This course description summarizes an ENC 6930 graduate seminar titled "Bodies and Technology/Bodies in Technology" that will be taught in the spring semester. The course will examine the complex relationship between human bodies and technologies from various disciplinary perspectives. Students will analyze scholarly works and artistic projects that represent the encounter between bodies and technologies. They will consider how technologies can both empower and endanger embodied experiences, as well as how creative works can reveal new possibilities in body-technology relations. Students will complete weekly reading responses, a research abstract, and either a final seminar paper or a creative/critical project with a written statement. Overall, the course aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the rhetorical and sociopolitical dimensions of

1. ENC 6930—Bodies and Technology/Bodies in Technology
Th 7:10-10 / CU 321
Dr. Anthony Stagliano
CU 326
astagliano@fau.edu
Office hours: T 9-12 / 1-2 and by appointment
//Course Description
This course will study the complicated relationship between bodies and technologies. I say
“complicated” because it’s increasingly difficult to draw clear lines between the two terms, and
because in their encounter there is a way that they each complicate our understanding of the
other. Meanwhile, there are serious sociopolitical stakes in the relationship between bodies
and technology, as not all embodied encounters with technology are positive, voluntary, or
beneficial and not all bodies are afforded the same agency or legibility in our social and political
worlds. At the same time, many have found technologically enriched ways of transforming and
extending their own embodiment, undermining authoritarian control over body-technology
encounters while also challenging simple appeals to technophobia. That is, the encounter
between bodies and technology is at once dangerous ​and ​a moment of creative and rhetorical
invention.
We will read scholarly works that help us think through these complications and their
implications, from a range of disciplinary perspectives and fields. Alongside that work, we will
study a number of artistic projects—with emphasis on “bio art” and related performance,
media, and conceptual practices—whose creative research casts a different light onto the
problem. We will study these practices as deeply rhetorical, revealing and enacting the suasory
force of interfaces between living things and technological media, with an eye to the inventive
possibilities that they reveal.
Since we will study creative works as critical interventions, students will have the choice to
produce their own course research either in a creative-critical medium, in the form of a
traditional seminar paper, or even somewhere in between.
Readings:
You will need to buy the following books (which are low-priced paperbacks). All other readings
will be provided.
Natalie Loveless, ​How to Make Art at the End of the World
Kim Tallbear, ​Native American DNA
Ruha Benjamin, ​Race after Technology
Alexander Weheliye, ​Habeas Viscus
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2. Assignments:
Weekly Reading Summaries (x10) (10% of Grade)
Each week you will post a ​250-300 word summary​ of and response to (one of) that week’s
readings, concluding with a question or two it raises in your mind for class discussion.
These will be posted 24 hours before our class meeting for the week. I will draw these together
and use them to start our class discussions.
These posts serve several purposes. First, in having to articulate your understanding of the
readings, and the questions they raise for you, you deepen and sharpen that understanding.
Second, in having these posted before class, we have already before us a map of the class’s
possible discussion terrain (while always knowing that travels into uncharted or barely charted
territory are often most valuable). Third is an element of social knowledge. If there are texts
which you have struggled with, or doubt your understanding of, a quick survey of what your
classmates have made of these might help dissolve difficult problems.
The summary component will take the following form:
You will ​identify the conversation ​the reading is participating in, then ​summarize its
main argument and moves, ​and then ​indicate resonances with other texts.
Seminar Research Abstract (x1) (15% of Grade)
Whether you choose the Paper Option or the Creative Research Option (see below) for your
research, you will write an abstract “pitching” the project, with a particular conference, book,
or journal CFP in mind. This ​abstract will be 250 words​, and will tell its reader all that is needed
to assess what conversation your research is intervening in, what your argument will be, and
what the upshot of your conclusions will be for the audience. Writing these abstracts
persuasively is an essential skill scholars need, so this is meant not only to practice, but to
sharpen your thinking before sitting to write your paper, and, finally, to give you something that
you may indeed send off.
These abstracts will be due in 2 hard copies in the 13​th​
week of class. We will discuss all of
them together in class​, as an opportunity to know what each other is working on (in part, to
see the possibility of potential collaborations, conference panels, etc), and offer each other
constructive feedback.
Final Paper / Project (x1) (65% of Grade)
Paper Option:
The seminar paper will be a minimum of ​15 pages​ ​for master​’s students and a minimum of ​20
pages for doctoral​ students, and reflect graduate-level argument, writing skill, and engagement
with other scholarship.
The paper will engage the course themes in some way. It does not, however, need to cite the
readings we discussed this semester. You are free to mobilize other perspectives,
conversations, controversies, and so on. I take a pragmatic view of the function of the seminar
paper. It should be a space for you to do the work you need to do in graduate school, more
than a chance for you to demonstrate for me that you “got” the materials we encountered this
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3. semester. More important for you is to use the seminar paper as an opportunity to draft an
initial version of an article or thesis/dissertation (or book) chapter, and get my feedback on
that.
Creative Research Option:
You are welcome and encouraged to do some or all of your seminar research in a medium that
is not (only) academic prose, if you are inclined to do so. All semester we will encounter a
variety of artistic projects that do just that, and I invite you to develop a creative/critical project
of your own that engages the course themes. You will, of course, still need to produce work
that reflects rigorous engagement with complex questions, and itself advances some novel
intervention.
To that end, if you choose this option, you will need to produce a ​critical statement with
bibliography ​demonstrating the piece’s conceptual intervention and awareness of related
theoretical and creative works. For key examples of this, see the Eduardo Kac essays we will
read this semester. This statement will be ​5-7 pages (1250-1750 words), plus a bibliography
page.
If you are choosing this option, you and I will need to discuss, and early, a means of delivery
that is appropriate, accessible, and ​assessable​.
Language Policy:
I accept written work in English or Spanish.
Attendance ​(10% of Grade)
Be here. It is imperative, in a graduate seminar to ​always ​be here. Emergencies do happen, of
course, but should one arise, get in touch with me as soon as it is possible to, and we will sort
out appropriate remediation for the absence.
Grading
If you do everything, and are here every class, you’ll get an A. I hew to the philosophy that
graduate school, typically, is not about grades. If you are doing less than enough, I will alert you
during the semester that you are risking your grade. You’ll notice percentages attached to the
assignments listed above. Should you be missing a lot of work, I will use those percentages to
determine grades below A.
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4. Class Syllabus Notices:
Mental Health: Take Care of Yourself
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Center​: Life as a university student can be
challenging physically, mentally and emotionally. All of us benefit from support during times of
struggle. There are many helpful resources available on campus and an important part of the
college experience is learning how to ask for help. Students who find stress negatively affecting
their ability to achieve academic or personal goals may wish to consider utilizing FAU’s
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Center. CAPS provides FAU students a range of
services – individual counseling, support meetings, and psychiatric services, to name a few –
offered to help improve and maintain emotional well-being. For more information, go to
http://www.fau.edu/counseling/
In compliance with the​ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)​ - Students who require
reasonable accommodations due to a disability to properly execute coursework must register
with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) located in Boca - SU 133 (561-297-3880), in Davie – LA
131 (954-236-1222), or in Jupiter - SR 117 (561-799-8585) and follow all SAS (formerly OSD)
procedures. For more information, see: http://www.fau.edu/sas/.
Statement of ​academic integrity​: Students at Florida Atlantic University are expected to
maintain the highest ethical standards. Academic dishonesty, including cheating and plagiarism,
is considered a serious breach of these ethical standards, because it interferes with the
University mission to provide a high quality education in which no student enjoys an unfair
advantage over any other. Academic dishonesty is also destructive of the University
community, which is grounded in a system of mutual trust and places high value on personal
integrity and individual responsibility. Harsh penalties are associated with academic dishonesty.
For more information, see:
http://www.fau.edu/regulations/chapter4/4.001_Code_of_Academic_Integrity.pdf
Plagiarism vs. Open-Source Usage
Your​ written assignments will follow normal academic standards of reference and citation.
Passing off others’ ideas as your own work will be grounds for failing the course.
With respect to non-textual production, however, it’s increasingly hard in the multimediated
creation and circulation of ideas to fully understand where the line is between acceptable and
unacceptable recirculations, incorporations, or modifications of texts, thoughts, ideas and so
on. When in doubt, overcite, or contact me (or both).
In the event that you are using open source technologies as part of your research, you will find
it necessary to use or modify an existing programming sketch or code library. Generally, these
are free to use/modify/reuse at your discretion. There will be commented out lines at the top
of the code identifying where it originated. If there is not, simply add one in, noting where the
code came from, and who wrote it. We’ll discuss these conventions.
Finally, many of the bio-art and creative research projects we will discuss are open source
projects by nature. If you incorporate all or part of such projects into your work, follow
whatever conventions seem clearest and fairest with respect to the case at hand. As above, if
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5. there’s doubt, contact me, or the project’s creators/developers (that might even lead to a
collaboration).
SCHEDULE:
//UNIT ONE: GROUNDWORK
Week 1 (January 16): Introductions and the Difference between a Knack and an Art
Read:​ excerpt from Plato, ​Gorgias; ​Loveless, ​How to Make Art at the End of the World
Look: ​UnFitBit
Week 2 (January 23): The Living Body in Theory
Read:​ Deleuze, “Spinoza and Us” from ​Spinoza: Practical Philosophy​; Hawhee, selections from
Bodily Arts​; Butler, “Bodies that Matter” (ch. 1 in ​Bodies that Matter​); Haraway, “The
Cyborg Manifesto”
Look: ​Stelarc, “Ping Body”; ​http://f-architecture.com/
Week 3 (January 30): Theories of Technology and Media
Read:​ Heidegger, “Question Concerning Technology”; Flusser, “Line and Surface”; Stelarc, “The
Body is Obsolete”
Look: ​Serra, “Boomerang”; Hill, “Soundings”
Week 4 (February 6): Biopolitics
Read:​ Weheliye, ​Habeas Viscus​; Foucault, “Society Must Be Defended”; Agamben, Introduction
to ​Homo Sacer ​and “The Politicization of Life”
Look: ​Kac, “Genesis”; Harvey, “CV Dazzle” & “Stealth Wear”; Dewey-Hagborg, “Invisible”
//UNIT TWO: BIO-INVENTION IN ART AND RHETORIC
Week 5 (February 13): Animality
Read:​ Derrida, “The Animal that (therefore) I Am”; Parikka, ​Insect Media​; Doxtader,
Muckelbauer, Hawhee, and Davis, ​Philosophy and Rhetoric ​special forum on Animality
Look: ​Kac, “Alba—GFP Bunny”; Symbiotica “MEART”
Week 6 (February 20): Transgenics
Read:​ Thacker, ​Biomedia​; Doyle, “The Transgenic Involution”; Kac, “Art That Looks You in the
Eye: Hybrids, Clones, Mutants, Synthetics, and Transgenics”; Atwill, “Bodies in Art”
Look: ​Critical Art Ensemble and Beatriz Acosta, “Free Range Grain”
Week 7 (February 27): Glitch(ing) invention
Read:​ Boyle, “The (Rhetorical) Question Concerning Glitch”; Deleuze, “​Elan Vital ​as Movement
of Differentiation”; Muckelbauer, “Imitation and Invention”; Kac, “Life
Transformation—Art Mutation”
Look: ​ZKM, “Retooling Evolution: Nature at Work” (http://zkm.de/en/node/26439)
Week 8 (March 5): Bioinformatics/Biometrics
Read: ​Browne, ​Dark Matters​; Gates, ​Our Biometric Future
Look: ​Dewey-Hagborg, “Stranger Visions”; biononymous.me/diy-guides
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6. Week 9 (March 12): SPRING BREAK
Week 10 (March 19): Care
Read:​ Mol, ​The Body Multiple​; Haraway, “The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies”; Snorton, ​Black
on both Sides
Look: ​Bob Flanagan Performances; http://hackteria.org/;
http://www.junkamei.com/amphibio
Week 11 (March 26): Gender/Sex
Read: ​Foucault, ​History of Sexuality, Vol 1.​; Snorton, ​Black on Both Sides​; Preciado, ​Testo Junkie​;
Look: ​Zach Blas, “Facial Weaponization Suite”; Orlan, various works; GYNEpunk,
“Autonomous gynecologyLAB”; ​http://hackteria.org/wiki/BIO-reSEARCH​;
https://www.republicofbody.com/
Week 12 (April 2): Race
Read:​ Benjamin, ​Race after Technology​; Chun, “Race and/as Technology”; Nakamura,
“Cybertyping and the Work of Race in the Age of Digital Reproduction”; Stevens,
“Symbolic Matter: DNA and other Linguistic Stuff”
Look: ​Critical Art Ensemble, “Flesh Machine”;
Week 13 (April 9): Colonialism
Read:​ Tallbear, ​Native American DNA​; Marks, ​The Skin of the Film
Do: ​Research Abstracts DUE
Look:​ ​http://wafaabilal.com/domestic-tension/​;
http://f-architecture.com/projects/representative-bodies.html
Week 14 (April 16): /ability
Read:​ Dolmage, ​Disability Rhetoric​; Esterich, ​Fables and Futures
Look: ​Antúnez Roca, “Epizoo”
Week 15 (April 23): “Artificial” Life
Read:​ Brown, “The Machine that (therefore) I Am”; DeLanda, “Nonorganic Life”
Look: ​http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/; Mediengruppe Bitnik, “Random Darknet
Shopper”
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