ARTH 348 - Special Topics in Art and Film: Interactivity and Immersion
- W - 12:15-14:45
- EVA-114
- INSTRUCTOR: DR. MAY CHEW
Interactivity and immersion have become near ubiquitous forms of audience engagement in contemporary popular culture (think Oculus Rift, 3D films, immersive gaming, live tweeting, etc.). These forms of engagement often hinge on their promise to collapse the expanse between work and user, bestowing the latter with the supposed power to shape narrative and aesthetic outcomes according to their own desires. This course will critically examine how interactivity and immersion have developed as modes of engagement that entice art and film audiences, often through appeals to democratic notions of inclusion, participation, and user agency. A primary goal of this course is to historicize interactivity and immersion, and specifically, to situate them within Western modernity’s development of visual technologies. Throughout the course, we will explore the many ways in which technologies touted as “new” and revolutionary are in fact rooted in historical forms like medieval art and 18th century panoramas. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course will examine films, paintings, video games, public art, and architecture as just some of the historical and contemporary examples of interactive and immersive forms. In our exploration of participatory cultures, we will work to challenge the easy conflation of interactivity with active engagement, and conversely, immersion with passive consumption. We will also interrogate the ways that, despite its promises, interactivity and immersion can fall short of actually granting equal access to all, especially certain racialized and differently-abled users/audiences.