Changes [Mar 10, 2009]
The Sony Walkman - ...
STS 112 CLASSART 113 CLASSART 213
A class running Winter 2007
with Michael Shanks at Stanford
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10.00 - 10.50 Education 128; 370-370 after Jan 18
contact - mshanks@stanford.edu 650 996 8763 Building 500 (Archaeology Center) Metamedia Lab
TA: Sebastian De Vivo sdevivo@stanford.edu
TA: Cori Fenwick cfenwick@stanford.edu
Office hours: we are around most days - just come on up to the lab. Otherwise phone or email for a time to meet.
This course explores the connections between science, technology, society and culture by looking at ten things. It takes an historical and anthropological perspective, going back to the earliest stone tools and tracking their genealogical connection with contemporary high-tech design in order to think outside the box. Tracking the design of these ten things takes us through an interdisciplinary mix that includes archaeology, cultural anthropology, science studies, the history and sociology of technology, cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, the fine and applied arts.
The course covers a range of disciplinary fields and will include readings from actor network theory (Callon and Latour), British cultural studies (Raymond William and after, the Birmingham Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies), material culture studies (archaeology and anthropology, British and French traditions), anthropologies of science, new sociologies of technology (Donald Mackenzie, John Law) cognitive science (from cognitive evolution to human factors research in design, from Leroi-Gourhan to Don Norman).
