Course Details

Introduction to Digital and Media Arts is designed to give students a strong base in the political, cultural and artistic developments and debates related to the many media art forms that have developed from the nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century; from early forms of print and photography to contemporary media including video and computer art. This class encourages active participation and critical thinking. This course, like most courses, is a search for meaning. Where and when did communication through media begin? How does that communication become reiterated across new media and digital technologies, and does that reiteration result in an amplification or muffling of meaning? Topics In this course, we will seek answers to the question, what is media art and when did it begin? This course provides an introduction to media art forms within their specific social and cultural contexts. Through close examination of artworks from many cultures and perspectives, we will reflect on how the digital process impacts the creative process and alters our experience of art. Introduction to Media Arts introduces student scholars and artists to the language of media arts. The class will investigate ways of seeing and thinking through specific readings of various media art traditions, transformations and innovations locally and internationally. Through visual and written analysis, visits to various media art sites, and “thought activities,” students will learn about the fundamentals of media art and become aware of the vital connections as well as the crucial differences among the media art forms studied. Topics over the course of the semester include explorations of how time relates to the digital; media art as a strategy among political artists; global media culture and individual cultural nuances within various media art forms; gender and media art; privacy and open source media.