Undergraduate Program
INSTRUCTOR: Stone
UNIVERSITY REGISTRAR (for course times & locations)
SUBSTANTIAL WRITING COMPONENT: No | COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE: No
DESCRIPTION: Hacking can refer to radical computer programming, but it's also a term with a wider reach. In political art it's called detournement ("the theft of aesthetic artifacts from their contexts and their diversion into contexts of one's own devise" (Greil Marcus)); in music and video it's mashup, remix, fantasia or variations; in sound, circuit bending; in amateur radio and telephony, phreaking. Then there's gene hacking (Eduardo Kac's rabbits that glow in the dark) and culture hacking or bricolage ("the refunctioning, by societal "outsiders," of symbols associated with the dominant culture, as in the appropriation of corporate attire and Vogue model poses by poor, gay, and largely nonwhite drag queens" (Mark Dery)). All of these are ways to describe modifying something to make it do things it wasn't meant to do. For our purposes, a hacker is "an inventive type, someone creative and unconventional, a person who sees doors where others see walls or builds bridges that others thought were planks on which to walk into shark-filled seas. Hackers are alive with the spirit of Loki or Coyote or the Trickster, moving with stealth across boundaries, often spurning conventional ways of thinking and behaving. Hackers see deeply into the arbitrariness of structures, how form and content are assembled in subjective and often random ways and therefore how they can be defeated or subverted. They see atoms where others see a seeming solid, and they know that atoms are approximations of energies, abstractions, mathematical constructions. At the top level, they see the skull behind the grin, the unspoken or unacknowledged but shared assumptions of a fallible humanity." (From "Hacker Generations", by Richard Thieme.)
In this course we explore hacking itself and the modes of cultural meaning production that arise from it. We're looking for programmers, DJs, musicians, activists, artists, podcasters, and students. We'll supply readings, films, videos and other resources. You will add your own resources to the mix. There are no written exams. Instead you will use the theories and tools you acquire during the semester to make stuff about some aspect of hacking. What you make can be in any form: code, sound, installation, video, animation, collage, sculpture, assemblage, performance. You will do this in stages, starting with simple projects and moving to more complex ones, using humor, irony, and unusual approaches and techniques. We encourage your own interpretation and voice. Class is in discussion and studio format. This means that your active participation is a requirement of the course. During the semester I expect you to contribute your own ideas and arguments to the discussion, and to be willing to take the risks such contributions imply. Take risks! Amaze us! In ACTLab courses we assume a high level of motivation on your part and your willingness to self-start, set your own goals, think independently, collaborate with others, and seek help when you need it. Let's make it an interesting semester!
FIRST CLASS DAY POLICY: Students must attend the first class day or they will be dropped.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Non-RTF majors are welcome in this class.