Class Art and digital context

This course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of digital arts by introducing key analytical frameworks that enable students to explore the main trends in contemporary art in depth. It encourages critical engagement with the diverse range of artistic practices in the digital context, prompting students to reflect on contemporary works through ethical, political, and social lenses. Additionally, the course seeks to equip students with a specific vocabulary suited to the field of digital art, enabling them to recognize, interpret, and contextualize works within this constantly evolving landscape.

Not applicable

1. The Digital Revolution 1.1. Turing and the Birth of Digital Computers 1.2. Digital Technologies in Contemporary Art and Culture   2. The Crisis of Aesthetic Modernity 2.1. The Avant-Garde Crisis 2.2. Is There a Digital Aesthetic?   3. Archaeology and Genealogy of Technological Arts 3.1. Art and Reproducibility 3.2. The Aesthetics of the Machine 3.3. The Sonic Turn   4. Categories of Digital Aesthetics 4.1. Interactivity 4.2. Relationality 4.3. Intermediality 4.4. Hybridity 4.5. Immersion 4.6. Participation   5. Case Studies

Theoretical lectures with in-class debates – students will be required to present and discuss selected texts; Analysis and discussion of case studies; Viewing and discussion of documentaries and/or other relevant digital content related to the syllabus; Computational and interactive demonstrations.

Berry, D. & Dieter, M. (eds). (2015). Postdigital Aesthetics: Art, Computation and Design. Palgrave Cubitt, Sean (1998), Digital Aesthetics. London, Sage Belting, H. & Buddensieg, A. (eds.), (2009).The Global Art World. Ostfildern Crowther, P. (2019). Digital Art, Aesthetic Creation. Routledge Drucker, J. (2009). SpecLab : digital aesthetics and projects in speculative computing. The University of Chicago Press Ernst, W. (2013), Digital Memory and the Archive. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press Kwastek, K. (2013). Aesthetics of interaction in digital art. MIT Press Manovich, L. (2002).  The Language of New Media, Cambridge MA, The MIT Press Trodd, T. (2015). The art of mechanical reproduction: technology and aesthetics from Duchamp to the digital. The University of Chicago Press Turing, A. (2004) The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life. Oxford University Press