STS 111 - The Home of the Future

Instructor: Dr. Phoebe Sengers

Credits: 3

Class times: MW 8:40-9:55

Contact: sengers@cs.cornell.edu, ext. 4-5396

Office: 301 Rockefeller (M); 301 College Ave. (Tu-Fr)

Office Hours: M 3:15-4:15pm; Tu 4-5pm

From orbiting chrome pleasure domes to underwater condominium complexes to Barbarella's hot pink, shag-carpeted home/spaceship, the home of the future maintains a powerful hold on our cultural imagination. Ironically, the dreams of the home of the future and their technologies often tell us more about the present - and how we wish it would be - than they do about the future. In this course, we will learn to identify the cultural trends that underlie the homes of the future imagined and built in the past, construct critical arguments about the technologies for the home of the future being designed in the present, and develop designs for our own dream homes of the future.

Goals for this course

In this course, we will use our explorations of the home of the future to develop some of the major skills you will need to become excellent writers during your career at Cornell and beyond. We’ll especially focus on the following:

1. Revision and development - Strategies for fully developing your thoughts and arguments before you commit yourself to your final draft; strategies for brainstorming, finding where ideas are weak and how to develop them, seeking input and finding ways to revise before the final draft is turned in.
2. Critical analysis — Finding the strengths and weaknesses in what a writer thinks; poking behind the obvious argument to identify unconscious assumptions; identifying how an argument reflects its cultural background.
3. Argumentation skills — Developing the ability to come up with a compelling thesis and to build a strong, nuanced argument for it that incorporates an awareness of counter-arguments.
4. Conceptual design — Revising and developing not only texts, but also design ideas that reflect and respond to issues you think are important.
5. Handling multiple genres - Developing skills to handle a variety of texts: critical arguments, historical documents, films, scientific articles, and technology.
6. Critical self-reflection — Reflecting on, analyzing, and incorporating one's own experience and ideas into scholarly writing.

Required Book List

Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan. Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions

of the American Future. Ed. Katherine Chambers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.

All other readings will be available on-line or handed out in class.

Tentative Syllabus

Detailed syllabi with precise assignments will be handed out every 3-4 weeks.

Jan 20 — Introduction

Unit I: Visions of the Future

We’ll develop an overview of the way people in the last 150 years imagined the home of the future. What visions did people have of what the home would be like? How were these visions influenced by issues that were historically

relevant at their time?

Jan 22

Week 2

Jan 27 - Essay 1 Due

Jan 29

Week 3

Feb 3 — Essay 2 Due

Feb 5

Week 4

Feb 10

Feb 12

Unit II: How the Future Was Built

We will analyze the ways in which architects attempted to build ‘homes of the future.’ What does it mean for a really existing home to be 'futuristic'? What kinds of houses did architects design and build, and why? How did these reflect ideals of their age? What was the actual effect of the built homes, and how did this support or undermine the architects' vision? What were the strengths and weaknesses of these architects' visions for the future?

Week 5

Feb 17 — Essay 3 Due

Feb 19

Week 6

Feb 24 — Essay 4 Due

Feb 26

Week 7

Mar 3 — Essay 5 Due

Mar 5 —

Week 8

Mar 10

Mar 12 — Essay 6 Due

Week 9 — Spring Break

Unit III: Building the Future Today

Using the historical insights we have built up in the last two units, we will analyze the technologies being designed for the home today.  What kinds of technologies are being built, and why? What kind of a vision of the future is 'built in' to these technologies (both explicitly and implicitly)? How do these visions reflect current historical trends?

Week 10

Mar 24

Mar 26

Week 11

Mar 31 — Essay 7 Due

Apr 2

Week 12 (One class this week will be cancelled)

Apr 7 or 9

Week 12

Apr 14 — Essay 8 Due

Apr 16

Unit IV: Designing Our Futures (Weeks 14-15)

We will take the future into our own hands, identifying issues that matter to us in thinking about the home of the future, and developing designs for 'our' homes of the future.

Week 14

Apr 21 — Essay 9 Due

Apr 23

Week 15

Apr 28

Apr 30

Long Essay Due on May 12

Assignments

The following kinds of work will be assigned in this class.

·       Reading — 40-70 pages of reading will be assigned per week. These readings come from a variety of sources, including historical documents, cultural and critical analysis, and technical articles. The readings are assigned as the basis for class discussions and writing assignments. You must come to class prepared to discuss the readings, and bring the assigned reading to class.

·       Homeworks — Short (1/2-2 page), preliminary writing assignments will be regularly assigned, both in class and out. The goal of this writing is to help you generate ideas, arguments, and insights for class discussions and for more formal writing assignments before you need to begin polishing them. These assignments will not be assigned a letter grade; you will receive full credit for every effort you hand in. At the same time, you must hand in all homeworks to receive full credit. Skipping any will affect your grade; skipping several will result in a substantial reduction.

·       Short essays (2-4 pages) — 9 short, formal essays will be assigned. Some of these will involve revisions and further development of previous essays.

·       Long essay (8-10 pages) — 1 long essay will be assigned. This essay will be built up through a sequence of preparatory activities and assignments. It will synthesize ideas and insights you developed in the different units of the course.

·       Attendance and active participation are required, since much of the work of the class occurs during class sessions. You may miss up to 3 classes for any reason without penalty (coming to class late 3 times counts as one missed class). Every additional absence, for any reason, will result in the loss of one letter grade. 

Writing occurs in a community of writers. All writing for this course may be read and shared by all members of the class.

Grading scheme:

Homeworks: 20%

Short essays: 60%

Long essay: 20%

Guidelines for Submission of Written Work

Essays should be submitted as word-processed documents; handwritten papers are not accepted. Please use a standard font, in 12 points. Doublespace your papers, and number their pages. Essays and homework submissions should be stapled or paper-clipped together. On the top of the first page include your name, the date, the name of the assignment, and, for essays, the title of the essay. Essays must be proofread and spell-checked.

Plagiarism, or passing off someone else’s work as your own, is a serious academic offense.  You should read and be familiar with the sections in Cornell’s Policy Notebook about ‘Code of Academic Integrity’ and ‘Acknowledging the Work of Others.’ Plagiarism can lead to prosecution and affect your permanent record.

Communication

I strongly encourage you to take advantage of my office hours for any questions, problems, issues, or thoughts that you would like to share with me about the class. If you cannot make my office hours, feel free to contact me to make an appointment.

You should also feel free to contact me by email for any reason, though note that I cannot always answer right away. I will also be contacting you by email; please let me know if it will be difficult for you to check your email on a regular basis.