ENGLIT 0812 - MEDIA/ECOLOGY

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
From the late twentieth century to the present, ecology as a scientific discipline and set of cultural narratives has risen to the forefront of knowledge production as a way to study and understand complex biological systems, their environments, and their internal dynamics. During the same period, media systems have grown exponentially in complexity until they too have begun to exhibit some of the behaviors of ecological systems, including self-organization, feedback, evolution, and emergent properties. The term "media ecology" captures both this new, nonlinear systems approach to understanding media itself as well as the intersection between natural ecosystems and the technological assemblages with which they are intertwined. This course will explore both media that interface with natural ecosystems and works that engage contemporary media systems at different scales. The secret life of information, contagious media, and the post-natural ecologies of our present and future will challenge us to conceive of Media and Ecology as a single coupled system: the emblem of our contemporary environment. Students will have the option to produce collaborative media projects that explore the themes of the course. These can take the form of simulations, games, network graphing, film or video projects, local ecosystem analysis and/or visualization, or the mapping and analysis of a media ecosystem that interfaces with the environment.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis
Course Attributes: DSAS Literature General Ed. Requirement, SCI Polymathic Contexts: Humanistic GE. Req.

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