What is the cinematic object of the twenty-first century? Where do we locate the essence of a medium that has undergone such a radical transformation? This course examines the intersection of film, digital cinema, and new media experiences such as YouTube, machinima and mobile cinema. Where many have spoken of the death of cinema in a digital era, we will conceptualise the complexity of cinema's evolution from its earliest celluloid incarnation to the technologies of digital simulation.

The Internet is a medium undergoing constant change, while also becoming progressively integrated into everyday life. Web Transformations critically examines recent changes in the technology, language, design and social networking on the internet. It introduces key skills in evaluation, strategy, interaction design and writing for the web within a historical context. Beyond the web, it evaluates the implications of emerging applications such as mobile technologies, internet of things and social media.

Are online encounters different from face-to-face encounters? What is the difference between the real and the virtual? How do online identities relate to offline identities? This unit of study introduces students to key perspectives, themes and debates in the expanding world of online interaction and cultural production including social media, art, games, virtual worlds, augmented reality and participatory culture. Is the term 'cyberworld' redundant in a world where online and offline experiences, cultural forms and identities have become increasingly enmeshed?

Digital Arts explores the ways digital and new media technologies are being used to transform cultural production, distribution and reception in the visual and performing arts, film and popular culture. Students will learn about the changing aesthetic, cultural and technical dimensions of new digital technologies and will develop the critical and analytical tools with which to discuss and evaluate digital art works and the ways that audiences interact with them.

Computer games have emerged as distinctive cultural forms, with their own aesthetics, design cultures, user communities and academic study. This unit of study uses historical and critical theories on games and play to explore how computer games work and to examine their complex interrelationships with culture. Drawing on readings from games studies, new media and design, students will analyse a range of different games and use hands-on exercises to develop their own game design concept.

Technology and Culture analyses the relationships between technological developments and cultural change, with a particular focus on digital media. This unit of study interrogates the changing conceptions of technology in society by tracing the influence of key works in the critical Humanities and social sciences. Through close readings and provocative discussion of advanced texts, students explore the significance of technology in social power, identity, gender, social shaping, class, space, assemblages, actor-networks, experience, thought, time, and the future.

How do people make and use new media technologies? To answer this question you need to know how to conduct research: a systematic investigation using carefully chosen and ethically sound methods. In this unit students prepare a research proposal to improve knowledge about the social implications of the latest developments in information technologies. They build their methodology by choosing a combination of methods: big data analysis; ethnography, interviews, surveys, online methods, discourse analysis, content analysis and/or case studies.

Honours is an intensive year-long program of advanced study based around research. Honours is undertaken after successful completion of a Bachelor degree and where the overall mark is a minimum credit average (70%). Entry into Honours is selective and work at this level is challenging. Honours is available in most subjects areas taught in the Faculty, and which are listed under Tables A and B in the Handbook. Students will complete a thesis and coursework seminars throughout the year. For further information contact the Honours Coordinator in the department or consult the Handbook entry for the relevant subject area.

Refer to ARIN4011

Refer to ARIN4011

Refer to ARIN4011

This unit provides students with an understanding of principles and technologies relevant to the design of social media, that is, media supporting social interaction. The unit covers the history and theory of social networks, techniques and methods for analysing social media networks, design principles and patterns for the creation of social media applications, and the development and delivery of social media strategy. Students will gain proficiency designing social media platforms and usage scenarios that solve a range of design challenges. Students will participate in, critically review and prototype new forms of sociable media to demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter.

This unit of study introduces students to the principles of visual design, including graphic design, colour theory and typography. Students will develop an understanding of how to successfully combine visual elements to effectively communicate an idea or concept, to describe a product, and to represent visual user interface elements in an interactive product. Using digital image manipulation tools, such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, students will learn how to develop design concepts and how to turn concepts into visual communication materials in the form of digital images.

This unit introduces students to web design and modern web technologies for the purpose of designing and prototyping web-based user interface solutions. Students will learn about design principles and patterns for the web and apply them in practical exercises that involve designing and creating interactive web applications. The unit will introduce web-based markup languages and frameworks for various media and platforms, such as desktop computers and mobile devices, with a focus on interaction design. Students will develop an understanding of web technologies and their role in user experience and interaction design, such as the use of web technologies for prototyping user interfaces. Prototyping techniques covered in this unit include: scripting and markup languages for enabling dynamic content and interactive designs, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The twentieth century was known as the cinematic century. How best should we understand film today? Once confined to the physical space of the movie theatre, the cinematic image is now mobile, part of our everyday mediascapes. This unit considers the broad history of film from the perspective of the contemporary moment, while also providing the conceptual tools for analyzing the future of film in a media-convergent world.

This unit examines academic, public and popular ideas about youth and practices of youth culture. It will introduce students to some of the current parameters for studying youth cultural forms and practices and the significance of various conceptions of youth. Points of focus will include popular images of youth and youth culture, discourses on (im)maturity, development, and training, and critical perspectives on youth as an identity and an experience.

Consumerism is a contradictory cultural formation. It is a source of meaning, pleasure and identity, but also a cause of environmental degradation, social injustice and, for some, individual alienation. This unit sets out some of the ethical, environmental and social problems associated with consumerism, and examines in detail some of the creative, ingenious and determined responses to these problems.

Cultural Studies was widely discussed as one of the "New Humanities" in the 1990s, but a long history of debates about and theories of culture precede the discipline, and the processes of deciding what are the key texts and concepts of Cultural Studies is ongoing. This unit overviews foundational and emerging critical concepts and writers in the field. Students will also undertake reading and analysis exercises designed to help them come to grips with using "theory" in their own work.

How has information technology shaped our past? This unit investigates the history of the Western world's technologies of literacy and organisation of knowledge. We start with ancient materials - clay, wax, skin, paper - and the organisation and circulation of information from antiquity to the Renaissance. How did pre-modern networks function? Who was the public? The author? We compare Western systems with those of China, the Islamic World, and the Americas, and conclude with the new challenges of the digital age.

This unit of study introduces students to the many uses of computers in the humanities with specific reference to linguistics: computer lexicography; building and searching text corpora, examining speech signals, collocations, style, authorship, discourse structure and syntactic constructions. Accessing information on languages and linguistics through library catalogues, electronic mailing lists, FTP sites and the World Wide Web. Other linguistics units (like phonetics, field methods, historical linguistics and semantics) will benefit from some basic knowledge of the use of computers.

'Language looks different when you look at a lot of it at once.' This unit of study introduces you to the use of computer software to look at a lot of language at once: Do we refer to 'men' and 'women' equally often? What are the five most frequent words in the English language? What is the difference between 'pure' and 'sheer'? How does television dialogue differ from real-world dialogue? And how does a computer help us to answer these and similar questions?

This unit examines a range of sociological theories and debates concerning science and technology. Students will investigate the two-way relationship between science/technology and society (ie. the social shaping of science and technology, and the impact of science and technology on society). Issues to be examined include the social production of science and technology, the science-technology relationship, the politics and economics of science and technology, science and technology in medicine, in reproduction, in the workplace, and the role of science and technology in environmentalism and the environmental movement.

The actions of both citizens and institutions are being scrutinised as never before. Personal information is a key commodity and resource, being routinely extracted from individuals as they partake in everyday activities. Surveillance has a complex form as both material force and discursive construction. Thus, the unit's objective is to equip students with the theoretical tools required to analytically comprehend the diverse ways in which surveillance is produced, represented and experienced.

This unit will introduce students to contemporary theories and practices of rhetoric, examining the work of Kenneth Burke and Chaïm Perelman, among others. It will trace the development of contemporary rhetoric from the classical era, comparing these approaches through examples of social, political, and popular rhetoric across a range of genres. Students will develop a better understanding of the relationship between rhetoric and writing and how to apply rhetorical principles to the analysis, interpretation and production of a range of texts.