Advanced Seminar: Media’s Material and Environmental Relations

Catalog description

In response to the popular conception of the “immaterial” Internet, and “datafication” of all aspects of life, how might we rethink the material lives of media and their entanglement with our urban and natural environments? This advanced seminar will introduce students to various theoretical frameworks in media studies including new materialism, media archaeology, studies of media infrastructures and ecologies, cultural geographies, and elemental media. Students will learn to develop research on the material history of media and also generate critical cartography to assess media’s material imprints and their socio-political implications. Prerequisite: Junior standing OR What is New Media. Fulfillment: IMA elective or Advanced elective; IMB major IMA/IMB elective.