SYLLABUS 2020
Media and the Environment
FALL 2020 DOM-E5151
Mondays 13.15 – 15.00
Dr. Samir Bhowmik, samir.bhowmik@aalto.fi
Media Lab / Department of Media, Aalto University School of Arts Design and Architecture
Course Summary
This Masters of Arts-level course is a response to the contemporary discourse of political economy of media and related environmental implications. It tackles the Anthropocene through the lens of media theory, culture and philosophy to understand the geological underpinnings of contemporary media. What are the planetary impacts of technological media? What are the various focuses, entanglements and materialities? The course investigates the topics of extraction, thermal practices, fabrication, labor, and waste as related to cultures of media. Finally, the course examines artistic approaches and methodologies that engage with these materialities, geographies and geologies. This course is a follow-up from the Archaeology of Media Infrastructures from Spring 2020, and consists of close readings of provided literature, class discussions and critical writings.
Study Material: Recommended reading list. Readings as PDFs will be posted in the study materials folder in myCourses.aalto.fi / https://blogs.aalto.fi/mediainfrastructures
Assessment Methods and Criteria: Classes are spread over Autumn 2020. 80% attendance and completed assignments are required to pass the course. Co-authored short paper based on selected themes as final assignment, and/or artworks that demonstrate aspects of the subject.
Grading Weightage:
In-class Discussion: 30% / Documentation (blogpost): 40% / Final Project / Article: 30%
*Students who stay above 50% will Pass.
Documentation
– Course blog: https://blogs.aalto.fi/mediainfrastructures/ Login will be provided.
– Read the assigned literature for each class. These can be found from the Syllabus, and as well from myCourses.aalto.fi.
– Every student will contribute to the blog. You are expected to post every week before start of class a 1 page text (300 words) + images. This document may have images / video / links etc. The text can be your reflections, examples, projects, ideas etc. as related to the topic and literature of the week. This may also contain the building blocks of your own final project / article whether it may be a piece of text, visualization or project.
– Final texts must also be posted on the course blog.
– Besides the required documentation, you are free to post anything else related to the subject, that could be useful to you or others.
– Documentation to the blog will hold a 40% weightage for a pass/fail grade. At least 5 posts out of max total of 8.
—Student texts will be published in Infragraphy Vol. 4. Autumn 2020.
—A student(s) will take the responsibility of the Graphic Design & layout of the Journal.
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Schedule of Classes
PERIOD I
Week 1 – September 7.9.2020: Course Overview
We will discuss the various aspects of the course including themes, topics, analyses and documentation. Also, we will talk about choosing individual or group writing projects for the course.
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Week 2 – September 14.9.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Jussi Parikka, The Anthrobscene, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
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Week 3 – September 21.9.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Nicole Starosielski, Thermocultures of Geological Media, Cultural Politics, Vol. 12 (3), Duke University Press, 2016: 293-309.
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Week 4 – September 28.09.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Sean Cubitt, “Ecologies of Fabrication,” in Sustainable Media: Critical Approaches to Media and Environment, eds. Nicole Starosielski and Janet Walker, New York and London, Routledge, 2016: 163-179.
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Week 5 – October 5.10.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Sy Taffel, “Technofossils of the Anthropocene: Media, Geology and Plastics,” Cultural Politics, Vol. 12 (3), Duke University Press, 2016.
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Week 6 – October 12.10.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Jennifer Gabrys, “Re-thingifying the Internet of Things,” Sustainable Media: Critical Approaches to Media and Environment, eds. Nicole Starosielski and Janet Walker, New York and London, Routledge, 2016: 180 – 195.
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Week 7 – October 19.10.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Garnet Hertz and Jussi Parikka, “Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method,” Leonardo, Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 424–430, 2012.
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PERIOD II
Week 8 – October 26.10.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Samir Bhowmik and Jussi Parikka, “Infrascapes for Media Archaeographers,” Archaeographies: Aspects of Radical Media Archaeology, eds. Moritz Hiller and Stefan Höltgen, Berlin: Schwabe Verlage, 2020: 183-194.
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Week 9 – November 02.11.2020
LECTURE
CLASS DISCUSSION
Benjamin Bratton, The Terraforming, Strelka Press, 2020.
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Week 10 – November 09.11.2020
- Final Student Presentations
- Planning for Exhibition
- Preparations for articles to Infragraphy Journal
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Jussi Parikka, The Anthrobscene, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
- Nicole Starosielski, Thermocultures of Geological Media, Cultural Politics, Vol. 12 (3), Duke University Press, 2016: 293-309.
- Sean Cubitt, “Ecologies of Fabrication,” in Sustainable Media: Critical Approaches to Media and Environment, eds. Nicole Starosielski and Janet Walker, New York and London, Routledge, 2016: 163-179.
- Sy Taffel, “Technofossils of the Anthropocene: Media, Geology and Plastics,” Cultural Politics, Vol. 12 (3), Duke University Press, 2016.
- Jennifer Gabrys, “Re-thingifying the Internet of Things,” Sustainable Media: Critical Approaches to Media and Environment, eds. Nicole Starosielski and Janet Walker, New York and London, Routledge, 2016: 180 – 195.
- Garnet Hertz and Jussi Parikka, “Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method,” Leonardo, Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 424–430, 2012.
- Samir Bhowmik and Jussi Parikka, “Infrascapes for Media Archaeographers,” Archaeographies: Aspects of Radical Media Archaeology, eds. Moritz Hiller and Stefan Höltgen, Berlin: Schwabe Verlage, 2020: 183-194.
- Benjamin Bratton, The Terraforming, Strelka Press, 2020.