Building on foundational knowledge of copyright law, data protection, the right to one’s own image, and the rights to freedom of expression and artistic freedom, this course critically examines current developments in the field of digitality. The focus lies on digital cultures and their social and political dimensions, as well as their impact on education and teaching.

In this course, students will acquire the ability to understand, communicate, and practically apply the legal foundations of digitality. Participants will not only learn how to navigate copyright, image rights, and data protection, but also how to critically reflect on these issues and integrate them into their own practice. The goal is to enable students to independently incorporate these topics into their work while maintaining awareness of broader social and educational-political contexts and mechanisms. A particular emphasis is placed on digital self-defense.

The point of reference for this engagement is each participant’s own educational work and artistic practice, as well as their interaction with digital practices and technologies more generally. The course also provides space to share digital resources and discuss current events within the broader context of digitality.

Key Topics

• Copyright, image rights, and the right to one’s own image

• Open Access / Open Source

• Data protection and surveillance capitalism

• Platform capitalism

• Digital cultures and phenomena

• Media literacy

• Artistic freedom and censorship

• Artificial intelligence (AI)

Language of Instruction: German (bilingual German–English upon request)

Active participation (30%), research/reading preparation (30%), short presentation (40%)

Continuous assessment course

Since the course begins during the current semester, please contact charlotte.reuss@uni-ak.ac.at by email if you have scheduling conflicts but would still like to attend the class.

Further Reading/Literature (selection):

Tiziano Bonini/Emiliano Treré, Algorithms of Resistance. The Everyday Fight against Platform Power, Cambridge (MA) 2024.

Joy Buolamwini, Unmasking AI. My Mission to Protect what is Human in a World of Machines, Cambridge (MA) 2023.

Kyle Chayka, Filterworld. How Algorithms Flattened Culture, London 2024.

Mark Fisher, Postcapitalist Desire. The Final Lectures, London 2021.

Ester Freider, I'm like a pdf but a girl. Girlblogging as a nomadic pedagogy,  2022.

Kenneth Goldsmith, Duchamp Is My Lawyer, New York 2020.

Jacob Kastrenakes, How many layers of copyright infringement are in Emily Ratajkowski's new NFT? Ratajkowski trolls an art troll, The Verge, Apr 24, 2021.

Nicolas Maigret/Maria Roszkowska (Eds.), The Pirate Book, Ljubljana 2015.

Thomas S. Mullaney / Benjamin Peters / Mar Hicks / Kavita Philip (Hg.), Your Computer Is on Fire, Cambridge (MA) 2021.

Cathy O'Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction, New York 2016.

Felix Stalder, Der Autor am Ende der Gutenberg Galaxis, Zürich 2014.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The Fight for the Future at the New Frontier of Power, New York 2019.