MEDIA AESTHETICS in Fall 2018 (CM3075)

How do contemporary media shape cultural ideals of beauty, taste, resistance, and desire? How do aesthetics help us to communicate and (re)imagine ourselves and others? How might these media's aesthetics reinforce or encourage social problems around inequality, sexism, and racism? This course considers the aesthetic issues raised in media production and consumption, and their connections to political and cultural values. Focus is placed on digital media such as: photography, video, digital audio, networked platforms such as Instagram and tinder, online gaming, and VR. Class will include visits by designers, artists, filmmakers, and curators, and class trips to venues such as Jeu de Paume and IRCAM. This will be paired with texts in Sound Studies, Visual Culture, Feminist Media Studies, Critical Race Studies, Game Studies, and Aesthetic Theory (Jonathan Sterne, Mulvey, Mirzoeff, bell hooks, Galloway, etc.) and work by artists and makers such as digital artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg, the sound art collective Ultra-red, Simone Leigh, Trevor Palgen, and others.