State of the Art: Transformations in Media, Art and Performance Studies

Course goals

After completing this course, the student will have:

• increased knowledge about (some) current trends within the broader field of Media, Art and Performance Studies;
• increased knowledge of theories and concepts that allow students to describe, analyze and critically discuss contemporary turns and transistions in the field of media, art and performance studies;
• trained to succinctly, clearly, and carefully analyze, summarize and discuss the main ideas as formulated in the assigned academic texts;
• trained to professionally communicate insights, reflections and questions about the discussed topics in oral presentations and discussions as well as academic writing;
• trained to communicate reflection on the relevance of the topics and reading of the course in relation to the student’s own research interests.

Content

This course introduces and explores a series of debates, concepts, and approaches that enable us to critically discuss, position and investigate contemporary turns and transitions in the (intersecting) field of media, art & performance studies. We focus on texts that address questions raised by the proliferation of emerging technologies and processes of transmission and mediatization, and their impact on cultural forms, practices, and various forms of spectatorship. Some central topics are technology, performativity, and mediation, and spatiality, materiality, and relationality. We will explore how these are reflected on in current debates and trace their roots in historical theoretical discourse.

This course provides you with background knowledge and tools to reflect on the fundamentals of current debates within Media, Art and Performance Studies, and to prepare you for the following core research seminars of Play, Perform Participate and Body, Mind, Method (both in course period 2), Between Media, Art, and Performance (course period 3), Emerging and Transforming (course period 4), as well as the electives offered in the program.



 

Additional information

Only open to students in the RMA Media, Art and Performance Studies.

Career orientation:
Thorough overview and discussion of current academic debates in relation to emerging and changing technologies, artistic practices and socio-cultural dynamics.