Technical Lives

Catalog description

Traces the myriad intersections of 'life' and 'technology' in the history of Western thought and practice--from Ancient Greece to contemporary technoscience. Students investigate these convergences in philosophical works (by Plato, Descartes, Heidegger, Foucault, Gilbert Simondon, and others), in art and design practices (film, architecture, bioart, literature), and in modern technoscientific fields such as biotechnology, artificial life and synthetic biology. Gives students a broad framework for examining the many interwoven histories, philosophies and practices that draw 'life' and 'technology' together to generate profound ontological, political and economic consequences in the history of the Western world.