Module code: 7CLST024W Credit level: 7 Length: one semester. Extension:

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1 MODULE PROFORMA Full module title: Digital Cultures Module code: 7CLST024W Credit level: 7 Length: one semester UK credit value: 20 ECTS value: 40 School and Department: ELCS Module Leader(s): Kaja Marczewska Extension: k.marczewska@westminter.ac.uk Host course: MA Cultural and Critical Studies Status: option Subject Board: MA Cultural and Critical Studies Pre-requisites: none Co-requisites: none Study abroad: Yes Special features: class visits and digital technology labs Access restrictions: none Summary of module content (approximately 400 characters): This module addresses one of the most urgent and, at the same time, elusive contemporary issues: the relationship between culture and the rise of digital media. It explores the production, circulation and cultural impact of digital technologies and considers how their emergence influences society, contemporary culture, and the relationship between the two. The module introduces key themes and debates in digital culture and explores ways I which digital environments impact how we produce, engage with, and thus understand, their cultural formations. Module aims This module aims to: interrogate the impact of digital technologies in relation to contemporary culture through discussions of representative digital phenomena and critical and theoretical debates in digital culture apply theory in practice by participating in digital culture develop advanced capacity to critically analyse digital cultures develop an interdisciplinary framework for analysing the complex interactions of digital technologies and diverse forms of cultural production today examine the implications of the ubiquitous digital technologies for cultural institutions Learning outcomes On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: 1. display an advanced knowledge of a range of the most up to date approaches to digital culture

2 2. use critical tools to analyse and interpret digital culture 3. demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge of the complex relationship between technological change and culture 4. develop advanced research skills relevant to working with digital sources 5. formulate clearly structures and well-articulated argument in written form 6. present and disseminate arguments in a variety of formats by participating in digital culture 7. Show understanding of the relationship between digital practices of knowledge and information dissemination and current debates in digital culture Indicative syllabus content new vs. old media networked culture big data and knowledge economy remix culture surveillance and secrecy the digital everyday/digital vernacular cultures identity and embodiment in networked life digital visual culture and digital aesthetics online communities and digital activism post-digital and the internet of things Teaching and learning methods The module is taught through a combination of seminars, class visits and digital technology labs. The latter will give students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with a range of digital tools and experiment with their use. These sessions are not aimed as skills training but designed as an opportunity for students to further their critical understanding of digital culture though practice and as a platform for exploring the participatory character of digital culture. No prior experience is necessary (lab sessions are designed with complete beginners in mind). Activity type Category Student learning and teaching hours* Lecture Seminar 16 Tutorial 1 Project supervisor Demonstration Practical Classes and workshops 6 Supervised time in studio/workshop Fieldwork External visits 2 Work based learning Total 25

3 Placement Placement Independent study Independent 175 Total student learning and teaching hours 200 *the hours per activity type are indicative and subject to change. Assessment rationale The assessment on this module is designed to demonstrate students advanced research skills (Learning outcome 4) and an ability to critically interrogate a range of digital culture phenomena by engaging with relevant theoretical debates (Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3) This module is designed to acquaint student with current debates in digital culture (Learning outcomes 1 and 2) but also to reflect on its participatory nature (Learning outcome 7). For this reason, students will be asked to write an essay and set up and maintain a blog, to demonstrate their familiarity with both theories and practices explored on the module (learning outcomes 1, 5, 6, 7). Assessment criteria Work will be assessed according to the general criteria (see the Postgraduate Study Guide). More specifically, the assessment criteria for this module are designed to test students ability to present a reasoned and critical study of a topic concisely and coherently in a written form appropriate to the context in which it is presented. In assessing the essay and blog posts the following criteria will be used: ability to identify and draw on relevant primary material and relevant theoretical literature; ability to formulate a clear argument on the basis of critical analysis of relevant literature; ability to communicate ideas effectively in a structured and coherent manner; use properly referenced source; ability to present work to a high academic standard. Assessment methods and weightings Students will be assessed on: a blog set up and maintained by students over the course of the module, including three blog posts of 700 words each, reflecting on digital projects completed as part of the digital technology labs. In digital technology labs, students will have an opportunity to complete three projects designed as a means of interrogating the participatory character of digital culture. The projects will require students to reflect on the material covered on the module through a diverse range of media, including but not limited to video, podcast, wiki, website, photo essay, curated social media stream, etc. The assessed blog posts will present a critical and theoretical reflection on the lab projects. essay of 2,500 words The topic, scope and requirements of the essay and blog will be determined by the Module Leader. Assessment name Weighting % Qualifying mark % Qualifying set Assessment type (e.g. essay, presentation, open exam or closed exam) Blog 50% 3 blog posts of 700 words each Essay 50% One essay of 2,500 words

4 Sources Essential Reading Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media (MIT Press, 2016) Nick Douglas, It s supposed to Look Like Shit: The Internet Ugly Aesthetics, Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 13, Issue 3 (2014) Charlie Gere, Digital Culture (Reaktion Books, 2008) Samuel Greengard, The Internet of Things (MIT Press, 2015) Henry Jenkins, Mizuko Ito and Dandah Boyd, Participatory Culture in a Networked Era (Polity press, 2015) Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska, Life After New Media: Mediation as a Vital Process, (MIT Press, 2012) Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (Penguin Books, 2004) Olia Lialina (ed.), Digital Folklore: To Computer Users, with Love and Respect (Merz Akademie, 2009) Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (MIT, 2002) Metahaven, Black Transparency: The Right to Know in the Age of Mass Surveillance (Sternberg, 2015) Laura Pointras (dir.), Citizen Four (2014) Morgan Quaintance, Being-Online, Art Monthly 363, February 2013 Hito Steyerl, In defense of the Poor Image, e-flux November 2009 Hito Steyerl, Too Much World: Is the Internet Dead?, e-flux November 2013 Further Reading Janet Abbate, Inventing the Internet (MIT Press, 1999) Ofer Bergman and Steve Whittaker, The Science of Managing Our Digital Stuff (MIT Press, 2016) David Berry, The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age (Palgrave, 2011) Finn Brunton, Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet (MIT Press, 2015) Finn Brunton and Helen Nissenbaum, Obfuscation: A User s Guide for Privacy and Protest (MIT Press, 2015) Sarah Cook, Information (MIT Press, 2016) Lauren Cornell and Ed Halter, Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century (MIT Press, 2015). Sean Cubitt, Digital Aesthetics (Sage, 2009) Seb Franklin, Control: Digitality as Cultural Logic (MIT Press, 2015) Alexander R. Galloways, The Interface effect (Polity press, 2012) Kenneth Goldsmith, Wasting Time on the Internet (Harper Perennial, 2016) Melissa Gronlund, Contemporary Art and Digital Culture (Routledge, 2016) Boris Groys, In the Flow (Verso 2016) N. Katherine Hayles, How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (University of Chicago Press, 2012) Tung-Hui Hu, A Prehistory of the Cloud (MIT Press, 2015) Patrick Jagoda, Network Aesthetics (University of Chicago Press, 2016) Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (NYU Press, 2008) Lars Bang Larsen, Networks (MIT Press, 2014) Martin Lister, New Media: a Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2008) Martin Lister, The Photographic Image in Digital Culture (Routledge, 2013) Geert Lovink, What is the Social in Social Media, e-flux, December 2012 Michael Mandiberg, Social Media reader (NYU Press, 2012) Ryan M. Milner, The World Made Meme (MIT Press, 2016)

5 Bernard Stiegler, States of Shock: Stupidity and Knowledge in the 21 st Century (Polity Press, 2014) Date of initial validation: Dates of approved modifications: Date of re-validation/review: