DIGITAL AESTHETICS - 2020/1

Module code: DMA2007

Module Overview

An optional course of the second year of the programme, aimed at students particularly interested in gaining skills of aesthetic approach and analysis of digital media arts and objects.


Module provider

Music and Media

Module Leader

POULAKI Maria (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Overall student workload

Independent Learning Hours: 117

Lecture Hours: 27

Seminar Hours: 6

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:




  • Introduction to aesthetics

  • Aesthetic approach of various digital objects, processes and metaphors (e.g. the desktop metaphor, crashes, bugs, errors, and glitches)

  • Aesthetics of code

  • Interface aesthetics 

  • Aesthetic analysis of digital arts case studies


Assessment pattern

Assessment type Unit of assessment Weighting
Coursework INDIVIDUAL ESSAY 60
Oral exam or presentation GROUP PROJECTS & PRESENTATION 40

Alternative Assessment

An individual presentation (live or recorded) may be submitted as an alternative to the group presentation

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to test students’ subject knowledge and analytical skills (Essay) and to design and share a digital art project that self-consciously thematises and develops the aesthetics of a digital object (Group Project).



Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:




  • Written essay (2500 words), (week 10)

  • Group Project with presentation  (week 14)



Formative assessment and feedback



Will include individual short essay tasks (weeks 2 and 7) and group presentation of project ideas (week 3). Feedback will be given in one-to-one tutorials and during seminars.


Module aims

  • Demonstrate how digital objects and interfaces transform our aesthetic experience (along with our everyday conduct and behavior)
  • Consider the role of digital arts in the transformation of aesthetic experience
  • Highlight the visual, material and processual forms of digital culture as aesthetic objects, rather than simply as tools, services, or diagrams
  • Provide an overview of the ways digital arts intervene in these forms

Learning outcomes

Attributes Developed
1 Demonstrate understanding of aesthetic dimensions of digital objects and their uses. KC
2 Demonstrate understanding of the implications and potential of digital aesthetics within the field of Digital Media Arts KC
3 Understand the potential of Digital Media Arts to intervene in other cultural forms through aesthetic placement and design of (transformative) texts KC
4 Produce an artifact designed with the remits of digital aesthetics in mind, with skill and imagination, by making appropriate use of relevant materials and processes. PT
5 Respond to time-constrained briefs in creative and imaginative ways PT
6 Study independently, set goals, manage their own workloads and meet deadlines T

Attributes Developed

C - Cognitive/analytical

K - Subject knowledge

T - Transferable skills

P - Professional/Practical skills

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:




  • Train students to reflect on the aesthetics of digital arts and objects

  • Provide students with skills of aesthetic analysis that they will apply to the design of a digital object



Encourage students to experience in a knowledgeable way the aesthetic 




  • dimension of digital objects and digital artworks

  • Enrich students’ overall engagement with the programme’s learning object and their creative practice as part of it



The learning and teaching methods include:



Lectures (3 hrs x 9 weeks) Seminars (3 hrs x 2 weeks), Group and individual formative tasks, Class discussion, Presentations.


Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: DMA2007

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2020/1 academic year.