Assignment:
Discussion Threads are a place for you to ask questions, engage with your TAs and peers, to find collaborators, and generally deepen your engagement with the course and your own learning. You should think of these posts as mini papers. Write in complete sentences, do not use bullet points or ellipses. Your response should be between 250 to 500 words. The style of your post can be speculative and personal, you do need to come up with arguments, rather just reflect on your own comprehension of the material. Write in your own voice. But this is not a social media space-- your posts should be thoughtful and structured.
Michael Bull makes the argument in his essay, "The Audio-Visual iPod" that the iPod aestheticizes' the city and transforms the public experience of the street into a private one. Bull is quite critical of iPod use in the city, arguing that it 'distracts' and 'isolates' the user and he asks us to consider the moral consequences of iPod use. What does it mean to 'share' public space with each other when we are sequestered into our own privatized and commoditized experiences? What does it mean for our ability to see and tolerate others in public space? As you have, most likely, had the experience of using an iPod (or similar device) in public, do you agree with Bull? specifically, what parts of his essay do you agree with? or do you disagree with him? if so, what parts of his argument do you disagree with? or maybe its a bit of both?
Readings:
The Audio-Visual IPOD
By Michael Bull