Reading Machines

Catalog description

This course invites first-year students into a historically ranging, critically intensive, and hands-on learning environment about the technologies by which humans transmit our cultural inheritance and ideas. "Reading Machines" takes a long view of how we got to now, from the history of manuscripts and books to the electronic platforms of the digital present. These are all machines of reading; in turn, this class will "read" those machines as objects of study. The course proposes that 1) then and now, our technologies for sharing text, image, and data crucially shape the ideas which they convey, and 2) these contexts can help students plan and execute new mechanisms for communication in the present. The course's modules offer critical frameworks of background readings and discussions, a lab-like experience with the materials or skills involved, and applied projects for students to experiment with and study.