Choose one of the following topics to develop a paper of 1500 words. Your paper should build an argument using direct quotations from the texts and your explanations of them. Other references than those covered in class will be required. All of these should be properly noted through endnotes titled “References.” In writing, format your bibliographic citations according to MLA style, which you can find here.
Additionally, you can refer to general tips on MLA style formatting for your entire papers here.
For a clear description of academic honesty, plagiarism, how to identify and prevent plagiarism, and the University’s policies on all this, refer here.
1. Both Sigfried Giedion and Wolfgang Schivelbusch elaborate new relations between space and time that emerged with various technological developments of the 20th century. How do things like relativity and movement change conceptions of space-time relations and how are terms like “mechanization” versus “tools” defined to explain these changes?
2. Explain Benjamin’s concept of the loss of “aura” of the artistic object through mechanical reproduction. Use his formulation to explore the potential of such media as television and the internet for communication.
3. Describe cybernetic notions of feedback, especially as they appear in Norbert Wiener’s and in Stafford Beer’s descriptions. How do these correspond to examples in architecture as set forth by Gordon Pask, and how do you see the architectural relevance – including Pask’s idea of the “widening brief” developing today?
DUE: Sunday, October 12th by 5pm. Word document emailed to me.
