COURSE TITLE:  MEDIA AND EXPERIENCE

COURSE NUMBER: ART 448

Email: lee@leewalton.com

INSTRUCTOR: Lee Walton

COURSE SUMMARY:

This course will explore the use of media and performance to shape experiences, through creating meaning, building anticipation, activating people (in real life and on-line), orchestrating events and digital storytelling.

What are the cultural, political, and aesthetic possibilities of a society infused by social media, video, smart phones, apps, digital tools, peer networks, and locative media? How does culture of today differ from cultures of the past?  If culture is different, then how is the function and role of an artist also different?

TEACHING METHODS:

Through a balance of rigor and play, experiential research, discussions, screenings and creative actions we will immerse ourselves as critical participants into the contemporary media sphere of everyday life.

The course itself will involve communication in social media channels in addition to the traditional seminar format, thus we will be actively participating in the phenomena we are exploring as we go.

ONLINE SPACE:

As a class, we will be sharing content and projects through a private and secure site called SGROUPLES.  https://sgrouples.com/myworld.  You will get an invitation from to join.   This media space is for class use only.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the relation of aesthetics to media and experience

• Critically analyze various forms of media

• How do we create meaning in and around the contexts of contemporary social media?

• In what ways is new media technology enabling us to think differently about what it means to read, write, and participate?

• Strategically use media to shape experience, communicate, create audience and tell stories.

• Critically evaluate the potential for social media technologies to facilitate the formation of identities, communities, and activism.

• Gain a broader understanding of the role of the artist within contemporary culture

Students created 2-minute sound pieces designed specifically for people in cars. The sound pieces were broadcast on the 103.1 FM WUAG radio. This challenged students to design an experience through a non-visual medium and explore the possibilities of sound, public audience and concept.

Students were challenged to design walking experiences for one another.  The students then re-enacted their own walks and made short films to document and share the experience with the public.