Week 8


TO CYBERSPACE -- AND BEYOND!


THEME: Cyberspace,Virtual Reality,Electronic Art:
Is This a REVOLUTION?

QUESTION: What is cyberspace/virtual reality?

ASSIGNMENT: Read in the Markley text Markley's "Intro-
duction:History,Theory,and Virtual Reality"
(pp.1-10) and Richard Grusin's essay "What
Is an Electric Author?" (pp.39-53). Read also
in the Cooper text the entry "modernism and
postmodernism" (pp.288-292).

1. Summerize briefly the differences between modernist
and postmodernist aesthetics in the entry in the
Cooper text (288-292).
[Look up the term also at Words of Art (on-line glossary);
  visit an interesting site on postmodernism: Our Postmodern Life,
  especially the Postmodern Art and the Reviews of Postmodern Web Art
  links on that page.]

2. Describe Markley's position in his "Introduction"
in relation to the claim that virtual technologies
and cyberspace constitute a revolutionary break
with the past ( for example, p.2:"the belief that
cyberspace marks a revolutionary expansion" and
p.4:"The claims for the revolutionary nature of
cyberspace").

3. Is Grusin ("What Is an Electronic Author?") more
of a modernist or a postmodernist in relation to
his position on electronic authorship? Explain
briefly.

4. What do you think cyberspace is (see Markley,pp.
2-3) and explain briefly why you think it is
either a revolutionary break with the past or a
continuation of the past?

Ftp your responses to the site.

***** Begin reading Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash
for next week.

LINKS on or about Stephenson's SNOW CRASH:

http://bliss.berkeley.edu/impact/students/tracy/tracy_
midterm.html

http://www.addict.com/issues/1.07/Features/Neal_Stephenson/

http://www-user.cibola.net/~michaela/diamondage/stephen.htm