Course description

What is the role of machine learning in the production, consumption and conservation of culture? How do smartphones and social media platforms alter how we conceptualise history and art? Reflecting on these questions and more, this course considers how digital technologies are shaping culture and its institutions. This course aims to balance theory with practice based concerns. In the first half of the semester students engage with key scholarship and case studies in regard to the digitisation of cultural collections and consider the extent to which digital systems enhance cultural access to physical and virtual contexts. The role of the museum as a media producer is discussed and its adaption of digital technologies considered within its longer history. In the second half, students develop knowledge of metadata, digital collecting and approaches to digitisation through a framework where they learn and apply practical digital skills. Over the semester there will be guest lecturers from the gallery, library, archive, museum (GLAM) sectors as well as training sessions with technology experts.

Archived offerings