When she enrolled in a summer section of Government 490, Whitney Orndorff had little idea that she would be analyzing the music of Radiohead and working with classmates to produce an original short film on driver safety for online viewers. But, in today's age where even presidential campaigns fall flat without a nifty video on You Tube, students taking Char Miller's section of Government 490 are gaining hands-on experience linking government studies with the mastery of new media.
In this seminar, which focuses on technology and subjectivity, Miller requires more from students than the completion of traditional assignments such as tests and papers. Homework may include sending instant messages, compiling CD playlists, reviewing books on Amazon.com, and making YouTube videos.
Miller challenged Orndorrf and her fellow classmates to explore the transformational nature of technology in society. Orndorff describes the discussions in the course as "fiery" and "passionate" as she explored the ethical implications of technological issues such as artificial intelligence, outsourcing, and virtual communication. Provided with the necessary cameras and software, but no formal film-making training, groups of students cooperatively experimented with filming short YouTube-style video clips which they presented at the end of the class. The only classroom direction offered for the clips was that they loosely focused on automobiles - a central theme of the course.
Why cars? Cars can be viewed as human creations that cut across the private and public spheres by changing how we experience motion. They divide us from one another in spaces from which we view speed, space, and distance; they also have initiated massive environmental changes and countless human deaths Miller explained.
Orndorff, who interns at the U.S. Department of State and previously studied abroad at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, said Miller’s unorthodox nature of the course assignments allowed her to surface her own assumptions about technology, think critically about those assumptions, and apply her learning through hands-on projects dealing with real-life issues.
The course surprised me by revealing just how dependent upon technology I am and the leaps and bounds science has taken in the last decade, Orndorff said.
Students embraced the YouTube assignment with a range of creativity; videos run the gamut from campy reconstructions of public service announcements to animated shorts. Besides the practical training of creating the videos, students gain a deeper understanding of how communications mediums can shape opinions about the world.
Academically speaking, my interests lay with getting them to pay attention to media as a part of language and not just as a conduit, said Miller. I want them to think about how media constructs our ideas, especially in light of some of the political theory that we read in class, particularly William Connolly's Neuropolitics, which explores the ways that film can heighten and transform our powers of perception and the political consequences of such transformations.
On the last day of class we watched and critiqued all the movies as a class. I got the sense that they actually had a lot of fun and did a pretty decent job thinking about why they did [the projects], Miller remarked.