Screen Media and Mediated Experiences

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

We live in a world mediated by screen technologies, and our lives are marked by radical transitions and advances in media that have altered our perception and experience of reality. This subject analyses the nature of current screen media, including film, computer game, television, internet and mobile technologies and it explores their histories and genealogies -- what Zielinski calls the "deep time" of screen media history. Following an interdisciplinary approach, this subject will study the history of various screen media, asking how they contributed to perceptions of the world. It will examine their relationship with their audiences and their links with science on the one hand and art, entertainment and illusionism on the other. This subject will explore why humans have a long history of desiring to extend our senses and intensify reality through technological mediation. It will investigate the concepts of embodied technology and the technologized body within the context of public and private screen mediated spaces.

• explores the impact that screen media have had in defining and mediating our interaction with the world around us;
• Evaluates screen media such as television, film, computer games, the internet, mobile phones and iPods within the broader historical context of other media forms such as magic lanterns, stereoscopes, panorama and perspective boxes;
• Examines the impact that digital media have had on shaping the social sphere – from gallery spaces and art exhibitions, to retail centres and shopping experiences;
• Studies the interpretative and theoretical models that have emerged in response to the screen media and their histories – from analogue to digital traditions; and
• considers the following in relation to screen media: narrative and multilinearity, illusion and representation, identity, virtual communities, interactivity and database aesthetics.

2000 word seminar paper discussing the writing of a chosen topic selected by the student and based on weekly seminar topics (40%), and a 3000 word essay that critically examines the historical and theoretical responses to systems of perception that are technologically mediated (60%).

Note: Students must complete all assignments by their due date and attend at least 80% of classes to be eligible for assessment.

A subject reader will be available.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• be able to demonstrate a high level of written and oral communication skills, including conformity to academic protocols of presentation and research;
• be able to demonstrate a high level of competence in reading, synthesizing, and presenting to others the relevant historical and theoretical material; and
• be able to present original research that includes reflection on their own learning.