Course objectives
We will examine the power of digital images to document first from the point of view of the photographer, asking where and how do we encounter digital images in our lives. Second, we will study digital images from the point of view of the impact of digital images on culture, society, or politics. In the context of the transformation from traditional, mainstream media to new media, do we discern a trend toward the concrete, the realistic, the documentary or are we being inundated by fantasy via photshopped images and other self-styled representations? This course examines digital photography as a specific medium or discipline from the perspective of the practitioner, user, pedagogue, technologist and historian.
Loosely based on the BBC series Digital Humans curated by Aleks Krotoski this class will look at the transformations in society that have resulted from the digital revolution. The aim of the course is not to teach about techniques or business practices but to take a multidisciplinary approach to the digital issues that affect us all. The first two courses will be teacher led but from then on, a group of students will choose a topic that they will introduce to the class by way of a demonstration, a survey, an interview or in another way. Moodle, WordPress, Twitter and Padlet will be used to augment this class