媒介環境:從自然到虛擬

[中文課程概述,請下拉] Course Description (For Chinese version, please scroll down) This course asks the following questions: (1) how is environment represented in multiple forms and genres of media? (2) how do media—as technical system and infrastructure—become part of our environment and second nature? (3) how does the notion of environment redefine media and media theory? These questions will guide us through the classical elements of water, air, fire, earth, as well as the species and strains of animals, insects, and viruses . Through fictions, films, photographs, video games, and digital platforms, we will explore the ways human beings imagine natural and artificial environments and inquire into a series of ideas about the environment conveyed through the imagined landscapes of oceans, rivers, mountains, farmlands, as well as the human-built infrastructure and architecture. The media/environment complex tells us more than about how we imagine nature and the environment. They articulate and naturalize ideas about race, gender, class, geopolitics, and the very boundary between the human and the non-human. They present certain kinds of identities as natural and normative and other kinds of identities as unnatural or out of place in nature. We will explore the ways that representations of environment can at times justify existing relationships of power and the ways in which such representations may also contest the status quo. As part of this class, you will be responsible for contributing examples of environmental media to class discussion through your response papers. One of the aims of the seminar is to help you critically engage with both the medium-specificity and site-specificity of environments. 本課程從媒介研究的角度從新審視「環境」此一概念,並探問三個相互纏繞的問題:(1) 媒介如何再現自然/人造環境,形塑我們的理解與感知 (2) 作為技術系統或基礎設施的媒介如何成為人類環境的一部分。(3) 關於環境的思考如何開啟重思當代媒介理論的方法。 從礦物、大氣、海洋、動物、昆蟲、病毒,我們將閱讀並思考當代媒介思想家如何試圖超越人類中心的媒介論,將被隱蔽的自然環境與非人他者重新納入論述視野。另一方面,從高空攝影、網路監視、虛擬遊戲、平台經濟、都市基礎設施等具體案例,我們將思考人類如何透過媒介技術重新「創造世界」(world-making) 或形塑「第二自然」(second nature)。我們亦將進一步探問,在媒介/環境的雙重糾纏中,性別、階級、族裔等認同與地緣政治類別又如何被區分成「自然」或「異類」。本課程閱讀及討論語言以英文為主,中文為輔,並搭配電影、小說文本、攝影圖像等媒介類型分析。課堂討論外,兩週一次閱讀筆記、一份期末報告、學期中另有2場邀請演講需出席。

English proficiency in reading/speaking/listening 英文閱/聽/說能力

Grading and Evaluation: a. Attendance & active In-class Participation: 30% b. Reading notes every other week: 35% [400-500 words in English; 800-900 words in Chinese; summery or commentary with 2-3 your own questions] c. A research paper or media project 35%

地點

Humanities Building II 308 人社二館308室

時間

10-12 a.m.Thursday or by appointment. 每週四10-12點,或另約時段。

聯絡方式

knulpyang@nycu.edu.tw