Course of Study

• Week 1: Orientation — History of SFPC, community agreement, learning objectives, about the final project, meet the participants

• Week 2: Transparency — We will be looking at the origin of computer interfaces and how they obscure reality, compared to a traditional model of ideology.

• Week 3: Ground — This discussion will focus on the origins of settler colonialism in the Western United States and the preface to modern-day Silicon Valley.

• Week 4: Interface — This week begins with a critical reconsideration of computer design, and what a decolonial technology might look like.

• Week 5: Watching — We will begin considering the origins of surveillance technology in the United States, and its roots in racial capitalism.

• Week 6: Being — Building on the previous week, we will unpack how the body as data is related to the legacy of racial slavery.

• Week 7: Calculation — We will learn about the origins of scientific racism as well as the evolution of Ancestral DNA tracing as a commercial phenomenon.

• Week 8: Accumulation — This week’s discussion is an overview of neoliberal economic practices in America, the normalization of debt, and the expansion of policing and incarceration.

• Week 9: Prediction — Building on the previous discussion we will look at how the Military, University, High Tech sector, and Police came together to create a perfect data storm.

• Week 10: Graduation — We will be sharing our work with the community through a Zoom event.

Expectations

What is expected of me?

• Participants are expected to spend time outside of class on readings and doing assignments.

• Over the course of the 10 weeks, we will be working on a collaborative publication relating to themes discussed in class, and by the end of the class we will publish this as a digital publication containing original contributions from every member of the class. See past years’ publications (Summer 2020), (Spring 2019), (Fall 2018) and (Fall 2019).

By taking this class, you can expect to gain the following:

• The ability to communicate complex ideas through writing and discussion with peers.

• A more conscientious approach to developing new technology and design that reflects our current moment, centering care and longevity rather than efficiency.

• A nuanced critical perspective towards technological objects and their generation of power and control in society.

• A thorough knowledge of the history of surveillance practices in the United States.

• An interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between art, design, technology, and economics.

Is this class for me?

This class may be for you if:

• If you are an artist or designer who wants to know more about computer technology.

• If you want to engage with critical theory for the first time, or have experience with it.

• If you recently finished a degree program, or are on the fence about whether to enter one.

• If you are a coder or tech worker and you want to think more critically about the social and economic impact of computers.

• If you are NOT a coder or tech worker but you want a deeper understanding of how code affects everything around us.

• If you are a fan of The Matrix (1999).

This class may NOT be for you if:

• If you are only interested in coding or getting better at coding.

• If you think the economic theorist Adam Smith made a lot of good points.

• If you want people to believe that the cloud is in the sky.