Exploring Technological Landscapes
Despite the pastoral imagery the word evokes, a landscape is as much a product of technology as of nature. Conversely, our language for computer-, code- and cloud-based innovations is full of spatial metaphors—referencing networks, websites and -scapes of all kinds. This dynamic is at the core of Technological Landscapes, a Digital + Media studio in which students explore the role of new and pervasive technologies in everyday life—and in their own research and making.
“This course encourages a rigorous, long-term research process that extends beyond the studio,” says Assistant Professor Alyson Ogasian MFA 15 DM, who co-taught the course last fall with Digital + Media Department Head Shona Kitchen. Collaborating with researchers throughout southern New England, students developed projects around the theme of catastrophe: What is the relationship between technological progress—or failures—and disaster? And how can artists use digital and other sophisticated tools to communicate about catastrophes—both large and small, sudden and gradual?
In previous years Technological Landscapes has focused on technology as an enhancement of human vision or a tool for revealing worlds of sound in remote locations, with students traveling to Silicon Valley, the American Southwest and other locations to conduct advanced research.
