Media Arts

Unit Code: HAM434

Credit Points: 12.5 Credit Points

> Related Course/s
> Teaching Methods
> Assessment
> Aims & Objectives
> Generic Skills Outcomes
> Content
> Reading Materials

Related Course/s:

Aims & Objectives:

Students will be introduced to a variety of media arts forms, from animation and interactive narrative, to immersive, virtual environments and Net art.  Representing the work of established and emerging Australian and international media artists, the subject seeks to generate informed discussion about the very idea of a media arts culture– where it fits in relation to existing practices and modes of exhibition, aesthetic values of appreciation and reception, as well as its development out of a longer history of experimentation in the arts.

Teaching Methods:

Lectures and Tutorials

Assessment:

Major Essay or Project 60%, Media Arts Review 40%

Generic Skills Outcomes:

• Active engagement of students with a broad range of media arts works.
• Familiarity with critical writings on media arts and the prominent debates in the field.
• Understanding of the place of media arts in contemporary society.
• Attention to the issues involved in creating a media arts audience.

Content:

Media arts have become the most public and accessible form of inquiry into the interface between society, culture and technology.  The impact of digital technologies, in particular, has been profound and media artists are at the forefront of this inquiry in both their use of new media and their aesthetic exploration of its effects as subject matter. 

Reading Materials:

Manovich, L. The Language of New Media (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2001). |
Murphie, A. & Potts, J. Culture & Technology (London: Palgrave, 2002).
Tofts, D. Interzone: Media Arts in Australia (Melbourne: Thames & Hudson, 2005).