Course Description
This class explores hacking, remixing, and design as creative and critical practices. In the process we will expand the conceptual domains of these terms. We will explore hacking and remixing across a range of forms, including games, art, software, and social media. The historical, ethical, and rhetorical dimensions of hacking, remixing, and design will also be considered as students design their own projects. No programming experience is required.
DIG 401 borrows from design-focused workshops in the studio arts. A typical task might involve algorithmically deforming a text, using existing code you adapt for your own purposes. Another activity might involve hacking a piece of software, not in the sense of breaking into the code of the program, but rather by making the software do something unexpected. You might also create something new by remixing public domain video and audio. Throughout all of these experiments, we will keep our eye on broader questions of play, creativity, craft, design, originality, and the so-called “hacker ethic.”
Roughly half of our classes will be devoted to hands-on practice, often working in small groups. The rest of class time will be devoted to more theoretical approaches to the social and cultural questions surrounding hacking, remixing, and design. We may make use of Studio M and the DACE studio throughout the semester, even as we critique the ideology of making and design.
Enduring Concept
This course pairs experimentation and iterative design with a critical approach to technology. While there are many specific skills you will learn in the process (see below), there is an overarching concept that I hope endures in your mind long after the class is over. It is this: making can be a way of knowing.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
- Situate contemporary hacking and remixing practices within a broader historical context of cultural appropriation
- Apply theories of play and creativity to their own work
- Design a digital work that remixes text, data, or procedural elements of existing works
- Evaluate the ethical issues surrounding innovation and design
- Debate the impact of intellectual property considerations upon creativity