Intimacy and Technology

This subject is not offered in 2012.

An average of 8.5 hours each week.

None.

None.

Knowledge gained in the completion of 75 points of first year studies in any area.

Students who have completed 'Intimacy and Technology' under the codes 136-209 or 672-328 are not permitted to enrol in this subject.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Intimate Technologies are those that we use to understand ourselves, and that we use to establish and maintain our relations with others. The subject approaches intimacy and technology through a wide variety of examples and case studies - technologies that mediate family life (home architecture), technologies of modesty and privacy (underwear and bedrooms), technologies of surveillance (CAT scans and bar-codes), communications technologies (love letters and SMS), reproductive technologies (IVF and sheep-gut), technologies that mediate personal identity (the data-body and flesh-fashion), and that mediate social and community relations (swarms and networks). The unifying themes that run through these examples approach technologies of intimacy in terms of their propensity to mediate, reorder and reframe our intimate relations, and students are invited to critically assess this argument. In so doing, students will gain a fresh and critical understanding of the ways in which technologies and our lives are intertwined.

A student who has successfully completed this subject will

• understand and critically interpret the major theoretical and philosophical approaches that inform our knowledge of sociotechnical relations.
• demonstrate a critical appreciation of the implications of particular sociotechnologies for self, and for human relations.
• identify, interpret and recount sociotechnical case studies relevant to intimate relations.

A 2500-word essay 50% (due at the end of semester), a 1000-word essay 30% (due in week 4) and a 500-word seminar presentation 20% (due during the semester).

Hurdle requirement: students must attend a minimum of 75% of tutorials in order to pass this subject. Regular participation in tutorials is required. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day; after five working days late assessment will not be marked. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

A subject reader will be available from the bookshop at the start of semester

Bauman, Zygmunt (2003), Liquid love: on the frailty of human bonds, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

A student who has successfully completed this subject will:

• form defensible judgements based on a critical evaluation of conflicting arguments.
• develop skills in written and oral communication.
• make appropriate use of primary and secondary sources in mounting an argument.
• conduct independent research.