Media theory and ai

The course will address the philosophical and biopolitical implications of the contemporary mediascape and in particular of AI-enabled technologies by combining the methodologies and conceptual frameworks of media theory, aesthetics, and visual culture. The course will provide students with a set of tools for examining the role of images and media technologies in shaping cultural hegemony, reframing subjective and intersubjective identities, and influencing public opinion on social and political issues, taking into account the complex set of discursive and bodily practices which underpin our relationship to images in the era of algorithmic media. Students will achieve the capacity to critically read contemporary phenomena as part of a broader history of images and media technologies and to identify the conflicts that, at different epochs, images and media have entailed.

By the end of the course, students will be able to master and discuss some of the fundamental notions of aesthetics and media theory as applied to digital technologies and to put them into practice for the critical analysis of media and visual documents, in order to single out emerging issues as well as social and political implications. Having developed the ability to understand the dynamics of power, the conflicts, and the resistance that images and media bear, they will be able to recognise and examine the multi-layered manifestations of social agency expressed in contemporary mediality. By leveraging the set of competencies acquired, they will be able to independently assess the complex impact of visual media, especially driven by AI technologies, on global dynamics and develop original interpretations.