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syllabus.qmd
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syllabus.qmd
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---
title: ''
author: ''
format: html
page-layout: full
---
```{r}
#| label: load-packages
#| include: false
library(tidyverse)
library(palmerpenguins)
```
## VM303-01 Studies in Digital Media & Culture
::: {layout="[[49, -2, 49]]"}
```{ojs}
{
const maxFrame = 400,
image = await (FileAttachment("owl.jpg")).image(),
width = image.width * 0.5,
height = image.height * 0.5,
imageData = getImageDate(image),
{ normal, darker, brighter } = filterColor(cm.random()),
color = createColor(imageData, width, height),
scaleColor = (d) => gray(color(d)),
scaleLength = cm.scaleLinear([0, maxFrame], [80, 5]),
scaleWeight = cm.scaleLinear([0, maxFrame], [1, 0.1]),
scaleRotate = cm.scaleLinear([0, 1], [-Math.PI, Math.PI]),
SO = {
x: (d) => -d.length / 2,
x1: (d) => d.length / 2,
strokeWidth: (d) => d.weight,
strokeCap: "round"
};
function update(app) {
const frameCount = app.prop("frameCount");
const points = cm.range(40).map(() => ({
x: cm.randomInt(width),
y: cm.randomInt(height)
}));
const groups = app
.data(points)
.process(cm.derive, {
color: scaleColor,
length: scaleLength(frameCount),
weight: scaleWeight(frameCount) * cm.randomInt(2, 15)
})
.process(cm.derive, {
rotate: (d) => scaleRotate(d3.hsl(d.color).l)
})
.append(cm.group, {
x: (d) => d.x,
y: (d) => d.y,
rotate: (d) => d.rotate
});
if (frameCount % 3 === 0) {
groups.append(cm.link, {
...SO,
x: 0,
y: 0,
x1: 5,
y1: 0,
stroke: normal
});
} else {
groups
.call((d) => d.append(cm.link, { ...SO, y: 1, y1: 1, stroke: darker }))
.call((d) => d.append(cm.link, { ...SO, y: 0, y1: 0, stroke: normal }))
.call((d) =>
d.append(cm.link, { ...SO, y: 2, y1: 2, stroke: brighter })
);
}
if (frameCount > maxFrame) app.stop();
}
function dispose(app) {
invalidation.then(() => app.dispose());
}
return cm
.app({ width, height })
.on("update", update)
.call(dispose)
.start()
.node();
}
function getImageDate(image) {
const { width, height } = image;
const context = DOM.context2d(width, height);
context.drawImage(image, 0, 0, width, height);
return context.getImageData(0, 0, width * 2, height * 2);
}
function gray(color) {
const { r, g, b } = d3.color(color);
const gray = Math.round(0.299 * r + 0.587 * g + 0.114 * b);
return `rgb(${gray}, ${gray}, ${gray})`;
}
function createColor(imageData, width, height) {
const { data, width: imageWidth, height: imageHeight } = imageData;
const scaleX = cm.scaleLinear([0, width], [0, imageWidth]);
const scaleY = cm.scaleLinear([0, height], [0, imageHeight]);
return ({ x, y }) => {
const x1 = Math.round(scaleX(x));
const y1 = Math.round(scaleY(y));
const i = x1 + y1 * imageWidth;
const r = data[i * 4];
const g = data[i * 4 + 1];
const b = data[i * 4 + 2];
const a = data[i * 4 + 3];
return `rgba(${r}, ${g}, ${b}, ${a / 255})`;
};
}
function filterColor(offset) {
const scaleH = cm.scaleLinear([0, 1], [0, 360]);
const scaleLDark = cm.scaleLinear([0, 1], [0, 0.4]);
const scaleLBright = cm.scaleLinear([0, 1], [0.6, 1]);
return {
darker({ color }) {
const { l } = d3.hsl(color);
const l1 = (l + offset) % 1;
return `hsla(${scaleH(l1)}, 50%, ${scaleLDark(l) * 100}%, 0.2)`;
},
normal({ color }) {
const { l } = d3.hsl(color);
const l1 = (l + offset) % 1;
return `hsl(${scaleH(l1)}, 50%, ${l * 100}%)`;
},
brighter({ color }) {
const { l } = d3.hsl(color);
const l1 = (l + offset) % 1;
return `hsla(${scaleH(l1)}, 50%, ${scaleLBright(l) * 100}%, 0.1)`;
}
};
}
cm = require(await FileAttachment("cm.umd.min.js").url())
import { quote } from "@pearmini/charming-shared"
```
[Department of Visual & Media Arts](https://emerson.edu/academics/academic-departments/visual-media-arts)\
[Emerson College](https://emerson.edu/)\
Spring Semester 2024\
Tues/Thur 16 January---2 May 2024 6:00-7:45 p.m.\
Ansin Building 604\
[Dr. Martin Roberts](http://mroberts.emerson.build/)
:::
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Syllabus](https://mroberts.emerson.build/courses/vm-303-01/sp23/) (outside Canvas)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### Overview
This course considers the nature and contemporary forms of digital culture. Broadly speaking, this can be defined as the diverse range of symbolic practices through which communities affirm and maintain their cultural identities using digital media devices and interfaces in a globally networked society. While these practices are structured by deeply unequal power relations, are contradictory, and often come into conflict with one another, collectively they constitute what may be considered a global digital culture.
A key component of the course is the automation of various forms of creative production, from writing to the visual arts, by natural-language processing computational systems (generally referred to as "artificial intelligence" or "AI"). The course addresses some of the many issues raised by such systems, with a particular focus on questions of aesthetics and the increasingly contested relationship between artists and algorithms. While such systems now demonstrably pass the Turing Test (i.e. pass as human or their products as human-produced), they also compel us to reconsider what we mean by "art," or "intelligence" itself.
A major theme of the course is the changing status of the **future** as a social imaginary. It has been suggested that while we live today in the futures imagined by writers and filmmakers since George Orwell's novel *1984* (1949) and films like *2001: A Space Odyssey* (1968), *Blade Runner* (1982, set in 2019 and later 2049), or *Soylent Green* (1973, set in 2022), postmodern society has become so absorbed in commemorating its own past that it has become incapable of imagining its own future, dystopian or otherwise. As the course shows, historical projections of the future (often referred to as *retrofutures*) have paradoxically themselves become objects of postmodernist nostalgia.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### Format
This is primarily a critical-thinking course, although it includes a practical and production component. This means that it encourages you to think reflexively and analytically about the digitally-mediated cultural practices that the course considers, as well as to participate in them; for example, you will be invited to experiment with image-synthesis and text-generating software and analyze the results using key concepts and theoretical frameworks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will:
- have acquired a deeper understanding of the social, cultural, and political dimensions of digital technologies and networked communication;
- be able to apply critical thinking to contemporary developments in digital culture using relevant analytical concepts and both qualitative and quantitative methodologies such as cultural analytics;
- understand basic principles of algorithmic image synthesis on a variety of platforms;
- have reflected upon and discussed the larger significance of machine learning systems within global networked societies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### Sources: Print
Selected chapters from the texts below will be made available as PDFs; you are nevertheless encouraged to purchase at least several of texts that are of interest and read more of them.
Note on formats: A number of texts listed in the bibliography are available as e-books and/or audiobooks. You are encouraged to make use not only of print media but also of these screen-based and audio formats.
- [Lev Manovich](https://manovich.net/) and Emanuele Arielli. [*Artificial Aesthetics: A Critical Guide to AI, Media and Design*](http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/artificial-aesthetics-book). 2019-22.
- [Amy Bruckman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_S._Bruckman), *Should You Believe Wikipedia? Online Communities and the Construction of Knowledge*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. [References page](bruckman-refs.html)
- Andrea Long Chu, *Females*. New York: Verso, 2019.
- Mark Fisher, *Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures*. Winchester, UK, and Washington, USA: Zero Books, 2014.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### Assignments & Evaluation
**Discussion forums (20%)**
One or more discussion posts per week on reading assignments, submitted anytime during the week of the assignments in question. A minimum of ten weekly posts is required.
**Midterm Essay (20%)**
Topics will be provided. 1,000-1,250 words (4-5 pages, double-spaced).
**Alternative Communities Report (20%)**
A report documenting your exploration of and reflections on one of the alternative communities introduced in the first half of the course. 1,000-1,250 words (4-5 pages double-spaced), with references and other submissions as relevant.
**Generative Art Project (20%)**
Using one of the generative art platforms focused on in the course (DALL-E 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion), submit one work that was generated using one of these systems. Images may be still or moving (e.g. animations, GIF loops, etc.)
This work will be reviewed collectively by the group and displayed as a gallery, initally on Canvas, and later (with your permission) on the web.
**Research Paper (20%)**
Research on an approved topic relevant to the course. Individual or group. Further details will be provided after Spring Break. 1,250-1,500 words.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### Schedule of Classes
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 1*
**I. Histories of the Future**
2024-01-16_Tues
Introduction
2024-01-18_Thur
\
Fisher, "'[The Slow Cancellation of the Future](https://canvas.emerson.edu/courses/1932613/files/144544397?wrap=1)'" (in *Ghosts of My Life*)
Film: *The Shining*\
*Everywhere at the End of Time* (The Caretaker)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 2*
2024-01-23_Tues
**Hauntology / Liminal Spaces**
Mark Fisher, "[What is Hauntology?](pdf/hauntology.pdf)" ([Film Quarterly](https://www-jstor-org.proxy.emerson.edu/journal/filmquarterly), Vol. 66, No. 1 (Fall 2012), pp. 16-24.
Mark Fisher, [Introduction to *The Weird and the Eerie*](pdf/weird-eerie-intro.pdf)
Also: Brian Luckhurst, "[Making Sense of 'The Weird and the Eerie](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/making-sense-of-the-weird-and-the-eerie/)'" (*Los Angeles Review of Books*, 11 March 2017)
2024-01-25_Thur
**Capitalist Realism**
Mark Fisher, [Introduction to *Capitalist Realism*](pdf/capitalist-realism.pdf)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 3*
**Gender, Online**
2024-01-30_Tues
Alex Quicho, "[Everyone is a Girl Online](https://www.wired.com/story/girls-online-culture/)" (*WIRED*, 11 September 2023)
Emma Copley Eisenberg, "[Notes on Frump: A Style for the Rest of Us](https://www.heyalma.com/notes-on-frump-a-style-for-the-rest-of-us/)" (*heyalma*, 10 August 2017)
2024-02-01_Thur
Alternative Communities: Mastodon and the Fediverse
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 4*
2024-02-06_Tues
**Afrofuturism**\
Kodwo Eshun, "Further Considerations on Afrofuturism" (*The New Centennial Review*, vol. 3, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 287-302)
Film (excerpt shown in class): *The Last Angel of History* (John Akomfrah/Black Audio Film Collective, 1995)
Jason Farago, "[How Klee's 'Angel of History' Took Flight](https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160401-how-klees-angel-of-history-took-flight)" (BBC Culture, 6 April 2016)
"[The Futurist Digital Collages of Manzel Bowman](http://www.africandigitalart.com/2017/10/05/the-futurist-digital-collages-by-manzel-bowman/)" ([African Digital Art](http://africandigitalart.com/) website)
2024-02-08_Thur
Alternative Communities: Digital Gardens
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 5*
2024-02-13_Tues
**Sinofuturism**
[Sinofuturism](https://sinofuturism.com/) (website)
2024-02-15_Thur
Alternative Communities: Gemini
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 6*
2024-02-20_Tues NO CLASS (Mon schedule)
2024-02-22_Thur
**II. Collaborative Learning**
[Amy Bruckman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_S._Bruckman), *Should You Believe Wikipedia?*
- ch. 1: "Are Online 'Communities' Really Communities?"
- ch. 2: "What Can Online Collaboration Accomplish?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 7*
2024-02-27_Tues
[Amy Bruckman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_S._Bruckman), *Should You Believe Wikipedia?*
- ch. 3: "Should You Believe Wikipedia?"
- ch. 5: "How Do People Express Identity Online?"
2024-02-29_Thur
Alternative Communities: tilde
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 8*
2024-03-05_Tues
[Amy Bruckman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_S._Bruckman), *Should You Believe Wikipedia?*
- ch. 6: "What Is Bad Online Behavior, and What Can We Do About It?"
2024-05-07_Thur
Alternative Communities: ASCII art
**DEADLINE: Midterm**
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPRING BREAK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 9*
**III. Creative Coding**
2024-03-19_Tues
**Generative Art**
[Generative Design](http://www.generative-gestaltung.de/2/) (website)
[Generative Hut](https://www.generativehut.com/) (website)
2024-03-21_Thur
Generative Art: Javascript
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 10*
2024-03-26_Tues
**Generative Music: Livecoding**
2024-03-28_Thur
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 11*
2024-04-02_Tues
**IV. Algorithmic Aesthetics**
Lev Manovich, Artificial Aesthetics
- ch. 2: "Who is an Artist in AI Era?"
- ch. 4: "AI and Myths of Creativity"
2024-04-04_Thur
Generative Art: Midjourney
**DEADLINE: Alternative Communities Report**
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 12*
2024-04-09_Tues
AI Movies
2024-04-11_Thur
Generative Art: Runway
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 13*
2024-04-16_Tues
AI Movies (cont.)
2024-04-18_Thur Make-up Day
**DEADLINE: Research Paper**
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 14*
2024-04-23_Tues
Presentations: Generative Art
2024-04-25_Thur
Presentations: Generative Art
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Week 15*
2024-04-30_Tues
Presentations: Generative Art
2024-05-02_Thur
Presentations: Generative Art
**DEADLINE: Generative Art Projects**
2024-05-03 Fri **Last day of classes**
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### **Bibliography**
\[A\] = audiobook ([Audible.com](http://audible.com/))
Barthes, Roland. "Rhetoric of the Image," in *Image Music Text*. Essays selected and translated by Stephen Heath. London: FontanaPress, 1977: 32-51.
Dery, Mark. "Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delaney, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose," in *Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture* (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994
Eshun, Kodwo. "Further Considerations on Afrofuturism" (*The New Centennial Review*, vol. 3, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 287-302)
Fisher, Mark. "'The Slow Cancellation of the Future,'" in *Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures*. Winchester, UK: Zero Books, 2014.
Hoelzl, Ingrid, and Rémi Marie. "Expanded Photography (The Desire for Endlessness)," in *Softimage: Towards A New Theory of the Digital Image*. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2015.
\[A\] [Hon, Adrian](https://mssv.net/). *You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All*. New York: Basic Books, 2022.
Huang, Kalley. "[The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/technology/digital-cameras-olympus-canon.html?fbclid=IwAR1X2DutHJgtJFKB6XdcFjbm3kFB9P-IXPT7HckeGErsOrk0jTVGxugXYzk&referringSource=articleShare&smid=nytcore-ios-share&unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqIhkSVUbBCbJUNMnqBqCgvfeh7A9iX7iJSzQQj9Hwv4cGM2H_1bIfbd4ItA62TOdAt9dNbtlDNpD8thiBW0_AQ-5vsnD350fPyQ-rY_0Dm9qhMvBUL59-jTjPizkd7wmgezgtErDOzbvUaLc2CB2LF1isoIlIQ_xoQEAxqjPGuB009hsj7x2Vt0hG2B2NGTdtOLoCh5_JNyFchjZjwE8UOhdUjzQ9sWOv_NCKE4BTAKbEw4spDo0-9heO9kIPa7gLBZGeMv2gLoZD2cAP55OPFabG3prPPkN94E3_vHG)." *New York Times*, 7 January 2023.
[Manovich, Lev](https://manovich.net/), and Emanuele Arielli. [*Artificial Aesthetics: A Critical Guide to AI, Media and Design*](http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/artificial-aesthetics-book). 2019-22.
[McNeil, Joanne](https://joannemcneil.com/). *Lurking: How A Person Became A User*. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2020. ISBN: 978-1250785756.
Mumford, Lewis. "Authoritarian and Democratic Technics," *Technology and Culture* 5, no. 1 (Winter 1964): 1--8. https://doi.org/10.2307/3101118.
Narr, Greg, and Anh Luong, "Bored ghosts in the dating app assemblage: How dating app algorithms couple ghosting behaviors with a mood of boredom." *The Communication Review*, 5 October. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2022.2129949
"[Snapshot Aesthetics and the Strategic Imagination](http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/snapshot-aesthetics-and-the-strategic-imagination/)". *InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture*, 18 (10 April 2013).
\[A\] Tiffany, Kaitlyn. *Everything I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It*. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2022. ISBN: 978-0374539184.
\[A\] Womack, Ytasha L. [*Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture*](https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/emerson/reader.action?docID=1381831&ppg=1) (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#### Policies
------------------------------------------------------------------------
##### Academic Honesty
It is the responsibility of all Emerson students to know and adhere to the College's policy on plagiarism, which can be found at [emerson.edu/policies/plagiarism](https://emerson.edu/policies/plagiarism "Plagiarism"). If you have any question concerning the Emerson plagiarism policy or about documentation of sources in work you produce in this course, speak to your instructor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
##### Diversity
Every student in this class will be honored and respected as an individual with distinct experiences, talents, and backgrounds. Issues of diversity may be a part of class discussion, assigned material, and projects. The instructor will make every effort to ensure that an inclusive environment exists for all students. If you have any concerns or suggestions for improving the classroom climate, please do not hesitate to speak with the course instructor or to contact the Social Justice Center at 617-824-8528 or by email at [sjc\@emerson.edu](mailto:sjc@emerson.edu).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
##### Discrimination, Harassment, or Sexual Violence
If you have been impacted by discrimination, harassment, or sexual violence, I am available to support you, and help direct you to available resources on and off campus. Additionally, the Office of Equal Opportunity ([oeo\@emerson.edu](mailto:oeo@emerson.edu "Email the Office of Equal Opportunity"); 617-824-8999) is available to meet with you and discuss options to address concerns and to provide you with support resources. Please note that I because I am an Emerson employee, any information shared with me related to discrimination, harassment, or sexual violence will also be shared with the Office of Equal Opportunity. If you would like to speak with someone confidentially, please contact the Healing & Advocacy Collective, the Emerson Wellness Center, or the Center for Spiritual Life.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
##### Accessibility
Emerson is committed to providing equal access and support to all students who qualify through the provision of reasonable accommodations, so that each student may fully participate in the Emerson experience. If you have a disability that may require accommodations, please contact Student Accessibility Services (SAS) at [SAS\@emerson.edu](mailto:SAS@emerson.edu) or 617-824-8592 to make an appointment with an SAS staff member.
Students are encouraged to contact SAS early in the semester. Please be aware that accommodations are not applied retroactively.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
##### Writing & Academic Resource Center
Students are encouraged to visit and utilize the staff and resources of Emerson's Writing Center, particularly if they are struggling with written assignments. The Writing Center is located at 216 Tremont Street on the 5th floor (tel. 617-824-7874).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
##### In-Class Recording
Regardless of modality or whether this course is being recorded by the College with the permission of the students for classroom purposes, this class is considered a private environment and it is a setting in which copyrighted materials, creative works and educational records may be displayed. Audio or video recording, filming, photographing, viewing, transmitting, producing or publishing the image or voice of another person or that person's materials, creative works or educational records without the person's knowledge and expressed consent is strictly prohibited.
------------------------------------------------------------------------