Digital Arts

An introduction to the study of media with a focus on visual media and experience. Students will learn about key moments in media history, from the invention of print to the rise of broadcasting/mass media and the entrenchment of digital/social media. Students will engage with foundational concepts in media and visual studies, and develop tools to critically analyze, discuss, and write about the images that come to us through physical and virtual networks. Topics include: photojournalism, infographics, screen cultures, public relations and advertising, social media, AI, and the effects of digital media on the environment and mental health.

This course will serve as an introduction to digital technology in contemporary art making as it relates to interactivity, collaboration, and emerging practices. Emphasis will be placed on hands on experimentation and exploration across disciplines. We will cover installation art, web art, digital and time-based art, and immersive environments. Students will gain an overview of emerging digital practices, collaborative production strategies and correlations to social, aesthetic and theoretical issues. Other topics may include virtuality, performance, cyborgs, and network culture.

An interdisciplinary survey of the history of photography from its invention in the 19^th century to the present day. We will explore photography not only as an art form, but as a medium that shapes knowledge, affects social relations, and influences visual culture at large. Students will learn about the technologies and social practices that have made photography ubiquitous, working with a range of photographic objects firsthand. Topics include family and vernacular photography; imperial photo albums; ethnographic portraits; photojournalism and the paparazzi; crime, war and surveillance photographs; advertising and fashion; digital filters; and the digital photograph as data.

This class will survey and create emergent and non -linear forms of storytelling using digital and hybrid tools. We will examine notions of narrative authority and hybridity in a digital age and think through different ways we might use technology to distill, break apart or reify modes of communication and visual metaphor. Discussion will push boundaries of traditional storytelling and consider connectivity, liveness and embodied presence. This course will draw on multiple forms of expression including but not limited to digital media, performance, sound, XR, web and network environments.

How can digital tools help us understand print visual culture? This research lab-style seminar integrates humanistic inquiry with a collaborative research and project design process integral to STEM fields. Students will read cutting edge work on illustrated magazines including Life, Vogue, and National Geographic and explore digital humanities projects that offer new ways to explore histories of print media. Students will learn about the possibilities and limits of digital tools such as mapping, network visualizations, and text mining, and design their own projects utilizing digitized collections of illustrated magazines.