At the end of the module, students will gain a good understanding of the digital products of contemporary visual cultures. They will be able to critically approach and discuss in a problematizing way the main theoretical issues concerning the creation, dissemination, and remix of images in the digital and postdigital mediascape, also taking into account their historical roots and sociocultural impact.
None; this course will be held in english
Lectures that will encourage the active participation of the class. Collective vision and commentary of relevant audiovisual passages. In the second part of the course, students will be asked to actively engage in the lectures through presentations and seminar discussions.
Attending students:
Non-attending students: Written examination. The students will be asked to answer four open questions in no more than 120 minutes. The knowledge of the syllabus' contents, the appropriate use of a specific terminology and the ability to autonomously apply the learnt concepts will equally define the final evaluation
The module introduces the students to the main theoretical issues concerning visual culture, conceived as a critical field deeply intertwined with the forms of mediatization and digitization at stake in contemporary societies. The first part of the course will define a possible transdisciplinary link between visual culture studies and digital humanities, both considered as metareflexive perspectives aimed at addressing the possibilities and limits of digital cultures. The second part of the module will focus more specifically on qualitative and quantitative approaches to visuality, thus sketching a double perspective that will consider both archaeological and contemporary approaches. In this second (and more seminar-like) part of the course, data culture will be questioned as a structure of power, showing how it reinforces and perpetuates stereotypes and forms of marginalization.
Attendance is not mandatory, but encouraged and recommended. Textbooks will be available at the University Library (Sant'Agostino's building), while the movies to watch will be available at Fondazione Alasca (inside Via Pignolo's building).
