Learn to apply media theory and practical, conceptual frameworks to design and digital media projects. Students in this course will build critical, applicable knowledge and understanding of the pervasive impact of media and technology on culture. You will learn influential concepts of media and technology, and be able to apply these ideas to contemporary trends, issues, and your own practice of art and design.
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Whether you are a graphic designer, UX/UI designer, web designer, or accessibility designer, this course will help you connect your work immediately to a deep, evolving framework of ideas and questions that enrich our understanding of how people consume, create, and use media, how human and non-human objects are related, how games make us think about platforms and software, and how we currently view traditional media such as sound, pictures and video.
What you'll learn
- Contemporary issues and trends in how media is viewed and analyzed
- Ways in which theoreticians and practitioners approach media and technology
- A vocabulary that facilitates discussion of media concepts, theories, and projects from a critical perspective
- Critical applications of media theory and context to past, present, and future work
- Media-theoretical frameworks to objects, texts, and technologies
Prerequisites
We strongly recommend taking the Integrated Digital Media MicroMasters in the following sequence:
- Creative Coding
- Theories of Media and Technology
- Media Law
- Integrated Digital Media Capstone
Syllabus
Week 1: Seminal Theory
The origins of media theory, and how these thinkers have influenced contemporary thought
A brief look at ‘new’ modes of thought that expand on these earlier ones
Week 2: Cybernetics
The thinking behind cybernetics, and the technological and social implications of this method of thinking
Week 3: Computation
The origins of computational thinking, how it relates to cybernetic systems, and what implications it has for media production and consumption
Week 4: Interaction/Interface
How interaction and interfaces has led to new understanding of how people consume, create, and use media
Week 5: Networks
How interaction and interfaces has led to new understanding of how people consume, create, and use media
Week 6: Control
The ways in which computational systems can be used as agents of control, implied and explicit
Week 7: Affect Theory
How theorists understand the self embodied in the machine
Week 8: Actor - Network Theory
How ANT is not so much a theory as it is a method for understanding the world around us and the relationship between human and non-human objects
Week 9: Cyborg Life
The boundaries of our bodies in relation to the world of technology we have designed around us, what is permeable, what is fixed?
Week 10: Media Archaeology
How it’s possible to think about aspects of media through physical artifacts like infrastructure, software, and machines themselves
Week 11: Queer & Feminist Theory
How thinking about media has been transformed by, and in turn changed, queer and feminist theory
Week 12: Games
How games provide a rich area for different kinds of media study such as platforms studies, software studies, and media archeology
Week 13: Sound & Image
How theory has transformed our understanding of ‘traditional’ forms of media like video, sound, and still images
Week 14: Media Now
Emerging theories surrounding media studies like Object Oriented Ontology and Post-digitalism
