My current cluster is dealing with the issue of “Fame” or “Celebrity,” so it is hard to see how I am going to fit in this idea of the robot or robotics, except as the celebrity is an artificial construct of the fans and the machine of image makers. How does the celebrity become a product manufactured by the media business and dehumanizes the person who is the artist. The personality is something that can be turned on and off, and students can look at how much of the celebrities they choose to investigate for their assignments are real and how much is a construct. How does the consumption of the celebrity go towards dehumanizing them and lead to an almost machine like reproduction of their selves for the consumption of society. How does their celebrity image make them possibly loved or hated, depending on the fickle whims of the society.
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This was an interesting cluster to connect to our readings — there are overlaps, certainly, but not as directly as others. As you think through how this seminar relates to your teaching, remember that you might want to think about not only your current course(s), but also future ones — are there ideas we’ve discussed in this seminar that you would like to include in your teaching somehow? This might lead to a reshaping of an existing cluster, or even the development of a new one (Sorin, for example, is thinking of creating a new cluster around media participation).