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THIS SYLLABUS IS A BETA.

We will refine this plan at our first class meeting on Tuesday January 26. Please come prepared
to talk with others about your interests in P/A/R. What aspects of the subject are especially
interesting to you? The objective is to distribute by the second class meeting a syllabus that
incorporates some lines of inquiry that you would like us to explore as a group.

HUM325 Puppet Automaton Robot Spring 2021 Professor Germano

Tuesdays 9:00a-11:50a EST

Place: Zoom (anywhere you are)

A puppet is a toy, a theatrical prop, an imitation of life, and sometimes a figure taken for life
itself. Puppets are universal, and very old.

An automaton is a mechanical figure, usually resembling a living thing, constructed to perform

an action that seems lifelike in some way Automata are not alive, but have been dreamed up
since antiquity. Mechanical entertainments, but not quite toys, automata flourished in
eighteenth-century Europe.

Robots are new. Our English word robot is an early twentieth-century term that comes from the
Czech word for “worker.” It first shows up in a play about robots who are taking over the world
and who bring about the end of the human race. Robots, in all forms and at all scales, are the
concern of robotics, the technology central to automation, surgery, exploration, and other
activities either too difficult or too hazardous for humans.

These three terms feel as if they are starting points for thinking about a wide range of modern
problems and possibilities. This elective course is an opportunity for us to think together about
our enduring fascination with lifelike figures, mechanical devices that stand in for humans, and
the nature -- and limits -- of the human body in an age of deep technology.

How it will work

We will meet once a week on Tuesday mornings (Eastern Standard Time) at 9:00 a.m. We will
read, and view, assigned materials in advance. You will write brief responses each week and
post them on Moodle. Yes, each week. You will read the posts by others in the class, and we
will then use those posts -- with their comments and questions -- as the basis for our discussion
the following Tuesday.
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In addition to your short response papers, you will produce one major project for the course,
either a) a 10-15 page paper, or b) a project (for example, a video) accompanied by an analytic
paper of no less than five pages about the project. Whether you decide on option a) or option b),
you will be writing a paper, and it must have a bibliography and footnotes. We’ll talk more about
this in class.

Begin thinking today about your major project -- what interests you, what you want to explore
further.

For Class 3 (Feb 9) you will identify a topic or area you want to pursue in detail. This won’t be
a proposal, just a first narrowing-down of what you will spend the coming weeks thinking about.

For Class 5 (Feb 23) you will turn in a proposal for your major project. Writing tip: a good paper
has a central question that drives the paper. How? Why? What?

For Class 11 April 13), you will turn in your major project. (Yes, that’s more than a month before
the end of the semester). This schedule is strategic. We want time for feedback from me and
from peers, time for you to develop the project further, and time to present your work to the
group.

The last three classes will concentrate on work produced by students in the class.

There are no exams in this class.

Zoom is an awful way to teach and to study, but it’s what we must do to be safe. To make it
work, though, everyone has to participate as fully as possible. It’s not a lecture course.

Grading

This course will operate under the principles of contract grading. You will be asked to sign onto
this syllabus and to agree to its terms:

Course requirements:

Attendance at all class meetings (emergencies and illness excepted)

Reading all assigned work
Posting weekly responses on time
Participating in class discussion
Completing and presenting your major project

If you just meet these requirements, you are guaranteed a B.

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If you do a very good job, you will get an A.

If you don’t do the work, you may earn a D or an F. (So plan on coming to class and doing the
work!)

Here is the schedule of our class meetings

Class 1 Jan 26 Introduction to course.

Class 2 Feb 2 Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life (chs 1-7).

Class 3 Feb 9 Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life (chs 8 to coda). CLAIM A TOPIC OF AREA
YOU WANT TO EXPLORE IN YOUR MAJOR PROJECT.

Class 4 Feb 16 Excerpts: The Secret Life of Puppets.

Class 5 Feb 23 Excerpt: Anatomy of a Robot. PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE.

Class 6 Mar 2 Excerpts: Surrogate Humanity.

Class 7 Mar 9 Excerpts: The Robotic Imaginary.

NO CLASS MARCH 16 (“Wellness Day”)

Class 8 Mar 23 Excerpts: To Be a Machine

Class 9 Mar 30 tba

Class 10 Apr 6 tba

Class 11 Apr 13 Major project due. Readings tba

Class 12 Apr 20 Pinocchio.

Class 13 Apr 27 Presentations.

Class 14 May 4 Presentations.

Class 15 May 11 Presentations.

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Many of the readings will be scanned and posted to you. As of now, the one text that is required
is the first: Puppet by Kenneth Gross. It is a short paperback, and we will read it in its entirety.
You can either purchase it in hard copy ($15 on Amazon prime) or download a Kindle edition
immediately for $10. In either case, you need to have it no later than the end of the first week of
class so that you can read chapters 1-7 for class on February 2.

Readings will be drawn from these texts, among other materials, including news items.

Kenneth Gross. Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life. U Chicago Press, 2011.

Victoria Nelson. The Secret Life of Puppets. Harvard UP, 2001.

Despina Kakoudaki. Anatomy of a Robot. Rutgers UP, 2014.

Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio. Various translations and editions.

Karel Čapek. R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Penguin, 2004.

Jennifer Rhee. The Robotic Imaginary: The Human & the Price of Dehumanized Labor. U
Minnesota Press, 2018.

Neda Atanasoski & Kalindi Vora. Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots, and the Politics of
Technological Futures. Duke UP, 2019.

Mark O’Connell. To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cybors, Utopians, Hackers, and the
Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death. Granta, 2017.

Writing Center

Use it. The writing associates will be able to help you narrow down your topic and develop
further the written skills you’ve been working on in your earlier years at Cooper.

Accommodation

If you’ve requested accommodation, I will be receiving a memo from the Dean of Students. It’s
your responsibility, though, to reach out to me in the first week of class so we can discuss what
works for you.
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Seniors take note

Grades for students scheduled to graduate at the end of the spring 2021 semester have to be
filed by me no later than Monday morning, May 17. That means that there are no extensions
possible at the end of the term.

If you don’t fulfill the course’s work, I have no choice but to file the corresponding grade.

This is one reason I’ve structured the deadline for your course project several weeks before the
end of term. Please remember, though, that the project has to be completed so that it can be
discussed and presented to the rest of the class in the following weeks.