Does it ever feel like TikTok knows you better than you know yourself? Today, digital platforms have the uncanny ability to connect with and influence our innermost states of mind; computers finish our sentences for us and anticipate the fluctuations in our moods. But long before Instagram’s “For You” page, older media and art forms—like poetry and personal letters—gave us the power to transmit our thoughts and carry the voices of others around with us. This course will examine the themes of intimacy and proximity in relation to technology. As we learn to pay attention, write, think, and speak like scholars, we will explore the idea of intimacy—what it is, how it’s experienced, and how it’s crafted through language, media, and design. How does writing create a sense of personal connection? What does it mean to feel addressed, known, and understood by a book, a person, or a piece of software? As this is a writing-intensive course, your main goal will be to practice and improve your writing by responding to poems, films, stories, and essays that engage these questions.
- Docente: James Draney