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Course Description

Summary

This course will focus on visual evidence such as maps, graphic diagrams, drawings, and site records in relation to animals, bugs, pests, and plagues. How were insect plagues managed in various regions? How are bugs portrayed in different kinds of media? Our focus will be on historical instances of plague, natural disaster and political upheaval that overlap with the presence of bugs, and systems of environmental-agricultural expertise. As art historian Jussi Parikka describes: “Space becomes topological, and instead of merely trustworthily guiding and providing reassurance of the coordinates, it infects and seduces.”[1] Swarms, hives, and group dance of species damage livelihood, property, and crops in motion and have inspired technological systems and distributed intelligence from cognitive science to computation and design. How can insect characteristics help us better understand how we communicate? How does drawing, tracing and tracking insect motion and studying insect models help us forge knowledge on non-human agency? We will analyze philosophical and media studies theories on flux, states of becoming, and the wider discourse on insect media as it has inspired, including media from computer “bugs” to today. [1] Parikka, Insect Media 2010, 100