Software has become our interface to the world, to others, to our memory and our imagination—a universal language through which the world speaks, and a universal engine on which the world runs.

Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command

This class is a hands-on introduction to theories, tools, and practices relevant to digital media making. You likely have some experience in this arena. Digital media are less rare, exotic creatures than the fabric of everyday life: if you’ve written an email or taken a picture with your phone, you’ve engaged in digital production. This class asks you to think about how digital media move through and shape the world, and how you – as media makers – might move and shape the world yourselves. Together, we’ll consider: archives, sound effects, creative reuse, interactivity, color, type, adaptation, circulation, non-linear storytelling, maps and place-based media, and whatever else collective interest leads us to. We’ll pay attention to context, too, investigating how a media object’s history – who made it, for what audience, to what purpose, with what tools – influences its meaning and travels.