Instructor: Dr. Amy Chan (amykschan@yahoo.com)
Time: Friday 6:30 - 9:30 pm, 1st semester 2005-06
This seminar explores the impact of the worldwide technoscience revolution of
our era in the cultural context. We are in the midst of the fast developments of
technology and science. As witness to this important moment, we have a
vantage point to review the cultural impact of technology on social, economic,
political development over the past two centuries.
This seminar is the first of its kind in Hong Kong and it is also the first-ever in
bringing in discussions on the concept of techne, technology, virtuality in the
Chinese philosophy. We are not just aiming at an interdisciplinary studies in
Technoscience Culture but also a truly intercultural one.
Through reading of theories by important social critics and philosophers, we will
analyse some dominant themes and forms of representation in fiction, film and
animes from Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) to the latest Japanese animes.
Course materials include short stories, films, animes and readings from the Web.
Students are encouraged to check on the hypersyllabus at least once a week as
it will change as the course develops. Lecture notes will be posted at least a day
before the lecture.

This course does not require students to have computer skills or
knowledge.

Presentations. Students are required to give a 30- minute presentation
on a specific topic. Should the student fail to deliver the presentation on
the pre-assigned week, a written report on the topic (about 2000 words)
should be submitted within two weeks. 30% of final grade.

Final Project. Students are required to write a research essay for a final,
individual project. The length of the text should be 12-14 A4 doublespaced typed pages. Students are encouraged to include multimedia
content, according to one's ability and interests, in this final project.
Submission of this project could be made in electronic form. The project
has to be submitted on or before 5 December 2005. 70% of final grade.

Notes on Films and Readings. Students must view the required films and
go through the readings BEFORE each class. Students are required to
provide their own reading materials due to copyright problems.

Course Textbook: David Bell's Introduction to Cybercultures

Course Reference book: David Bell's The Cybercultures Reader and
Cyberculture: Key Concepts
Week
1
Topics
Films
Course Introduction
9/9
2
16/9
3
23/9
Cyberculture/
Technoculture &
(Inter)cultural Studies
Cyberspace and
Virtual Reality
Lang, Metropolis
Branagh, Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein
Wachowski, The Matrix Trilogy
4
Post-Information Age
Levinson, Wag the Dog
Weir,
The Truman Show
30/9
Niccol,
S1mOne
5
Cyberpunk Tradition
Scott,
Blade Runner
7/10
Proyas, Dark City
6
Cyberpunk and
Postmodernity
Cronenberg,
eXistenZ
14/10
Rusnak,
The Thirteenth Floor
7
Posthumanism
Niccol,
Gattaca
21/10
Spielberg, Artificial Intelligence:
A.I.
8
Posthuman and
Cyberbodies
Cameron, Terminator 2:
Judgment Day
28/10
Verhoeven, Robocop
9
Cyberfeminism I
Oshii,
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell II: Innocence
Cyberfeminism II
Oshii,
Avalon
Video Game Culture
Badham, WarGames
Lisberger, Tron
4/11
10
11/11
11
18/11
12
Complexity Theory
25/11
Speilberg,
Jurassic Park
&
Aronofsky,
Pi
Hypertext
Bress, The Butterfly Effect
13
Technoculture in the
Chinese Context
Rin, Metropolis
Chung, Animatrix
2/12
&
Proyas, I, Robot
Conclusion
Reading Materials
Film
Web Readings
Week 1 Introduction to the Course: Receptions and Interpretations of
Technology in the Postmodern Age
Introduction to Cybercultures, Chapters 2 & 3
Menser, Michael & Aronowitz, Stanley. (1996)“On Cultural Studies, Science,
and Technology”. Technoscience and Cyberculture. Ed. Stanley Aronowitz et al.
New York and London: Routledge. pp.7-30
Poster, Mark. (1996)“Postmodern Virtualities.” FutureNatural: Nature, science,
culture. Ed. George Robertson et al. London and New York: Routledge. pp.23-42.
Reference:
Feenberg, Andrew. (1999)“Critical Theories of Technology.” Questioning
Technology. London and New York: Routldege.
Baudrillard, Jean. (1998) "Simulacra and Simulation”. Jean Baudrillard:
Selected Writing. Ed. Mark Poster. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Week 2
Cyberculture/Technoculture & (Inter)cultural Studies
Introduction to Cyberculture, Chapter 4
Best, Steven & Kellner, Douglas. (2001) "Technological Revolution and
Human Evolution." The Postmodern Adventure: Science, Technology and
Cultural Studies at the Third Millennium. 149-204.
Reference:
Slusser, George. (1992) "The Frankenstein Barrier." in Fiction 2000:
Cyberpunk and the future of Narrative. Eds. George Slusser and Tom Shippey.
Athens: University of Georgia Press. pp.46-74.
Week 3
Cyberspace and Virtual Reality
Introduction to Cybercultures, Chapters 5-6.
Graham, Gordon.(1999) "Virtual Reality: The future of cyberspace". the
internet://a philosophical inquiry. London and New York: Routledge.
Turkle, Sherry. (2002) "Constructions and Reconsturctins of the Self in
Virtual Reality." Cyber_Reader: Critical writings for the Digital Era. Ed. Neil
Spitler. London: Phaidon. 208-215.
Reference:
Heim. Michael. "Essence of VR" CyberReader. Ed. Victor J. Vitanza. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, 1999. pp.20-35.
Benedikt, Michael. (2000)"Cyberspace: First Steps." Cybercultures Reader.
Ed. David Bell. London: Routledge. pp. 29-44.
Bromberg, Heather. "Are MUDs Communities? Identity, Belonging and
Consciousness in Virtual Worlds." Cultures of Internet, Virtual Spaces, Real
Histories, Living Bodies. Ed. Rob Shields. London: Sage, 1996. pp.143-152.
紀大衛 ”去年在馬倫巴：模擬網頁小說”中外文學．1997 年 8 月 303 期
pp.102-119.
Philip K. Dick, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (This short story
was adapted into Total Recall)
Week 4
Post-Information Age
Kellner, Douglas. (1995) "Mapping the present from the future: from
Baudrillard to Cyberpunk”. Media Culture: Cultural studies, identity and politics
between the modern and the postmodern. London and New York: Routledge.
Baudrillard, Jean. The Ecstasy of Communication.
Baudrillard, Jean. (1995) the gulf war did not take place. Bloomington &
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Reference:
張大春 , 大都會的西米
Winkler, The Net
Week 5
Cyberpunk Tradition
Introduction to Cybercultures, Chapter 6
Cavallaro, Dani. (2000) "Cyberpunk, Technology and Mythology" Cyberpunk
and Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson. London: The
Athlone Press. pp.41-71.
Leary, Timothy. (2000) "The Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot."
Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell. London: Routledge. pp.529-539.
Reference:
Sterling, Bruce. (1988)"Preface." Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.
Ed. Bruce Sterling. New York: Ace Books.
Spottiswoode, The 6th Day
Greg Egan, "The Extra"
Week 6
Cyberpunk and Postmodernity
McHale, Brian.(1991) "POSTcyberMODERNpunkISM." Storming the Reality
Studio: a Casebook of cyberpunk and Postmodern Fiction. Ed. Larry McCaffery.
Durham and London: Duke University Press. pp.308-323.
Hollinger, Veronica. (1991)"Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and
Postmodernism. Storming the Reality Studio: a Casebook of cyberpunk and
Postmodern Fiction. Ed. Larry McCaffery. Durham and London: Duke University
Press. pp.203-218.
Reference:
Gibson, William. "Johnny Mnemonic."
村上春樹, 世界末日與冷酷異境
Longo, Johnny Mnemonic
Week 7 Posthumanism
Gray, Chris Hables. (2001) "The Cyborg Body Politic." Cyborg Citizen:
Politics in the Posthuman Age. New York & London: Routledge. pp.9-20.
Hayles, N. Katherine. (1999) Excerpts from How We Became Posthuman
Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. New York: University of
Chicago Press.
Fukuyama, Francis. (2002) “Genetic Engineering.” Our Posthuman Future:
Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. London: Profile Books. pp.72-83.
Reference:
Lesitt, Shariann. (2002) "A Real Girl." Reload: Rethinking Women +
Cyberculture. Eds. Mary Flanagan and Austin Booth. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
505-518.
Stelarc. (2002). “Towards the Post-Human.” Cyber-Reader: Critical Writings
for the Digital Era. Ed. Neil Spiller. London: Phaidon. pp. 262-269.
Week 8 Posthuman and Cyberbodies
Introduction to Cybercultures, Chapter 7
Tomas, David. (1995) "Feedback and Cybernetics: reimaging the Body in the
Age of Cybernetics.” Cyberspace, Cyberbodies, Cyberpunk: Cultures of
Technological Embodiment. Eds. Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows. London:
Sage, 1995. pp.21-44.
Murphie, Andres and Potts, John. (2002) "Cyborgs: the Body, Information
and Technology". Culture & Technology. New York: Palgrave. 115-141.
Reference:
Greg Egan, "Learning to be Me"
平路, 按鍵的手 人工智慧紀事
Argyle, Katie & Shields, Rob. (1996) "Is There a Body in the Net?" Cultures
of Internet: Virtual Spaces, Real Histories, Living Bodies. Ed. Rob Shields.
London: Sage. 58-69.
Gray, Chris Hables (2001) "Infomedicine and the New Body" and "Cybernetic
Human Reproduction" . Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age. New York
and London: Routledge. 69-98.
Balsamo, Anne. (2000) "The Virtual Body in Cyberspace." The Cybercultures
Reader. pp.489-503.
Hayles, N. Katherine.(1996) "The Life Cycle of Cyborgs". The Cyborg
Handbook. pp.321-340.
Cyborg History
McAdams, Mindy. Gender Without Bodies. (Have you first try on hypertext)
Hayles, N. Katherine. Excerpts from How We Became Posthuman Virtual
Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. New York: University of
Chicago Press, 1999.
Smith, Sean Aylward, "Where Does the Body End? "
Schaffner, The Boys from Brazil
Week 9
Cyberfeminism I
Plant, Sadie. (1995)“The Future Looms: Weaving Women and Cybernetics”.
Cyberspace, Cyberbodies, Cyberpunk: Cultures of Technological Embodiment.
Ed. Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows. London: Sage.
Plant, Sadie. (2000) "On the Matrix: Cyberfeminist Simulations." The
Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell. London: Routledge.
Pursell, Carroll. (2001) "Feminism and the Rethinking of the History of
Technology." Feminism in Twentieth-Century Science Technology and Medicine.
Eds. Angela N.H. Creager et al. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago
Press. 113-127.
Reference:
Squires, Judith. (2000) "Fabulous Feminist Futures and the Lure of
Cyberculture." The Cybercultures Reader. pp.360-373.
Wosk, Julie. (2001) "Framing Images of Women and Machines." Women and
the Machine: Representations from the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age.
Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.1-44.
Hawthorne, Susan. "Connectivity: Cultural Practice of the Powerful or
Subversion from the Margins?" Cyberfeminism: Connectivity, Critique+Creativity.
Ed. Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein. North Melbourne: Spinifex, 1999. pp.
119-136.
Braidotti, Rosi. “Cyberfeminism with a Difference”
Faith Wilding. "Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?"
"Cyberfeminism as New Theory"
Week 10
Cyberfeminism II
Haraway, Donna. (1991)“A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and
Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” Simians, Cyborgs, and
Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Routledge.
Deery, June. (2000) "The Biopolitics of Cyberspace: Piercy Hacks Gibson."
Future Females, The Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist
Science Fiction Criticism. Ed. Marleen S. Barr. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
pp.87-108.
Sandoval, Chela. (2000) "New Sciences: Cyborg Feminism and the
Methodology of the Oppressed." The Cybercultures Reader. pp.374-390.
Reference:
Graham J. Murphy, "Pernicious Couplings and Living in the Splice." A
What is Cyberfeminism?
Russian Cyberfeminisms
Week 11 Video Game Culture
Lahti, Martti. (2003). “As We Become Machines: Corporealized Pleasures in
Video Games.” The Video Game Theory Reader. Eds. Mark J.P. Wolf & Bernard
Perron. London & New York: Routledge. pp. 157-170.
Frasca, Gonzalo. (2003). “Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to
Ludology.” The Video Game Theory Reader. pp. 221-236.
Reference:
朱耀偉、陳潔詩著．(2005)
窗．
Week 12
《虛擬後樂園：透視電腦遊戲文化》．香港：天
Complexity Theory & Hypertext
Hayles, Katherine N. “Introduction: Complex Dynamics in Literature and
Science.” Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science. Ed. N.
Katherine Hayles. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Plant, Sadie. (1996) "The Virtual Complexity of Culture." FutureNatural:
Nature, Science, Culture. Ed. George Robertson et al. pp.203-217.
Aarseth, Espen J. (1994) "Nonlinearity and Literary Theory." in Hyper/ Text/
Theory. Ed. George P. Landow. London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Landow, George P. (1992) "The Politics of Hypertext: Who Controls the
Text?" Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and
Technology. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press,.
Reference:
Hayles, Katherine N. "Introduction" The Cosmic Web: Scientific Field Models
and Literary Strategies in the Twentieth Century. London: Cornell University
Press, 1984. pp.15-30.
Borges (1964) "The Circular Ruins." Labyrinths. New York: New Directions.
Borges (1964) "The Library of Babel." Labyrinths.
Exploring Fractals
Sprott's Fractal Gallery
Fractal Artwork Exhibits
Joyce, Michael. "Notes Toward an Unwritten Non-linear Electronic Text, 'The
Ends of Print Culture' (a work in progress)'"
McGann, The Rationale of Hypertext.
Joyce, Michael & Guyer, Carolyn. Lasting Image. (Read a hypertext in the
web.)
Cyberspace, Hypertext and Critical Theory
Week 13 Technoculture in the Chinese Context
This lecture will be a very brief introduction to the concept of technology,
technique, techne in the ancient Chinese texts. Readings will be selected from
Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, Huainan Zi, The Yellow Emperor's Medical Canon, etc.
Reference
Introduction
Aronowitz, Stanley et al, eds. (1996) Technoscience and Cyberculture. New York
and London: Routledge.
Bell, David & Kennedy, Barbara M., eds. (2000) The Cybercultures Reader.
London & New York: Routledge.
Feenberg, Andrew.(1999). Questioning Technology. London and New York:
Routldege.
Gray, Chris Hables, ed. (1995). The Cyborg Handbook. New York & London:
Routledge.
Murphie, Andrew & Potts, John. (2003). Culture & Technology. Hampshire:
Palgrave.
Schuler, Douglas et al, eds. (2003) Cyberculture: The Key Concepts. London &
New York: Routledge.
Spiller, Neil, ed. (2002) Cyber_Reader: Critical Writings for the Digital Era. New
York: Phaidon.
Media
Kellner, Douglas. (1995). Media Culture: Cultural studies, identity and politics
between the modern and the postmodern. London and New York:
Routledge.
Poster, Mark. (1995). The Second Media Age. Cambridge: Polity.
Internet
Shields, Rob, ed. (1996). Cultures of Internet: Virtual Spaces, Real Histories,
Living Bodies. London: Sage.
Jones, Steven G., ed. (1997). Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in
Cybersociety. London: sage, 1997.
Thomas, Douglas. (2002) Hacker Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Body
Bukatman, Scott. (1993) Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern
Science Fiction. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Dyens, Ollivier. (2001) Metal and Flesh: The Evolution of Man: Technology
Takes Over. Trans. Evan J. Bibbee and Ollivier Dyens. Cambridge &
London: The MIT Press.
Featherstone, Mike & Burrows, Roger, eds. (1995) Cyberspace, Cyberbodies,
Cyberpunk: cultures of Technological Embodiment. London: Sage.
Hayles, N. Katherine. (1999) How We Became Posthuman Virtual Bodies in
Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. New York: University of Chicago
Press, 1999.
Ihde, Don. (2002). Bodies in Technology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Terry, Jennifer & Calvert, Melodie, eds. (1997) Processes Lives: Gender and
Technology in Everyday Life. London and New York: Routledge.
CyberFeminism
Balsamo, Anne. (1996) Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg
Women. Ed. Anne Balsamo. Durham and London: duke University Press.
Hawthorne, Susan & Klein, Renate, eds. (1999) CyberFeminism: Connectivity,
Critique+Creativity. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press.
Hopkins, Patrick D, ed. (1998). Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender, and
Technology. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Kember, Sarah. (2003). Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life. London & New York:
Routledge.
Kirkup, Gill et al, eds. (2000) The Gendered Cyborg: A Reader. London & New
York: Routledge.
Wajcman, Judy. (2004) TechnoFeminism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Complexity Theory
Cilliers, Paul. (1998) Complexity & Postmodernism: Understanding Complex
Systems. London & New York: Routledge.
Hayles, Katherine N., ed. (1991). Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in
Literature and Science. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago
Press.
Robertson, George, et al., eds. (1996). FutureNatural: Nature, Science, Culture.
London and New York: Routledge.
Hypertext
Reproduction
Purdy, Laura M. “What Can Progress in Reproductive Technology Mean for
Women?” Reproducing Persons: Issues in Feminist Bioethics. New York:
Cornell University Press, 1996.
Mitchell, Lisa M. & Georges, Eugenia. “Baby’s First Picture: The Cyborg Fetus of
Ultrasound Imaging.” Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots.
Ed. Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit. New York and London:
Routledge, 1998.
Ashford, Janet Issacs. “Natural Love.” Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to
Techno-Tots. Ed. Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit. New York and
London: Routledge, 1998.
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk Information Database
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/
Bethke, Bruce. “Cyberpunk”. (This is the short story in which the word
“cyberpunk” first appeared.)
http://www.cyberpunkproject.org/lib/cyberpunk/