STUDY PROGRAMME
Film & Animation

AFAM CODE
ABST51

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Phenomenology of contemporary arts

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Languages of contemporary art

CREDITS
4

APPROACH
Theoretical

This course dynamically reflects on practices, languages, models and representation systems of the contemporary art scene. Starting with an analysis of the most significant works and weighty themes in post-modernity, the course covers a constellation of ideas, theoretical positions and narrative compositions (political, social and genre-related), in consideration of the times and ways art is created and enjoyed within the global cultural space.

This teaching is made of a single module of 4 CFA.

By the end of the course, the students develop specific sociological skills in the study of social transformations triggered by the relation with digital media.

Specific goals: the students can develop their critical thinking in the analysis of media through the study of gender relations: their role in the definition of identities and digital-media mediated relations and how they generate different forms of inclusion/exclusion in representations, in the everyday life, politics and institutions.

This course provides an overview of the main analyses and debates - classic and emerging - linked to social and cultural transformations supported by digital media. The students are given the necessary theoretical and methodological tools to analyse the processes linked to the digital world from a sociological point of view, favouring a critical interpretation of the wider relations created between digital media and social reality.

During the course, the new media are analysed in relation to cultures and practices that take shape through digital media. Diverse issues will be covered: evolution of the theoretical approaches to digital media; creation of identities and digital media; mobile media and everyday life; temporality and digital media; different forms of online and offline political participation and their relation with the public sphere; forms of media appropriation by individuals and the collectivity; themes related to gender, sexuality and digital media.

Also, the course includes meetings with authors, that will be properly introduced, to discuss their work and ideas.

This is a theoretical course.

During the course, the students will carry out the following didactic activities, which may vary depending on the projects that will be developed:

• Front lectures

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools

Assessment criteria may include:

• Writing a paper

Further details on the specific tests will be given by each professor.

The final grade for this course will result from the weighted average of its modules.

Reference texts:

Delfanti A and Arvidsson A (2016) Introduzione ai media digitali, Bologna: Il Mulino

Farci M., Scarcelli C.M. (2022) Media digitali, Genere e Sessualità. Milano: Mondadori - chapters as instructed in class

Texts for in-depth study:

Zylinska, J. (Ed.). (2022). The Future of Media. MIT Press.

Mainardi A (2022). Le ragazze e la ridefinizione dei rapporti di genere online e offline, Pisa: ETS

Further in-depth study texts and news related to the course content will be communicated and shared during the course.