Illusions of Control

"Tech Nightmares, Illusions of Control" is a
hybrid seminar + practice course conceived as a
critical survey on different positions that
articulate rejection, skepticism and resistance to
the current developments of information
technology. Throughout the class we will engage
with a wide range of materials, from classical
historical examples like the Luddite movement
during the Industrial Revolution, to more
contemporary critical perspectives on the effects
and implications that our present reliance on
technological devices, screens, the internet and
data management systems have for our forms of
socializing, governmentality and participation,
and therefore our sense of politics and the self.
Departing from early analysis like Richard
Barbrook and Andy Cameron's essay "The Californian
Ideology," or James Brook and Iain A. Boal's
compilation "Resisting the Virtual Life" we will
look at the often disregarded politics surrounding
the beginnings of the 'world wide web', the types
of dialog, community and participation generated
by online communication as well as the effects on
work, social relations, and intimacy of these
technological prosthetics. The course readings
will be complemented with exercises and
performative promps conceived to test and manifest
the types relationships we establish with
different devices and applications.