But the idea of depicting the world accurately really began to take off when people started to realize that there was a world to depict. Then a lot of things began to happen. Look at Leonardo Da Vinci’s study of the adoration of the Magi. He made these often before he started a painting. All the lines are included to make sure he got perspective right.
It’s no accident that Leonardo was quite the engineer because perspective made it possible to think about things defiantly. Perspective got people interested in ratios and Leonardo got interested in gearing for his machines. More on all this in the next unit. But till then, it’s important to understand that this period in history gave rise to machines that dominate our world today because it also marked one of the most significant shifts in thinking in quite a few centuries.
Why does this matter when it comes to “modern” technology? Think back to the Wayback Machine in Module 3. It’s all about how things come together. There are no real inventions. Just different ways of assembling what we know. The video on Form and Function in the module tries to pull together two ideas – beauty and functionality – into a single machine. The modern day motorcycle. At this point in the semester, we are starting to see how technology if born of this need for us to put different things together in different ways. We’ll see this in a very big way when we start talking about databases and how algorithms combine things in ways that even the people who write them can’t quite understand.
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Chapter 3 of James Burke’s
The Day the Universe Changed, “Point of View”
You can download it here
There is the video that goes with the chapter in the book:
It’s not enough for the quiz, which is based on the book, but it you watch it and read the chapter, you’ll find it to be very good review. It’s not required, but it may help prepare for the quiz.
This video discusses the unique technology that Filippo Brunelleschi used to complete the dome for the cathedral in Florence:
http://ctcproxy.mnpals.net/login?url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=105843&xtid=68830
(about 52 minutes)
This is an interview I did with the curator at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. It’s about a half hour long. He has some interesting things to say about motorcycles, form, and function.
https://mediaspace.minnstate.edu/media/The+Mechanics+of+the+Humanities++-+Form+and+Function/0_9w0jis4g
Be sure to read all the content in this module.
What is Humanism? Burke suggests that humanism, the philosophy that put people at the center of the universe again, was responsible for new art, architecture and technology. Is the same thing happening today? If so, what does humanism look like today? If not, what kind of world view, other than humanism, explains our technological society? Does our place as humans interact with our place as users of technology?
Duomo – Sp23 HUM 2236-90 Technology in the Humanities (minnstate.edu)
Instructions on writing discussion post
How to write a good initial discussion post:
1. The purpose of writing a discussion post is to reflect on what you have learned from the assigned material. How does it support what you already thought? How does it challenge conventional wisdom? Where it conflicts with your understanding of the world, does it convince you? Where it agrees, what further understandings does it imply?
2. Your initial discussion post must include at least 300 words of your own material. Repeating the question, titles, quotations, paraphrases and other additions are not counted as your own material. Any discussion that does not meet the 300 word minimum will receive a grade of 0.
3. Refer to at least two of the assigned resources. You need to give some thought to what’s presented in the assigned material. For example, you might write: The Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy explains Locke’s understanding of the relationship between simple and complex ideas this way: “Once the mind has a store of simple ideas, it can combine them into complex ideas of a variety of kinds” (
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/)
. Don’t make the class guess at the reference. We have to be able to find it. So it needs to be relevant and specific. People get busy and time is sometimes short, so it may be tempting at times to excerpt something from readings you haven’t considered carefully and stick it in your post to meet this requirement. Try not to do this. See point 5 on why. There is no need to use an MLA style citation to the end of a post. We need to read the quotation, and we need to know what in the material helped you arrive at the conclusions you arrived at and where we can find it. That means you need to include an author and a page number if it’s a printed resource, or a title reference for audio and video resources. Points will be deducted if the location of the reference isn’t obvious. To earn full points for your discussion, you need to refer to more than one of the assigned resources in the module if more are available. The resources work together.
4. Any discussion that includes sufficiently poor grammar or spelling to suggest that the posting was not proof-read and spell checked will receive a grade of 0.
5. The best way to meet the requirement to reference the readings is to quote them directly. But please do not quote lengthy sections of the readings. I am looking for your ideas concerning the readings and classes. See point 3. for a good example. Quotations are not considered part of the 300 word minimum.
6. Remember that you are reflecting on the material presented in the module and taking an informed position on the topic. It doesn’t help to simply repeat facts from the module. What do they mean? Use your existing opinion wisely. The distinction between research and opinion is an artificial distinction we don’t want to make in this class. Criticism is useful but only if it’s thoughtful and reasonable. If, at the end of every unit, you think exactly the same way you did when you started the unit, something has gone wrong.
8. You will need to post your own initial post before you can read the responses from others. It makes for a much more diverse conversation. After you have posted your initial post, I hope you will consider other ideas as well and comment on them. There is no grade-sensitive requirement to comment on other posts but, needless to say, your ideas on others’ thinking is the best way for all of us to learn. And feel free to respond to my comments on your post.
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