Analog/Digital Cultures 4
Clemens Apprich
Institute of Fine Arts and Media Art, Media Theory
2025S, Lecture and Discussion (VD), 2.0 ECTS, 2.0 semester hours, course number S05275
Description
What are digital cultures? The question is typically answered by reference to social media platforms, online services, or the computer in general. However, despite the ubiquity of digital media technologies in our everyday culture, a lack of knowledge prevails as to what ‘the digital’ actually is. The lecture series poses this seemingly simple, but all the more complex question by interrogating the ‘deep history’ of the digital in relation to non-digital (i.e. analog) cultures. Based on key references from media as well as cultural studies (including critical theory, algorithm and critical data studies), we will look into the transition from analog to digital cultures not simply in terms of a linear media change, but rather as a complex, often complicated interweaving between the two – an interrelation which affects the way we think, perceive and act in the world.
This semester's focus will be on digital aesthetics. We will look at the history of computer art and ask whether an aesthetic of the digital is possible. While aesthetics is usually associated with sensual experience, the digital presupposes a discreteness of the world. By making productive the contradictions between the anaologue and the digital, the continuous and the discontinuous, we will inquire into the possibility of machines to create something new.
Examination Modalities
Students will take an oral exam by the end of the lecture, for which they can choose three references from the lecture.
Alternatively, students can write a final essay or book review (ca. 15.000 characters, including spaces and footnotes, but excluding appendices, references, or figures) by the end of the term (deadline: August 31, 2025). The essay/book review should demonstrate a critical engagement with at least three references from the lecture.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with student assistant Selia Fischer: selia.fischer@uni-ak.ac.at
Comments
The lecture will be held in English. Essays/book reviews can be submitted in English or German. A detailed course outline with assigned readings will be made available online.
Critical learning environment: I firmly believe that you are all here to learn, despite different motivations and levels of study. This also means that I expect you to be present, both physically and mentally. I will not be keeping an attendance list or forbidding the use of laptops, but please remember that a critical learning environment includes your willingness to facilitate it.
Further inspiration on the question of what constitutes digital cultures can be found in this interview series.
Key Words
digital cultures, media theory, medientheorie, media history, analog computing, cybernetics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, media genealogy
Dates
04 March 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
11 March 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
18 March 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
25 March 2025, 10:00–11:30 !! KUNSTHALLE Museumsquartier !! , "Exhibition 'Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991'"
01 April 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
08 April 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
29 April 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
13 May 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
20 May 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
27 May 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
03 June 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 21
17 June 2025, 10:00–11:30 Seminar Room 20
Course Enrolment
From 03 February 2025, 00:00
Via online registration
Curriculum Allocation
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Schwerpunkt Digitale Grundbildung (DGB): Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/020.20
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Schwerpunkt Digitale Grundbildung (DGB): Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/020.20
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
Transformation Studies. Art x Science (Bachelor): Understand! Transformation: Analog/Digital Cultures, VD (Angewandte) 162/002.29
Transformation Studies. Art x Science (Bachelor): Focus! Transformation Areas: Digital Transformation 162/040.10
TransArts - Transdisciplinary Arts (Bachelor): Theoretical foundations: Theoretical foundations 180/003.01
Expanded Museum Studies (Master): Electives: Media Theory 537/080.20
Media Arts: Specialisation in Transmedia Arts (1. Section): Wissenschaftlich theoretische und historische Grundlagen: Medientheorie, Mediengeschichte 566/108.02
Media Arts: Specialisation in Transmedia Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie und Geschichte : Medientheorie, Mediengeschichte 566/208.02
Media Arts: Specialisation in Digital Arts (1. Section): Wissenschaftlich theoretische und historische Grundlagen: Medientheorie, Mediengeschichte 567/108.02
Media Arts: Specialisation in Digital Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie, Geschichte: Medientheorie, Mediengeschichte 567/208.02
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 1: Media Theory 568/005.06
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 2: Media Theory 568/006.11
Cross-Disciplinary Strategies (Master): Study Areas 1-3: Study Area 2: Science and Technology 569/020.02
Design: Specialisation in Design and Narrative Media (1. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Fundamentals: Media Theory 576/103.06
Design: Specialisation in Design and Narrative Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Fundamentals: Media Theory and Semiotics 576/203.05
Design: Specialisation in Communication Design (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Media Theory and Semiotics 577/203.05
Design: Specialisation in Fashion Design (1. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Free Elective Pool Methodological and Theoretical Basics 584/103.80
Conservation and Restoration (2. Section): Geisteswissenschaften: Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte 588/204.10
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Media Theory,Art&Knowledge Transfer,Th. of Architecture,Th. and Hist. of Design 605/202.02
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Free Electives out of Scientific and Research Practice 605/202.80
Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (1. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Media Theory and Communication Theory 626/103.05
Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 626/203.02
Cross-Disciplinary Strategies (Bachelor): Science and Technology: Deepening / Application 700/002.20
Co-registration: possible
Attending individual courses: possible