| Unit name | Past, Present and Futures |
|---|---|
| Unit code | INOVM0007 |
| Credit points | 10 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Williams |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Centre for Innovation |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit will consider key moments and texts in the history of technology and its associated media networks. Specifically, the unit will explore historical transformations of media technologies as they pertain to the intersections of art and science. Each year, the unit will focus its case-study approaches through the annually chosen programme theme.
The unit aims to:
● develop knowledge and critical understanding of selected histories and archaeologies of media technologies, through considering key conceptual and material underpinnings of contemporary culture, using a case-study approach in both teaching and assessment;
● develop an in-depth understanding of the theoretical contexts underpinning histories of media technologies, ranging from classic texts by Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams to the current focus on media ‘archaeologies’ in the works of, for example, Friedrich Kittler and Lucy Suchman;
● develop students’ abilities to analyse and evaluate competing perceptions of media technologies;
● develop students’ abilities to describe, evaluate, analyse and critique media technologies;
● develop students’ abilities to design and undertake a site-specific case study of the uses of media technologies in the creative industries, specifically in the context of networks of human and non-human actors.
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of histories and archaeologies of media technologies, appropriate to M Level students;
2. engage in a detailed and rigorous fashion with the theoretical contexts of media technologies;
3. analyse and evaluate competing perceptions of media technologies;
4. work constructively and creatively in a group-based case-study;
5. work independently and reach individual/personal judgements within a collaborative context;
6. undertake a site-specific case-study approach to producing an ‘archaeology’ of a media technology or network within the creative industries and/or university.
A combination of seminars and workshops, research and case study fieldwork (group-based)
There is a single assessment that comprises 2 equally weighted elements. You will produce a group case study report detailing the histories, contemporary uses and future implications of a single technology of your choice. To be presented as a WordPress or similar site, using no more than 1250 words of copy (excluding captions and images) (50%). ILO 4-6.
The second element is a 1250-word individual reflexive account of group project, which draws on key historical and theoretical contexts (50%) ILO 1-3. Each member of the group will upload their individual accounts as PDF files to the group website.
All work will be assessed using M Level criteria according to the circulated criteria matrix.
● Jenkins, Henry. 2008. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. NYU Press.
● Kittler, Friedrich. 1999. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Stanford University Press
● McLuhan, Marshall. 1994. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT Press.
● Parikka, Jussi, 2012. What is Media Archaeology? Cambridge: Polity Press
● Suchman, Lucy. 2007. Human-Machine Reconfigurations. Cambridge University Press.
● Williams, Raymond. 1971. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. London: Technosphere
