Studies in the History of Media Art: Queer Cybercultures

• J - 18:00 - 20:15
• EV-1.615
  
• INSTRUCTOR: MIKHEL PROULX

This course introduces the field of Queer digital visual culture. To this end, we will survey contemporary visual art and performance, new media and communications studies, technology history, and Queer theory to ask: how does sexuality, gender and race shape digital cultures? From the early days of Cyberfeminism and Queer digital utopianism, to today’s problems of revenge porn, filter bubbles and social media fatigue, questions of embodiment and identity are central to discourse about the Internet. As such, we will look to feminist, Queer and anti-racist practices to find radical approaches to online community, identity, pleasure and play. Our study of Queer visual cultural production will draw from examples from contemporary art, design and performance practice (since the advent of the WWW), and will also explore the vernacular visual world of online cultures: from social media networks and the exchange of selfies and memes, to visual languages in dating and sex platforms, posting boards and activist networks.