HNUH288X

Anthropomorphized pets post on Instagram, FitBits transmit biodata, bots influence elections... In the digital world designed by and for human beings, all sorts of actors imitate people, while people are objectified through surveillance and data mining. Despite a frequent distinction between the internet and 'IRL,' physical bodies are wrapped up in every aspect of existence online: from the factory workers who build our technology to the postures and gestures those devices require us to adopt. Exploring this range of bodily phenomena, this course considers what constitutes a "human body" online and how digitality and connectivity inform our understanding of personhood. From RPGs and dance challenges to AI and visceral responses to internet content, students will analyze the complex relationships between the technological and the embodied, the social and the political, the past and the future. Restricted to UH students matriculating in Fall 2020 or later. HNUH288X is part of the "Virtually Human" thematic cluster. Virtually Human courses will be offered through Spring 2023.