HC444H/421H: Data as Metamorphosis: Investigating with Art in Issues of Gender, Labor and Technology

Professor: Hiba Ali

4.00 credits

  • CRN 25513: Tuesday & Thursday, 1400-1550 @ ED 117

Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Arts & Letters Colloquium and US: Difference, Inequality, Agency (US) Area of Inquiry. If the student has already taken an Arts & Letters Colloquium, this class will fulfill an Elective Colloquium and US Area of Inquiry.

In this course, we will examining the role of technology and labor as they intersect with art. Through creative workshops, we will learn, discuss and make digital art with open source (and free to use) technologies, such as Twine, YouTube 360 (VR) engine, and Unity video game engine. We will conduct readings and learn about art work that helps us imagine a world beyond extractive methodologies toward an ethics of care and mutual support.

Inspired by artworks such as Elisa Giardina Papa, Technologies of Care, 2016, and Tabita Rezaire, Deep Down Tidal (2017) and books such as Precarity Lab, Technoprecarious (2020) and Virginia Eubanks, Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (2018) and aided by guest lecturers, thoughtful communal feedback, workshops and interactive in-person and online learning exercises, we will hone in on our own creative projects and approaches.