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2015/16 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

ARTF5192M Technology, Media and Critical Literacy

30 creditsClass Size: 10

Module manager: Dr Marcel Swiboda
Email: finmas@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2015/16

Module replaces

ARTF5020M Cities and Film

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

Each week students will explore diverse cases of technological and media culture and will be asked to consider the extent to which each case carries the potential for providing a basis for critical reflection, with specific regard to contemporary social, political and ethical concerns.

Objectives

The main objective of this module will be to foster critical, reflexive, ethical and socially responsible approaches to technological culture, in theory and in use. A range of critical approaches to media and technology will be considered, in order to explore the diverse configurations of power, individuation, collectivity and social control engendered by the epochal technological changes of industrial modernity and contemporary hypermedia culture.

Learning outcomes
To develop an awareness of the critical and contextual factors affecting the design, promotion, production and consumption of media and technological culture.
To foster a critically reflexive relationship to the real and imagined uses of technology, across a range of media-based applications.
To engage with the ethical, social and political implications of technological culture, in its practical deployments and as an object of critical enquiry.
To be able to write a scholarly assessed essay that is in dialogue with the main themes of the module.

Skills outcomes
Critical media and digital literacy skills.

Syllabus

The main critical focus of this module will be the work of key figures working in the digital humanities and digital studies, including N. Katherine Hayles, Bernard Stiegler and Kenneth Goldsmith.

Weekly themes:
Week 1 - Introduction
Week 2 - Digital humanities I/Deep attention meets hyper-attention
Week 3 - Digital humanities II/Electronic writing
Week 4 - Digital humanities III/Electronic criticism
Week 5 - Digital humanities IV/Algorithmic criticism
Week 6 - Reading Week
Week 7 - Creative copying and uncreative Writing
Week 8 - Critical soundings of contemporary digital culture
Week 9 - Critical culture I: Editing and annotation software as critical tools
Week 10 - Critical culture II: Ludic mappings of the city
Week 11 - Summary/conclusion

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	10	1.00	10.00
Seminar	10	2.00	20.00
Private study hours			270.00
Total Contact hours			30.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Private study

Students will be expected to develop their own assessed projects as part of their independent study. They will have the option of developing these projects collaboratively in small groups. Students will also be expected to write and research their assessed essays independently.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Progress will be formatively monitored periodically in class and summatively monitored in the module evaluations and end of module assessments.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	4000 word contextual essay	40.00
Essay	2000 words	20.00
Portfolio	Electronic Portfolio	40.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

The e-portfolio exercise is conceived to build on the traditional portfolio format, but with the emphasis on students’ exploring new media technology and enriched media content as a main focus of their assessments. Students will be given a choice of focus. The options they can choose from will vary in the amount of technical competency and media literacy required, but all require some engagement with these skills sets. The approaches they will be able to choose from might include: A virtual magazine. A musical playlist. An annotated film (NB. The films must either consist in student-generated content, be available on Box of Broadcasts or Creative Commons licensed). A combination of these and/or other methods of using digital technology as a form of documentary practice. Students will be briefed on this at the beginning of the module. The 2500 word contextual essay at the end of the module will provide a detailed rationale for the students’ chosen approaches, related to the module materials covered in the lectures/seminars.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 02/09/2015

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