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After having completed to course successfully, students (1) critically reconstruct a complex academic concept to related concepts and to developments in the field; (2) write a critical literature overview; (3) orally present findings of their research inspired by one of the central categories discussed in this course.
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In contemporary culture and society, we use media for playing, performing, and participating in all kinds of processes of cultural (re)production, citizen engagement and social interaction. The aim of the course is to discuss the intermedial valences of play, performance and participation as increasingly intersecting practices.
By a mediatized culture and society we mean our contemporary world as it is to a large extent constituted by media rather than merely being represented by them. Media are intrinsically interrelated and, from a historical perspective, function within larger contexts of media constellations, configurations, and networks (i.e. ecosystems, assemblages, mesh works). We use media to connect to the world and to stage ourselves in front of others, with whom we create and share our world.
Play refers to forms of more or less rule-guided behavior and activities engaged in for the purpose of struggle/negotiation, simulation, introspection and pleasure. It refers not only to literally playing games but to playful interactions between different media and to playfulness as an aspect of media literacy, which is increasingly required by our mediatized culture and society.
Perform – as in both performance and performativity – articulates pragmatic aspects of world-making and staging as these pre-eminently occur in our mediatized culture and society. Moreover, this concept includes the self-referentiality and self-reflexivity that the double consciousness of being a performer and/or an audience implies.
Participate relates to how media provide us with means of communication and interaction and how we, in turn, inform such media. In terms of access, engagement and power, media play a decisive role in constructing identities and citizenship and, consequently, in processes of inclusion and exclusion.
Career orientation:
Excursion to relevant institutions in the field and discussion with professionals in the field.
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