Real Virtual Feelings by Ani Liu
How can art become a form of activism? This course investigates how technological media shape culture and society, and how we can actively reshape these dynamics through art and design. We will engage in the practice of “speculative”, and “tactical” design using various digital tools to envision different futures, reflecting on social, political, and ethical implications of various technologies. Traversing digital and physical realities, students will develop skills in the Adobe suite, 3d modeling, rendering, AR/VR. The final project will be a technology-based artwork that actively engages with critical social discourse and activism.
Course structure and topics:
week 1: The Power of Art. What can art do? How can art be a tool for civic engagement?
week 2: Art, Technology and Critical Design
week 3: Who’s Future? Tools for Imagining Different Futures
week 4: Tactical Media and our Post-Truth Era
week 5: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Technology
week 6: MIDTERM: Project Proposals Due
week 7: Decolonizing Cyberspace: Unwinding Cultural Appropriation and Colonialist Ideologies
week 8: Critical Ecologies and Rewilding the Anthropocene
week 9: Globalization, Capitalism, Labor and the Quantification of Life
week 10: All Technology is Assistive: Rethinking Abelism & Disability
week 11: Participatory Art, Social Practice, Art as Intervention
week 12: Final Review
