Home | Contact | Schedule Rules | Links | Bibliography

Fall 2007
Wednesdays, 3:30 - 6:15 pm
Downtown Campus, Room 14B
Instructor: Dr. Sabrina DeTurk

Required Texts:
Digital Art, Christiane Paul, Thames & Hudson (2003) ISBN 0500203679
Other readings as posted on the course Web site and assigned in class

Supplemental Text (not required):
New Media Art, Mark Tribe, et.al., Taschen (2006) ISBN 3822830410

Course Description:
The broad terms of digital and new media are applied to cover the range of innovations that have reshaped every sphere of cultural innovation since the advent of the Internet. Storytelling and identity in particular are now shaped on networks where information moves with the speed of thought. Digital culture is shaped by the availability of more content on the web in terms of pure data than can be found within the Library of Congress, and the citizen-turned-user is left to sort through the virtual experience to find meaning, whether engaged in work or play. McLuhan's vision of a "Global Village" has come to pass in the era of the World Wide Web. Digital Media creates a culture where high art and "low" art meet and mingle in an interchange of ideas where information doesn't have to flow from one to many but instead is an exchange where every user is also a potential speaker. We will look at specific works both from the mainstream and from outside the mainstream, including the interactive storytelling and fan culture movements thriving in virtual space. Specific topics will include a consideration of interactivity, hypertext, virtual reality, avatars, and the "digital" self. As we consider these works, we will address the future of digital media and the potential of the user/artist/citizen/player.

Course Objectives:

• Students will be able to speak knowledgeably and critically about multiple aspects of digital media and culture and will have an understanding of emerging trends in those areas.
• Students will be able to write articulately about issues and controversies in digital media and virtual culture and to effectively construct arguments to support their own positions.
• Students will gain an understanding of the historical trends that have shaped the emergence of a digital culture - particularly within the art field - and will be able to extrapolate their own ideas of how that culture might evolve.
• Students will demonstrate - through their writing and speaking - an ability to take information about particular topics in digital media and virtual culture and apply that information to analyze other topics and issues that they are encountering for the first time.
  

Course Expectations:

• Students are expected to prepare assigned readings each week and to come to class ready to engage in substantive and critical discussion of the issues raised by readings and class presentations.
• Students are expected to bring their own insights to bear in class discussions and assignments and to be attentive to the ways digital media and virtual culture are constantly shaping our contemporary lives.
• Students are expected to complete all written and other assignments in a timely manner, to contribute to the intellectual environment of the classroom, and to address any issues and concerns with the professor as soon as they arise.