Most media we encounter pass through a digital process or format of some kind. The digital is a given. As students of Cinema and Media Studies, you study the history, theory, and production of moving images across a variety of forms and formats. You, more than anyone, are aware the history of cinema and photography--and indeed of other media, such as print and broadcast--involves many images produced without the aid of computation. Yet even as you study century-old media, you typically encounter these through digital transfers and restorations. Indeed, the digital offers forms of access that artists and scholars dreamed of since cinema's inception.
Meanwhile, artists and hobbyists increasingly turn to analog or hybrid analog-digital processes for new forms of experience. Photochemical film, CRT monitors, VHS, cassette tapes, and hybrid formats such as risograph printing are all in revival. A new suite of digital tools have emerged that promise to “slow down” or digital media consumption, from premium “dumb phones” to low-distraction web browsers. We have become skeptical of the idea that newer and faster are automatically better.
This seminar explores the concepts of the “analog,” of “analog/digital” hybridity, and of alternative forms of digital media (“slow media”). We will pursue a workshop format that combines in-class activities, student presentations, discussions, independent work, and “show and tell” sessions so that students can apply the concepts of analog and “slow media” to their own thinking, research, writing, and artistic practice.