This course investigates digital ways of doing as both critical inquiry and creative process, where digital tools are treated not just as media, but as cultural practices that shape how we think, communicate, and create. Students will explore the political, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions of contemporary media through hands-on experimentation, conceptual development, and collaborative production.
Each assignment engages distinct digital logics such as looping, layering, mapping, remixing, and poisoning, encouraging students to question the tools and techniques they use. Assessments emphasize process-based learning, including peer critique, self-assessment, and iterative feedback to support creative risk-taking and critical reflection.
Linked tutorials are accessible only while the course is in session.
Analyze a political, cultural, or advertising message, then design a 3–5 second looping GIF that critiques, amplifies, or subverts its core ideology.
Create a 1-minute narrative using simulated digital interactions (e.g., SMS, social media) to explore themes of privacy, surveillance, and digital communication.
Investigate a mobility issue in Hamilton and design a digital sensorial map that blends public data with emotional and visual insights.
Completed in groups of 3–4, this multi-week project includes class-weekly activities, progress check-ins, and a final deliverable/class-showcase. Attendance, participation, and collaborative contribution are essential and graded individually and collectively.
Cyborg Storytelling using Augmented Reality
Explore the human–technology relationship through a cyborg lens. Using individual research and the Pictarize AR platform, your group will create a speculative storybook that blends analogue materials with digital overlays and reflects themes such as retro-futurism and BIPOC futurism.
Glitching tools - AI data poisoning
Use adversarial prompting, Nightshade data poisoning, and AI remixing tools to create a series of glitch-based images. This option emphasizes the creative and ethical implications of manipulating AI-generated media to disrupt machine perception and explore speculative aesthetics.
Credits: Jessica A. Rodríguez