The Idea of Technology

1. The Idea of Technology

2. “What’s wrong with the PC?”Donald Norman-Three main complaints about the PC Selling Technology: - Planned obsolescence - Creeping featurism “The Cell Phone and the Crowd” Vicente Rafael-Technology as empowerment- Technology as democratization of information

3. “When it comes to politics, the internet is closing our minds.”

4. “When it comes to politics, the internet is closing our minds.” Disagree • Internet provides a forum to debate and exchange ideas • Unending resource • democratization of information that might not otherwise be accessible to the masses • Would we really be better off without Facebook and Twitter? • If you don’t want filters, then how do you go about deciding what is actually of importance to an individual? Agree • Personalized filters weed out opposing viewpoints, things that you are probably not interested in • Algorithms determine your information • Increasing power of corporate advertisers on the internet slowly decreasing choice • Surrounding ourselves with like-minded people (Facebook) to not hear many differing opinions

5. Exam 2 (Weeks 5-9) Review

6. Week 5 Clive Dilnot and The Artificial • Terms/Ideas • Three phases of society • Watershed moments • Artificiality • Human-centered design • Design as: • possibility • interface • means of understanding

7. Week 6Luxury • Terms/Ideas • The disconnect between production and consumption • (and how labor fits into this) • Commodity • Fetishism • The purchase of fantasy • Status • Brand • Logo • Immateriality • Absolution • Capitalism • Readings • “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof,” Marx • “No Logo” Klein • “Design and Immateriality,” Moles

8. Week 7Carlos Teixiera and the Knowledge Economy • Terms/Ideas • Industrial vs. Knowledge Economy • Restructuring Business Models • knowledge sharing • non-hierarchical • Flow of information • Heuristics • Readings • “Leaders for the Knowledge Economy,” Friedman • “Open Innovation Systems: The Case of Industree,” Teixiera

9. Week 8Gender: Coded Design • Terms/Ideas • Patriarchy • Socially constructed • Capitalism • Consumers versus makers • The myth of male genius • Gendered spaces/objects • Readings • “Made in Patriarchy,” Cheryl Buckley • “Playboy Penthouse Apartment”, in Joel Sanders’ Stud

10. Week 9:Technology

15. Exam Point Deductions • Only discussing the image’s subject and not connecting it to other readings or lectures • Few or no readings mentioned/cited • Few or no mentions of elements discussed during lecture or recitation • Continual spelling or grammatical errors • No use of key terms • Assertions made without providing support through use of the images, readings, lecture, etc. • Misuse of key terms or inaccurate reference to readings • Only doing a formal analysis of the images themselves without addressing key concepts addressed in class. • Superficial discussion of images and concepts Style Faux Pas • Don’t use the first person when for exams or in formal academic writing • Don’t use slang, colloquialisms or “nowadays”