New Media Study Course: Participatory Media Art

Posted by Tim on June 12, 2020 in Academics, General Education Requirements

“Participatory Media​ Art” 

DMS 417 – Special Topics Course 

Fall 2020 

Course Overview

What is participation and media in our digital age? 

In “Participatory Media Art” students will focus on the history, theories, ethics, and aesthetics of participatory media art. Drawing from terms such as “social practice” or “community based art,” students will learn about participatory practices across media platforms. With a special emphasis on community engagement and design, students learn from a broad range of disciplines including sociology, history, critical theory, public health, media studies, and theatre. In doing so, we’ll explore how media can be participatory and interactive for social change. Through rigorous reading, writing, and discussion of academic articles and case studies, students will pose critical questions on participatory media art together. Topics explored include media representation, HIV/AIDS, incarceration, institutional critique, gender justice, and others. In addition, the course employs a practice-based component through workshops and in the creation of final participatory media projects, including a collective “syllabus take-over” in the last quarter of the course. Through multiple dimensions, students in “Participatory Media Art” learn about the possibilities of participation, community, and media critical for our digital age.

About the Professor 

Margaret Rhee is a poet, scholar,and new media artist. Her participatory media projects includes The Kimchi Poetry Machine (Electronic Literature Collection) and From the Center, a decade long project of feminist digital storytelling and HIV/AIDS education in the San Francisco Jail. For this project, she was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Public Service and a Honorable Mention for the Yamashita Prize for Social Change. As a poet and scholar, she has published widely. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in ethnic studies with a designated emphasis in new media studies. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Study at SUNY Buffalo where she co-leads Palah Light Lab, a creative space that fosters poetry, participation, and pedagogy through technology and equity.​