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Class Prep
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Technologies of the Self
 In the postmodern period, some people imagine that meaning is not resident in texts but rather is something we make when we interpret them. So some of our work this quarter will need to focus on ourselves as creators of meaning. -
- Rachel Wagner's chapter 5 in Godwired gives us a chance to think about how and where we create meaning in multiple ways in our media-infused culture. She will draw an analogy between the fluidity of our self in the digital worlds we inhabit and the fluidity of our religious selves, as so many of us seek out the sacred wherever we might find it (in institutional religions perhaps, but also other religious traditions, in nature, etc.). As you read her chapter, be able to discuss these three topics and questions:
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- Define "bricoleur," and discuss how the term describes both our engagements with the virtual world through technology and also the religious behavior of people today.
- Wagner speaks of how we use our mobile devices as proxies for ourselves as we continually reshape our fluid identities. She discusses six types of apps we use for this purpose; identify each briefly.
- What does your smartphone (if you own one) say about who you are and what you seek? What daily—even hourly—rituals do you do with it and what "order" does this give to your world? If you don't own a smartphone, consider what you might put on one if you did, and consider friends who use them heavily to imagine how they use it to order their lives. Be prepared to share this answer with the class.
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- Assigned Readings
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- Secondary: Wagner, Godwired chapter 5 (Camino); online class prep
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- Optional: Stanley E. Fish, "Transparency is the Mother of Fake News, The New York Times (5 May 2018)
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- Due today: Texting God Exercise #1: A Personal Tavola
- 3-page double-spaced paper, including on the fourth page an image with a collage of significant moments from your life; paper must be submitted in Microsoft Word format; due at Camino drop box by 10:30 a.m.
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- Slides for Lecture
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- Today's Author
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Rachel Wagner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College in New York. Her courses and research center on the study of religion and culture, including religion and film and religion and virtual reality. She's published pieces in Halos and Avatars: Playing Games with God (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), God in the Details (2d ed.; Routledge, 2010), and Resisting the Place of Belonging: Uncanny Homecomings in Religion, Narrative and Art (Ashgate, forthcoming). |
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- Further Reading
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- Tkach, Alexander G. J. "Faithapps.net: Measuring the Dispersal of Religious Smartphone Applications." Trípodos 35 (2014) 11-28.
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- Tomaselli, Keyan G. "Virtual Religion, the Fantastic, and Electronic Ontology." Visual Anthropology 28:2 (2015) 109-126.
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- Acknowledgements
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- Image created by Catherine Murphy from screengrabs of apps in the iTunes app store.
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