Global Media & Communications Seminar (GMCS) (350-0-1)

Instructors

Melissa Blanco

Meeting Info

University Library 3622: Wed 10:00AM - 12:50PM

Overview of class

How does a performance become valuable? Who decides, and in whose name? This seminar treats dance, theatre and their media circulation as places where value, belonging and identity are produced, branded and contested. We move from semiotics and theories of value through branding, nation branding and institutional diversity work, to citizenship, choreopolitics and the new pressures of platforms and artificial intelligence.

London is the culminating case study. Its arts ecology is shaped by public funding, post-imperial nation branding, and very public debates about diversity and citizenship, which makes a useful contrast with the philanthropic model we know in Chicago. After ten weeks of preparation, we spend a week in London seeing performances and meeting artists, administrators and scholars at a variety of institutions.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives for this course are for students to be able to: (1) Collaboratively assess how creative industries are structured and create value for particular global cities, (2) Experiment with different media formats to demonstrate how creative work differs across transnational contexts, and (3) Explore how global, digitally connected markets impact media making groups, movements, and cultures.

Teaching Method

Lecture/demonstrations, discussions, workshops, guest and student presentations and site visits.

Class Attributes

SoC Individual and Social Behavior Distro