ART 372 - Media Theory

This course surveys key concepts and historically important texts in media theory and focuses specifically on contemporary media within the context of art. We will consider the multi-faceted state of media production and distribution today, as it is deployed in a cross section of contemporary art and culture. The rapid rise of social media and mobile technology has transformed the role of the digital image as it is circulated, shared, saved, discarded, altered, and recontextualized with speed and ease. This course seeks to track the rapidly shifting state of media in art today; consider revised notions of originality and authorship, address new modes of interactivity, virtual embodiment, and mapping; and assess the interests of artists as they make work about and within search engines, apps, and social media platforms.

3 credits