Course of Study

• Week 1: Introduction – We’ll begin with discussion of the four framing themes vis-a-vis our various situated knowledges. What competencies and assumptions inform our perspectives, and what are the sociotechnical nodes that we’re most excited to engage with critically within our own practices? Students will leave this class with expanded notions of the concept of machine language and questions about why both the technical and conceptual comprehensions matter.

• Weeks 2 + 3: Quantization – This is the process by which the unbounded analog world gets sensed, categorized, and digitized into binary values that machine language can interact with. Yet a bit marks a boundary: the digital, by definition, cannot tolerate ambiguity. We will seek a robust understanding of what data –the result of quantization - is, then consider how data is not neutral, but informed by the design of the machine / software / collector / perceiver.

• Weeks 4 + 5: Computation – The machine-readable world can only be computed, and machines can only comprehend what they are built to read. Machine language can sort or synthesize, but it can neither describe or interpret without human intervention–and even the precepts of machine readability are programmed in ways that embed biases. How do quantitative limitations influence our interactions with qualitative realities? What are solutions without descriptions? And, how do computational approaches of different levels of complexity impact ways in which we understand data, ourselves, and the world?

• Weeks 6 + 7: Assembly – In 1947 Kathleen Booth created the first Assembly Language: the lowest-level language to communicate with machines that humans can read. In the decades since, technologists have transformed human-machine interfaces to include increasingly narrative, graphic, and haptic interactions. Though posed as universal developments, for whom are these interfaces intended? Who is left out, and how do alternatives emerge?

• Weeks 8 + 9: Hardware Dependency – From Andean quipu to corporate supercomputers, even the most abstract computation requires material support with specific algorithms to run on it. We will interrogate our relationships with hardware. Amongst other questions, we’ll ask: What are hardware’s opportunities and impacts? How may agendas may be forced on machine configurations, and what are the implications? Why might we transform and/or subvert hardware limitations, how, and towards what ends?

• Week 10: Cumulative Reflections and Sharing – Machine Language will conclude with a collective showcase and celebration on our time together. Critical reflection and cake.

Expectations

Time & Workload

• The course will culminate in a collaborative MACHINE LANGUAGE zine. A portion of each week will be dedicated to conceptualizing and executing the zine, which will be a tool through which to work through transmission, translation, and storage of information/ideas– formal variety and play is highly encouraged.

• Participants are expected to invest 2-3 hours per week outside of class for readings / viewings / listenings and personal journaling / studio time.

Materials

• This course is tech-agnostic. Students will need access to device(s) through which they can read PDFs, access websites, access and contribute to shared documentation (via Google docs or sheets, or online whiteboard software provided by instructors) and respond to weekly prompts via a medium of their choice (writing, visual, audio, code sketches).

Is this class for me?

This class is for you if:

• You engage in some sort of creative practice, whether coding, visual art, design, sound, writing or other, and/or related research practice

• You are interested in the past, present, and future of both the technical and sociological aspects of technology

• You want to apply a critical, but cautiously optimistic, lens to your views of our relationships to, with, and through technology

• You want to add to your knowledge of theory, projects, and perspectives

• You want to imagine alternatives to our existing sociotechnical landscapes

• You are interested in bringing your situated knowledges to class dialogues and open to engaging with others who will do the same