Baudrillard Links

Jameson Links

Lang Links

Chaplin Links

Early Cinema and Its Effects

Recommended:

Bolter, Jay David, and Diane Gromala.  Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.

Mitchell, William J. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post Photographic Era. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.


COURSE REQUIREMENTS

* Midterm and Final examinations, comprehensive, essay in format, open-book; the exam question will be sent at a certain time with a deadline for sending the essay in response to it..
* A Term Paper Announcement (see below), and a 1000-word end of term research paper (see below) that will be analytical in nature (this paper must draw upon, and therefore will cite within the paper proper, at least three secondary sources, one of them hard copy—for purposes of this assignment, textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other  reference books can be used as sources but will not be considered as legitimate secondary sources); the research paper topic must be approved ahead of time by the instructor prior to submitting the Term Paper Announcement. The term paper will not receive credit unless the Term Paper Announcement has been submitted and receives credit.
* A a 1000-word end of term research paper (see below) that will be polemical, argumentative and analytical in nature (this paper must draw upon, and therefore will cite within the paper proper, at least three secondary sources—for purposes of this assignment, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other textbooks or reference books can be used as sources but will not be considered as legitimate secondary sources); the research paper topic must be approved ahead of time by the instructor prior to submitting the Term Paper Announcement. The Term Paper will not be accepted unless a Term Paper Announcment (see above) has already been submitted and graded.
* All papers  must be word processed, double-spaced with one inch margins, spell-checked, and to the best of one's ability grammar-checked.  If on occasion use is made of the ideas or words of someone else in one's writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited; that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented (you must cite sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation, which include specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in your text, and complete bibliographical information).  PAPERS NOT MEETING ALL OF THESE REQUIREMENTS WILL NOT BE READ AND WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT. The expectation is that participants in this course will adhere fully to the NJIT Honor Code (see: http://www.njit.edu/academics/honorcode.php). Papers should be submitted in Word for Windows to the instructor via Web CT e-mail (do NOT send papers to the instructor's normal NJIT e-mail address).

Term Paper Announcement:
Consists of 1) a descriptive paper title, including a subtitle to show focus and specificity, 2) a one-sentence focused and polemical thesis statement (one sentence only--it can be a very long sentence and can employ one semicolon) that includes the point of your argument, the breadth of that argument, and the argument’s significant concepts and details, 3) a one-paragraph description of the writing strategy to be employed in your paper (i.e., not what will be in your paper but HOW you will prove your thesis, make your case), 4) a bibliography in MLA format and alphabetized. For the purposes of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary research sources (including at least one non-Internet source, i.e., including at least one hard copy source--though you may use, say, an article you find on a database, which was originally in hard copy) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Term Paper:
Consists of: 1) a descriptive paper title, including a subtitle to show focus and specificity<>, 2) a full-length, fully documented, focused, argumentative and polemical essay (under no circumstances should it be a mere report), 3) a bibliography in MLA format and alphabetized. For the purposes of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary research sources (including at least one non-Internet source, i.e., including at least one hard copy source--though you may use, say, an article you find on a database, which was originally in hard copy) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries.  

N.B.: Lack of participation in daily/weekly class activities will result in term paper announcement, term paper, and exams being disqualified.

COURSE SCHEDULE (see Calendar in WebCT for specific dates and details of assignments; see also Welcome Message)

Week 1:  Introduction to the course. Discussion of Two Films: Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (2002 edition--newly restored and edited version only).
Week 2:  Benjamin (must be downloaded) and Heidegger 17-87.
Week 3:  Hardison xi-179.
Week 4:  Hardison 180-349. MIDTERM EXAMINATION.
Week 5:  Rutsky1-72. TERM PAPER ANNOUNCEMENT (Title and Subtitle, Single-Sentence Thesis Statement, Paragraph Description of Writing Strategy,
               MLA-Formatted Bibliography of at least three secondary sources, one of them hard copy, excluding encyclopedias and textbooks)  DUE.
Week 6:  Rutsky 73-158.
Week 7:  Perloff xi-xiv, 1-133.
Week 8:  Perloff 134-216. FINAL EXAMINATION. TERM RESEARCH PAPER DUE.
 

COURSE GRADE

Class participation  30%
Midterm Examination  10%
Term Paper Announcement 5%
End of Term Research Paper  25%
Final Examination  30%
 

ABBREVIATIONS FOR MARKING PAPERS

Abbreviation    Meaning

 A  -               Article
 Agr  -           Agreement
 CS  -           Comma Splice
 Dic   -          Diction
 Exp  -           Explain
 FS  -           Fused Sentences
 RO  -           Run On Sentence
 SF  -           Sentence Fragment
 Sp  -           Spelling
 SS  -           Sentence Structure
 Syn   -          Syntax or Word Order
 Tr   -          Transition
 Un  -           Unclear
 Uncl  -           Unclear
 Us  -           Usage
 V  -           Verb
 Va             Vague
 VF  -           Verb Form
 VT  -           Verb Tense
 WW             Wrong Word