This course provides a basis for understanding creative and aesthetic aspects of digital culture and should be taken in the first semester of the specialization. It complements DIKULT104.
The course is divided into three modules that address digital artistic expression and cultural artifacts, three genres that are different from each other but nonetheless closely related in their relationship to digital culture.
These artworks and cultural artifacts are native to the web and to the computer, including digital art, electronic literature, and computer games. Traditional conceptions of genre and categories of cultural artifact, such as art object, performance, novel, poem, and game are undergoing redefinition in the context of digital culture, and new genres of cultural artifacts are emerging, which require new models of textual analysis specific to the computational media and network context in which these artifacts are produced and distributed. DIKULT103 provides an overview of these emerging genres, and an introduction to the models of academic discourse and analysis particular to them. Within the framework of genre studies, students in the course will learn to analyze contemporary digital artifacts, both structurally, and as text, images, and events
Knowledge
After taking the course the candidate should have knowledge of...
Skills
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General competence
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There are thirteen weeks of teaching including two lecture-free weeks for student projects. The course is divided into three modules. Each week there is one two-hour lecture and one one-hour workshop.
It is important that students attend the orientation session early in the semester.
The first week provides a general introduction to digital genres. The last week summarizes the three modules and provides an opportunity for exam review.
Lectures are based on a student-active learning model and will usually involve a combination of short presentations from the lecturer, small group discussions, student presentations and group projects, plenary discussion and work in the computer lab researching digital objects.
Students will read specified assignments in advance of the lectures. Classes will often include student presentations related to the reading. Some homework assignments will be given in addition to the reading, such as responses to readings, online discussions, and research outside of the curriculum to investigate examples of types of games, electronic literature and art.
Students are expected to work 20 hours on the course from the beginning until the end of the teaching period, including during weeks when there is no teaching. These hours will be used for lectures, lab sessions, reading of course literature, seminar, exercises, writing of obligatory assignments and researching relevant material in the library and on the Web (books, articles, vidoes).
It is expected that during the teaching-free weeks students will engage in course-related reading, in writing assignments and with preparation for the exam.
Course attendance and participation in all course activities is obligatory. Course participation is approved by the course leader. Absences exceeding 25% of the course will require a note from a medical doctor. Students who do not fulfil this requirement cannot take the final exam.
Students are required to turn in a written of about 800 words on a given topic that will be assigned about midway through the semester. The assignment must be approved before the student can take the exam. Thesis must follow academic standards among others argument and citation (cf. introductory course). Students get the result and a brief comment on the assignment in good time before the exam. Assignment is either marked Approved or not Approved. If the assignment is not approved, the student will have one opportunity to revise and resubmit the assignment.
Students must pass a midterm multiple-choice exam with questions from the whole curriculum. The exam will be given on mitt.uib.no and will be open-book. The date of the exam will be announced at the start of the semester. The exam is graded Approved or Not Approved based on a percentage grade of 75%. Students who do not pass the midterm exam on the first attempt may retake it up to three more times. It is required to pass the midterm in order to take the final exam.
The course concludes a home exam (7 days) about 4,000 words that will be based on comprehensive understanding of the course learning content. The exam may include several short answer and essay questions. All sub-questions must be answered in order to get a grade. The exam will receive one holistic letter grade.
Students can write the home exam in English or Norwegian.
Grade scale A-F.
Complete explanation of the scale can be found on Mitt UiB
Students will read articles and books on digital art, electronic literature and computer games, and will additionally read and experience a selection of works within each genre. Works will vary from semester to semester. As some games or works of digital literature could be played or read endlessly, and in this case it will not be expected that the works will be read exhaustively but substantively. Students should be able to describe and analyze each work and all academic readings included the curriculum. We also expect that students do independent research into relevant material online about genres.
Some parts of the written curriculum should be purchased, while others are freely accessible on-line. The literary works, artworks and games that students should know for the exam are either freely accessible on-line, or installed on the PC room. In some cases, students had to buy a game or other work. Students do not need a game console or other special equipment.
Students will access teaching materials online. Some articles are selected from two article collections we've selected for Digital Culture: Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, and The New Media Reader.
All required course material is in English, with the exception of a few selections of Nordic electronic literature. When Nordic language work is involved, English language alternative readings will be available. Students can also write exercises about and refer to texts in other languages that they speak.
The list of mandatory or recommended technical material, as far as is known beforehand, is available on the My UiB before semester and will needed. The books should be accessible at Akademika before semester, or downloadable as eBooks.