STS/INFO 634

Schedule

Topic	Tuesday	Thursday
Introduction
Introduction	Jan 23 Introduction to class	Jan 25 What does it mean to interpret? Culler: Language, Meaning, and Interpretation Redstroem et al: Informative Art
Faith and Suspicion
Finding meaning in structure	Jan 30 Systems thinking Gere: The Cybernetic Era Saussure: Part One: General Principles, from Course in General Linguistics Weaver: Recent Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Communication (Note: Read for general idea of communication; you do not need to understand the math details.)	Feb 1 The politics of information Turner: The Shifting Politics of the Computational Metaphor Day: The 'Conduit Metaphor' and the Nature and Politics of Information Studies
Upsetting structures	Feb 6 Hermeneutics of suspicion Nietzsche: On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (or in German) Williams: Ideology Foucault: Nietzsche, Freud, Marx	Feb 8 Suspicions about IT Forsythe: New Bottles, Old Wines Dunne: Psychosocial Narratives Dunne and Raby: Designer as Author
Psychoanalysis	Feb 13 Finding meaning in the detritus of life Freud: On Dreams (read only pp. 142-166) Ricoeur: The Conflict of Interpretations (read only pp. 20-28 and 32-36)	Feb 15 Interpretation, or science? Buchanan: Ink Blots or Profile Plots Gaver et al: Presence Project (excerpts) Gaver, Dunne, and Pacenti: Cultural Probes Boehner et al: How HCI Interprets the Probes Homework: Proposal for short paper I due
Understanding being in the world
Philosophical hermeneutics	Feb 20 Horizons of understanding Heidegger: Being and Time (excerpts) Gadamer: Truth and Method (excerpts)	Feb 22 Horizons of Artificial Intelligence Winograd and Flores: Understanding Computers and Cognition, pp. 3-124
Ethnography	Feb 27 Defining ethnography Dourish: Social Computing Geertz: Thick Description Homework: Short paper I due	Mar 1 Ethnography of IT and its discontents Kaye et al: To Have and To Hold Forsythe: Studying Those Who Study Us (Chapter 9) Dourish: Implications for Design
Ethnography II	Mar 6 Breaking down at copiers Suchman: Plans and Situated Actions, pp. vii-x, 1-4, 27-39, 49-67, 98-109, 118-181, 185-189 Homework: Do Human Subjects training and send results to Phoebe	Mar 8 Situated actions
Interlude: Ethnography Do-It-Yourself	Mar 13 Emerson et al.: Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes: Chapters 1-5	Mar 15
Juggling Meanings
Deconstruction	Mar 27 Reconstructing deconstruction Culler: pp. 85-156 of Chapter 2, On Deconstruction	Mar 29 De/re-constructing IT Agre: Metaphor in Practice (start on p. 28, "Language in Practice")
The proliferation of meanings	Apr 3 Production of identities Haraway: Situated Knowledges and the Privilege of Partial Perspectives Homework: Short paper II due	Apr 5 Proliferating meaning in design Gaver et al: Ambiguity as a Resource for Design Aoki and Woodruff: Making Space for Stories Sengers and Gaver: Staying Open to Interpretation
What happened to truth?	Apr 10 Finding back to valid interpretations Hirsch: Validity in Interpretation: Chapters 1, 2, 5	Apr 12 Final Project Workshop Homework: Ideas for possible final projects due
Re-Interpreting Interaction
Interpretive Flexibility and Re-appropriation	Apr 17 Interpretive flexibility Kline and Pinch: Users as Agents of Technological Change How Users Matter: Oudshoorn and Pinch: Introduction, Laegran: Escape Vehicles?	Apr 19 Re-appropriating technologies Dourish: The Appropriation of Interactive Technologies Bossen and Dalsgaard: Conceptualization and appropriation Homework: Group final project proposal due
Interpreting Users	Apr 24 Defining users and their behaviors Woolgar: Configuring the User Akrich: The De-Scription of Technical Objects How Users Matter: Wyatt: Non-Users Also Matter Homework: Short paper III due	Apr 26 Configuring personas Pruitt and Grudin: Personas: Practice and theory Blomquist and Arvola: Personas in action
Project Workshop	May 1 Oral Presentations (Class will be rescheduled)	May 3 Oral Presentations/Wrap-Up (Class will be rescheduled)
May 14: Final Projects Due