TECHNOLOGIES IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Course Description
SP354 Tues/Thurs 11-1 12 units
SP354, Technologies in Historical Perspective, is a 12-unit
HASS-D (category 5),
CI-H, subject. It meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11-1. Students also
meet for a 2-hour hands-on workshop each week (days and times to be
arranged).
In SP354 you will study several technological systems within their
historical contexts. This spring we will begin by studying the rise
of the textile industry in the Merrimack Valley from its beginning in
the mid 1800s. How did the mechanization of textile manufacturing change
American society? We will take a field trip to the American Textile
History Museum and Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts,
to help us get a better first-hand understanding of this period in American
history. In weekly hands-on workshops guest artisan Debbie Watson will
teach us to spin and weave wool. Working in small teams, we'll write
and present business plans for building our own textile mills. From
mills in 19th century Lowell we next turn our attention to 21st century
MIT as we study design and construction of the Stata Center. Architect
Dan Krynytzky will spend a month in residence with us helping us understand
everything from the nature of beauty to how an electrician wires a "smart"
building. We will end our semester with cars! Why are Americans so car-obsessed?
What was life in America like before the invention of the combustion
engine? How have we changed-for good and bad. Our hands-on workshops
will find us taking apart and reassembling engines, which we will test
at a go-cart rally.
As part of the subject, we sponsor lunch each Thursday at noon. A variety
of guest speakers from within and without MIT come to tell us about
their work.
A subject of the Integrated Studies Program. For more information,
visit the ISP office in 16-177, call us at 253-4074, or email us at
daczel@mit.edu.
