CS-500P-01 Biopunk!
Spring 2016
Tuesdays, 1-3.45,
3SR2
Course Blog: http://biopunct.blogspot.com
Instructor:
Dale Carrico, dcarrico@sfai.edu
Office Hours: Before and after class, and by appointment. (I
will also be available on Chestnut Street on Wednesdays)
Course Description:
"Biopunk"
is well-known as a genre of speculative fiction taking up many of the
characteristic themes and gestures of cyberpunk literature but reinvigorating
them through a focus on the emerging and ongoing pleasures and dangers of
genetic science and medicine, bioinformatics, biotechnology, and biowarfare. In
this course we will mobilize key figures and themes from biopunk fictions to
engage and elaborate transgenic and bioart practices, insurgent technocultures
and lifeway practices, and performative resistance to biopiracy, eugenics, and
resource war.
Required Texts:
Bruce
Sterling, Holy Fire; Octavia Butler, Dawn and Adulthood Rites; Margaret Atwood,
Oryx and Crake; in-class screenings of films. All other required readings will
be linked in the syllabus online or made available to you otherwise.
Course Requirements:
In-Class
Report (10 mins.), Short Scene Reading (2-3pp.), Short Issue Precis (2-3pp.),
Seminar Paper (18-25pp.)
Attendance Policy:
Attendance
and punctuality are expected. Necessary absences should be discussed in advance
whenever possible.
Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes:
Elaborate
intersections of biosciences, bioethics, and bioart theories and practices.
Explore a host of
textual analytic modes, epitome, close reading, interrogation, brainstorming,
guided discussion, extended research.
Provisional Schedule of Meetings
January
Week
One | 19 Introductions
February
Week
Four | 9 Michel Foucault -- Docile Bodies; Mia Mingus -- Hollow
Week
Six | 23 Bruce Sterling -- Holy Fire, chapters 1-3
PRESENTATIONS: Manny Robertson (Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge) and Lusi Fan (Zhang Xiaogang)
March
Week
Seven | 1 Bruce Sterling -- Holy Fire, chapters 4-6 (Midterm grades this week)
PRESENTATIONS: Kathy Sirico (Christina Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau)
Week
Nine | Spring Break
Week
Ten | 22 Octavia Butler -- Dawn
PRESENTATIONS: Can Buyukberber (Herwig Turk) and JamesKoa LamCenteio (Gunther von Hagens)
Week
Eleven | 29 Octavia Butler -- Adulthood Rites
PRESENTATIONS: Orly Ruaimi (Hayden Dunhum) and Tiff Yue Liu (Zhang Huan)
April
Week
Thirteen (MFA Reviews)
Week
Fourteen 19 | Critical Art Ensemble -- Eugenics: The Second Wave; Margaret
Atwood -- Oryx and Crake
PRESENTATIONS: Sean Phetsarath (Jake and Dinos Chapman)
Week
Fifteen 26 | Individual Meetings about final papers/projects at the Dog Patch Cafe. See sign-up sheet post if you forget your meeting time.
May
Week
Sixteen 3 4 Concluding Remarks; Final Papers Due
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Grades:
Grades
will be determined by the following numerical breakdown:
97-100: A+
94-96: A
90-93: A-
|
87-89: B+
84-86: B
80-83: B-
|
77-79: C+
74-76: C
60-73: D / Failure
|
Academic
Resource Center
The Academic Resource Center (ARC) provides free tutoring to
all SFAI students on any assignment or project. Because everyone benefits from
discussing and developing their work in an individualized setting, SFAI
recommends that all students make use of the Academic Resource Center.
Students can make an appointment with a tutor by visiting https://tutortrac.sfai.edu (username is the first part of your SFAI email address;
password is your last name). The Center is open throughout the semester
(beginning after the add/drop period) from 10am to 4pm Monday through Friday in
the lower level of the Chestnut Street campus (at the Francisco Street
entrance), with extended hours in the Residence Halls and at the Graduate
Campus. Students are also welcome to drop by the Center any time during open
hours to make use of the ARC’s writing reference library, computers, and study
spaces.
Disability
Accommodations
SFAI has a commitment to provide equal educational
opportunities for qualified students with disabilities in accordance with state
and federal laws and regulations; to provide equality of access for qualified
students with disabilities; and to provide accommodations, auxiliary aids, and
services that will specifically address those functional limitations of the
disability which adversely affects equal educational opportunity. SFAI will assist
qualified students with disabilities in securing such appropriate
accommodations, auxiliary aids and services. The Accessibility Services Office
at SFAI aims to promote self-awareness, self determination, and self-advocacy
for students through our policies and procedures.
In the case of any complaint related to disability matters,
a student may access the student grievance procedures; however, complaints
regarding requests for accommodation are resolved pursuant to Section IV –
Process for Requests for Accommodations: Eligibility, Determination and Appeal.
The Accessibility Services Office is located on the Chestnut
Campus in the Student Affairs Office and can be reached at accessiblity@sfai.edu.
Academic Integrity and Misconduct
Policy
The rights and responsibilities that accompany academic
freedom are at the heart of the intellectual, artistic, and personal integrity
of SFAI. At SFAI we value all aspects of the creative process, freedom of
expression, risk-taking, and experimentation that adhere
to the fundamental value of honesty in the making of one’s
academic and studio work and in relationship to others and their work.
Misunderstanding of the appropriate academic conduct will not be accepted as an
excuse for academic dishonesty. If a student is
unclear about appropriate academic conduct in relationship to
a particular situation, assignment, or requirement, the student should consult
with the instructor of the course, Department Chair, Program Directors, or the
Dean of Students.
Forms of Academic
Misconduct
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another’s words,
ideas, or information. At SFAI academic writing must follow conventions of
documentation and citation (6.1; MLA Handbook, Joseph Gibaldi ch.2). Students
are advised to seek out this guideline in the
Academic Support Center, to ask faculty when they are in
doubt about standards, and to recognize they are ultimately responsible for
proper citation. In the studio, appropriation, subversion, and other means of
challenging convention complicate attempts to
codify forms of acknowledgment and are often defined by
disciplinary histories and practices and are best examined, with the faculty,
in relationship to the specific studio course.
Cheating
Cheating is the use or attempted use of unauthorized
information including: looking at or using information from another person’s
paper/exam; buying or selling quizzes, exams, or papers; possessing, referring
to, or employing opened textbooks, notes, or other
devices during a quiz or exam. It is the responsibility of
all students to consult with their faculty, in a timely fashion, concerning
what types of study aids and materials are permissible in their specific
course.
Falsification and
Fabrication
Falsification and fabrication are the use of identical or
substantially the same assignment to fulfill the requirements for two or more
courses without the approval of the faculty involved, or the use of identical
or substantially the same assignment from a previously completed course to
fulfill requirements for another course without the approval of the instructor
of the later course. Students are expected to create new work in specific
response to each assignment, unless expressly authorized by their faculty to
do otherwise.
Unfair Academic
Advantage
Unfair academic advantage is interference—including theft,
concealment, defacement or destruction of other students’ works, resources, or
material—for the purpose of gaining an academic advantage.
Noncompliance with
Course Rules
The violation of specific course rules as outlined in the
syllabus by the faculty or otherwise provided to the student.
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