103-005 Cybersociety

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually any two Arts subjects. Students from other faculties should seek approval from the Faculty of Art office.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

In this subject students will engage in a study of high-technology and information systems in a social and cultural context, and will examine critical issues which lie at the intersection of the social and the technical. Topics covered include cybernetics, cyberspace, cyborgs and other 'cybers', virtual lives and virtual communities, the information economy, privacy and surveillance, digital convergence, multimedia and hypermedia, techno-utopian and dystopian visions. Students will participate in theoretical work and 'hands-on' experience. Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to critically analyse and evaluate controversial issues relating to information systems in the social context, argue credible positions in relation to these controversies, and be able to identify and draw upon the major theoretical and methodological discourses through which the relationship between information systems and society might be understood.

Assessment

Written work totalling 4000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available.

• W Gibson, Neuromancer. Grafton Books, 1986.
• N Stephenson, Snow Crash. Penguin, 1993.