Waubonsee Community College is offering a new humanities class starting in the spring 2019 semester.
The course, HUM202: Current Trends in Digital Humanities, will look at culture-defining technologies like computer-generated imagery, video games and social media without focusing on the technical aspects of these items. Instead, the course will focus on the human experience associated with these technologies. It will examine questions such as, what does it mean to be alive today, who are we and how are we representing ourselves, what is a digital life, how have we changed from cultures of the past and where are we going?
“It is sort of like pretending we are future archeologists discovering the media created today and then using those ‘artifacts’ to piece together the history of the early twenty-first century,’ said Aaron Lawler, Instructor of Humanities and creator of this course.
The course material is broken into three areas: aesthetics, technology and society. It will investigate new media art, the sensory experience, imagery, memory and the exchange of ideas, among other things.
Students will use the tools already used in the humanities (critical thinking, analysis, reasoning, debate, discussion and comparative research) to substantiate new media and will work to develop a language to describe the experience of new media.
Spring classes start on Tuesday, January 22 and registration is open until the day that classes start. Visit www.waubonsee.edu/register for more information about the registration process and to register for this class.
