This 2-credit course invites students to remake existing photographs by adding, removing, combining, rearranging, and distorting content, and to create synthetic images using artificial intelligence (AI). Students are welcome to shoot their own photographs, however this is not required, and it is not necessary to have a camera. Instead, the emphasis will be on how to work creatively with image selection, manipulation, and display. The primary technical goal of the course will be to develop students’ skills in Photoshop, focusing on advanced, non-destructive techniques including a range of tools for selections and masking, multiple adjustment layers, and blending modes, as well as new tools for generative AI. Students will learn to make bold modifications, clean-edged collages, seamless composites, and synthetic images, while deepening their understanding of related historical and contemporary work. Readings, discussions, and slideshows will examine themes of redaction, negation, and erasure, as well as collecting, copying, collaging, and the complex relationship between photography and truth. Class time will include technical demonstrations and supervised practice in the digital photo lab, as well as group critiques and discussions. Students will be responsible for completing creative and technical assignments, short readings, and a self-directed final project.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop/improve their skills in editing digital images, with a particular emphasis on Photoshop
Learn about new developments in synthetic digital imagery and creative applications of generative artificial intelligence
Find new sources of inspiration, deepen their creative work and enhance their ability to present it
Create new work within short time periods in response to prompts
Create, develop, and revise an independent project
Practice contributing to critiques with peers and receiving feedback on their work
Build awareness of historical and contemporary artists and the breadth of possibilities for the medium
Make observations, think critically, and converse about photography and digital image culture
Actively reflect on their own questions and relationship to the ideas in the course, and on their creative and learning processes, and make connections to other areas of interest
Recognize their shared role in cultivating an engaging, respectful, and productive learning community
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 2
Th 10:00AM - 11:50AM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 12
Course Frequency: Every 2-3 years
Categories: 2000 , All courses , Fully In-Person , Photography , Two Credit
Tags: AI , artificial intelligence , collage , digital art , digital photography , digital skills , media studies , photography , Photoshop , synthetic images , technology