1. Course Overview and Introduction
English 10 LC
Course Overview and Introduction

2. Agenda 1/10 Attendance Introduction and Syllabus Review Short Essay
Discussion - “What is a text?’
Glossary and Group Sign Ups

3. Syllabus Review

4. Culture of Information
Definition of “Information Culture”
Time Period
New Media
Critiques of Information Culture
Implications for Literary Study

5. Definition Visual Culture What is Information Culture?
1. Definition of Information culture
a. Parallels visual culture
i. Mitchell – Pictorial Turn
1. surrounded by / worship of images
2. simultaneous fear of images and privileging of text
b. ways information is presented
c. organization and retrieval of information
d. patterns of user interaction

6. Time Period What makes our epoch unique Bush’s Memex
Babbage’s Analytical Engine
Jacquard’s Loom
1984
1. Info Culture not unique to our time frame
a. Manovich – overabundance of information
b. Vannevar Bush and the Memex – 1945
i. Too much info – issue becomes how to access
ii. Foresees the memex and associative trails
c Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine
i. punch cards used to enter info into the machine
ii. data stored in the Engine’s memory
iii. processing unit
iv. results printed out
v. performed mathemathical functions and decided which instructions to execute next.
vi. didn’t really catch on
d even earler machine – J.M. Jacquard’s loom
i. loom controlled by punched cards to make intricate patterns
ii. Manovich – image / computer connection
a.Mac and the GUI
BladeRunner
Neuromancer

7. New Media Numerical Representation Modularity Automation Variability
Low level automation
High level automation
Variability
Transcoding
1. New Media = overabundance of information?
a. Numerical representation
i. Formal / mathematical representation
ii. Digitizing = information composed of discrete data
1. Pixels example
2. Not a radical shift
a. most old media = combo
i. film – discrete cells + soundtrack, etc.
iii. link to Industrial Rev and standardization
1. EXCEPT info culture all about individuality
b. Modularity
i. Elements are combined into an object
ii. Objects combine into larger objects
iii. Remain independent
c. Automation
i. Low level automation
1. photoshop correction / filters
2. wizard layouts
a. like this powerpoint
ii. High Level Automation
1. AI
a. Not just that kid from the Spielberg movie
b. Gaming characers - AI
d. Variability
i. Lack of fixity
1. library vs. website for research
ii. different versions
1. upgrades & variants
iii. scalability
iv. hypermedia  different “experiences” of same work
v. correlation with social change
e. Transcoding
i. Two levels of organization
1. cultural layer
a. representation
b. recognizable to users
i. images, etc.
2. computer layer
a. deeper level
b. machine readable
ii. mutual influence of the two levels
iii. when representation affects the way we organize data and when data organization affects the way we read representation – translation

8. Critiques of Information Culture
Manovich
Barbrook & Cameron
Baudrillard
1. Critiques of Information Culture
a. Manovich – overabundance of information
b. California Ideology
i. British term – Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron
ii. Liberal viewpoint of the liberation of the web
iii. Conflicts with software developers working with large corporations and raking in the big bucks
iv. Ignores paradox
v. Ignores issues of who has access and who is developing technology
c. Baudrillard – Simulacra
i. Matrix – Welcome to the Desert of the Real
ii. Borges story
1. make map so accurate it covers the entire territory
iii. now the map precedes the territory
iv. or there is no territory

9. Short Essay
What is a text?

10. Implications for the Study of Literature
Discussion - what is a text?
Art & Technology
Role of the Computer
What is reading?
Means of study

11. Glossary & Presentations
Glossary assignments - Thursday
Group Presentation - next week?