Projektmodul / Project Module
The Posthuman Use of Transhuman Beings
Instructor: Vertr.-Prof. Jason Reizner
Credits: 18 ECTS, 12 SWS
Capacity: max. 15 students
Language: English
Date: Plenum: Tuesdays, 13:30-17:00; Consultations by appointment
Location: Online/Marienstraße 7b
First Meeting: 19 October 2021, 13:30 on BBB
(Link to online meeting will be sent to accepted participants by email.)
BISON Course ID: [TBA]
Description
The world of the future will be an ever more demanding struggle against the limitations of our intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lie down to be waited upon by our robot slaves.
– Norbert Wiener, 1964
Following his groundbreaking 1948 work Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, which introduced cybernetics both as a term of art and as a new scientific discipline, in 1950 Norbert Wiener went on to publish The Human Use of Human Beings, presciently envisioning how automation driven by cybernetic systems could benefit society while also warning of the potential ethical and sociological implications of their adoption and use in the context of the "limits of communication within and among individuals." (Wiener 1950)
In the intervening seven decades, these cybernetic systems have evolved from their origins as novel academic discourse to become the foundation of the now pervasive digital infrastructure that underpins how contemporary society communicates, transacts, creates and governs. The ubiquity of the interactions between humans and this infrastructure predicates the transhumanist argument that biotechnological augmentation is no longer science fiction but already the everyday lived experience of billions.
With a focus on "machines which learn; (...) machines which reproduce themselves; and (...) the coordination of machine and man" (Wiener 1964), this project module will explore the linkages and delineations between transhumanism and posthumanism at present to speculate on a future "no longer considering the interface with technology as an ergonomic relationship with an external tool that just extends the human body, but as a hybrid, or interpenetration that questions the separation of the body and its centrality." (Maestrutti 2011)
Through a series of lectures, workshops and targeted discussions, participants will address topics including cybernetics, transhumanist interfaces and singularity, critical and speculative posthumanism, post-human-centered design, telepresence/telerobotics, network cultures, information landscapes and platform ecosystems, machine learning, human and artificial intelligence, generative and autonomous systems.
Admission requirements
Enrollment in MKG/MAD MFA or MediaArchitecture MSc programs
Application and registration procedure
Application with CV and Statement of Motivation to jason.reizner [ät] uni-weimar.de
Evaluation
Successful completion of the course is dependent on regular attendance, active participation, completion of assignments and delivery of a relevant semester prototype and documentation. Please refer to the Evaluation Rubric for more details.
Eligible participants
MFA Medienkunst/-gestaltung, MFA Media Art and Design, MSc MediaArchitecture candidates
Platforms and Tools
This Wiki
BigBlueButton (only as necessary)
Cisco WebEx
Are.na
MURAL
Miro
Google Jamboard
Syllabus (subject to change)
19 October 2021 / Week 1
Introduction
Course Organization
Administrative Housekeeping
Assignment: For next week, please review the following:
"The Eccentric Genius Whose Time May Have Finally Come (Again)" by Doug Hill and
"Getting Started Guide to Cybernetics" by Paul Pangaro
Please be ready to share your preliminary ideas for your concept for your semester project.
26 October 2021 / Week 2
Cybernetics, or Go With the Flow (Control)
Algorithmic, Computational & Generative Forms
Assignment: In preparation for next week's guest lecture, please review:
"The idiom of co-production" by Sheila Jasanoff
2 November 2021 / Week 3
Transhumanism as Extreme Co-production
Guest Lecture with Prof. Mario Verdicchio, University of Bergamo (IT)
Co-production is the complex of simultaneous processes by which modern societies form their epistemic and normative understandings of the world. According to this framework, scientific ideas, beliefs, and associated technological artifacts evolve together with the representations, identities, discourses, and institutions that give practical effect and meaning to ideas and objects. In this lecture we will explore what this might mean in a transhuman world where the boundaries between technology and human identity tend to disappear.
Assignment: For next week, please review the following:
"Lead: America’s Real Criminal Element" by Kevin Drum.
Please be ready to present your concept for your semester project for 10-15 minutes during next week's Roundtable.
9 November 2021 / Week 4
Project Roundtable I
Assignment: TBA
16 November 2021 / Week 5
Design Fiction, Speculative Futures and Xenodesign
Assignment: TBA
23 November 2021 / Week 6
Posthuman Information Landscapes
Assignment: TBA
30 November 2021 / Week 7
Midterm Presentations
Assignment: TBA
7 December 2021 / Week 8
Tangibles and Wearables: Interaction at the Edge
Assignment: TBA
14 December 2021 / Week 9
Concept Development Lab I
Assignment: TBA
4 January 2022 / Week 10
Information Ontologies and Semantic Systems
Assignment: TBA
11 January 2022 / Week 11
Platform Environments
Post-Physical and Networked Interfaces
Assignment: TBA
18 January 2022 / Week 12
Synthetic Realities
Assignment: TBA
25 January 2022 / Week 13
Debug Lab
Assignment: TBA
1 February 2022 / Week 14
Final Presentations