Week 1 – Images, Power and Politics
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 1; Analyzing Media Texts Ch. 5
Week 2 – Symbols, Codes and Semiotics
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 2; Understanding Comics Ch. 1-2
Week 3—Visual Codes, Genre and Intertextuality
Read: Analyzing Media Texts Chs. 1-2.
Assignment: Perform a critical analysis of an image from popular culture.
Week 4 – The Creation of Visual Culture pt. 1
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 3; Ways of Seeing Chpts. 1-3
Week 5 –The Creation of Visual Culture pt. 2
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 4, Ch. 8; Ways of Seeing Chpts. 4-5
Week 6 – On Photography
Read: On Photography (“In Plato’s Cave,” “The Image-World”), Susan Sontag; “Authoring the Image,” Fred Ritchen
Week 7 –Visual Technology
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 5; The Rise of the Image Chpts. 10-12
Week 8—Midterm Week
Week 9 –Media in Everyday Life
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 6; Ways of Seeing Chpts. 6-7
Week 10—Media Literacy: Reading Ads and Consumer Culture
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 7; handouts
Assignment: Create a counter-ad
Week 11—Memes, Viral Imagery and Culture Jamming
TBA
Week 12—Type Fonts, Visual Data and Information Graphics
Stop Stealing Sheep Chpts. 1-2; handouts
Assignment: Create an information graphic
Week 13—Global Visual Culture
Read: Practice of Looking Ch. 10; TBA
Week 14 – Image Ethics
Read: TBA
Final project due: Ethnographic image study