20 courses with the subject DIG, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
DIG 101Introduction to Digital Studies
Instructor Kabala This interdisciplinary course offers a critical approach to contemporary digital culture and digital methodology. Topics will include the history of digital media, the rise of network society, and the influence of digital technology upon narrative, arts, and science. The course will require extensive work with computers, but no prior knowledge is necessary. Prerequisites & Notes (Fall)
DIG 109Introduction to Digital Humanities: Social Justice Collections and Liberal Arts Curricula
Instructor Sample Through a unique collaboration between ten peer colleges, this class uses college archives and collections as a multi-campus corpus to be investigated through innovative digital methodologies. In a multi-institutional collaborative effort, students will apply different digital humanities (DH) techniques, such as digital mapping, text analysis, and interactive digital exhibits, in order to formulate and address a research question about these collections. These questions will focus on activism, change, and social justice at the ten colleges. Students may examine forces of change that unfold slowly or may examine rapid “shocks to the system” like COVID-19, climate change, or political and economic upheaval. Topics might also include the nature of the social contract at our colleges, access and equity, health justice, racial justice, environmental justice, educational access and affordability, and more. The first half of the course will focus on the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the digital humanities, providing an introduction to some of the key methodologies of DH. The second half of the course revolves around a team-based project, in which students from different institutions work together to tackle their research question. Along the way, students will be guided by faculty, librarians, and archivists from several liberal arts colleges. By the end of the course, each team will release a public project that showcases their work. The class will combine synchronous and asynchronous instruction and is designed to accommodate students in multiple time zones. The course is offered online through LACOL and is limited to 10 Davidson students. Satisfies one of the “Production, Methodology, Practice” requirements for the Digital and Screen Media major offered through CIS. Satisfies requirement 1b: “One additional 100-, 200- or 300-level DIG course for the Digital Studies minor. Satisfies Historical Thought requirement.
Instructor Kabala Computational methods have significantly broadened and deepened the possibilities of inquiry in the Humanities. Programming skills have allowed textual scholars, in particular, to take advantage of enormous digitized corpora of historical documents, newspapers, novels, books, and social network data like Twitter feeds to pose new questions to the written word. We can now trace the changing semantics of words and phrases across millions of documents and hundreds of years, visualize centuries-old plot structures in new ways through sentiment analysis and character networks, and solve long-standing riddles of authorship attribution-among many other exciting feats. This course offers an introduction to computer science through applications in the Humanities. Students will learn to program in the Wolfram Language, aka Mathematica. The Wolfram Language is especially well suited for humanists: its rich documentation and natural language processing capabilities ensure a gentle introduction for first-time programmers, its symbolic computation structure allows us to work with texts written in any language and any alphabet, while its Notebook environment provides an interactive medium for publishing and sharing our results with peers. Mathematica also provides a great springboard for further work in computer science, physical computing, and Digital Studies more broadly. Satisfies a core requirement in the Computer Science minor. Satisfies a requirement in the Data Science interdisciplinary minor. Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Not open to students with credit for CSC 121, CSC 240 (= PHY 240), or CSC 209 (= BIO 209).
Instructor Staff “Data” is often considered to be the domain of scientists and statisticians. But with the proliferation of databases across nearly all aspects of modern life, data has become an everyday concern. Bank accounts, FaceTime records, Snapchat posts, Xbox leaderboards, CatCard purchases, your DNA-at the heart of all them is data. To live today is to breathe and exhale data, wherever you go, online and off. And at the same time data has become a function of daily life, it has also become the subject of-and vehicle for-literary and artistic critiques. This course explores the role of data and databases in contemporary culture, with an eye toward understanding how data shapes the way we perceive-and misperceive-the world. After historicizing the origins of modern databases in 19th century industrialization and census efforts, we will survey our present-day data landscape, considering data mining, data visualization, and database art. We will encounter nearly evangelical enthusiasm for “Big Data” but also rigorous criticisms of what we might call naïve empiricism. The ethical considerations of data collection and analysis will be at the forefront of our conversation, as will be issues surrounding privacy and surveillance. Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies interdisciplinary major and minor. Counts as an elective in the Data Science interdisciplinary minor. Prerequisites & Notes (Fall)
Instructor Mundy This course examines the history of technologies used in surveillance and the implications for human culture and individual expectations of privacy. We will explore themes in quantitative and qualitative tracking methods beginning with Bentham’s Panopticon and the invention of photography, and tracing developments and uses of counting machines, cryptology, and computing, paying particular attention to how these methods preempt contemporary networked and so-called “Big Data” methods such as deep packet searching, social media data science, or the NSA’s Prism program. We will analyze these methods and their intended outcomes and assess their impact in their search to gain knowledge on or control individuals or populations, thwart enemies, or understand demographics in the pursuit of capital. This course will be of interest to students studying media and communications culture, information science, among others. Satisfies a requirement in the Digital Studies minor. Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
Instructor Sample This class explores the intersection of death and technology. What happens to our digital personas when we die? How does technology change grieving? What kind of ghosts inhabit our machines? What’s the 21st century equivalent of a gothic haunted house? We will consider these questions and many more as we wrestle with the meaning of death in the digital age. Among the primary sources we will study will be historical archives, media representations of disaster, contemporary horror novels and films, and television series such as Dead Set and Black Mirror . Satisfies a requirement in the Film and Media Studies Interdisciplinary Minor. Prerequisites & Notes (Spring)
Instructor Staff Love letters written by a computer. A poem two hundred trillion stanzas long. A message encoded in a microbe’s DNA. The mysterious disappearance of a teenager, told through YouTube and IMs. An ocean buoy tweeting mash-ups of Moby Dick. Welcome to the weird world of electronic literature-digitally born poetic, narrative, and aesthetic works read on computers, tablets, and phones. Experimental, evocative, and sometimes simply puzzling, electronic literature challenges our assumptions about reading, writing, authorship, and meaning. Yet e-lit, as it is often called, has also profoundly influenced mainstream culture. Literature, film, comics, apps, and video games have all learned lessons from electronic literature. This course will trace the rise of electronic literature and explore both historic and contemporary works of e-lit. We’ll begin with electronic literature’s roots in avant-garde art and Cold War technology, and follow e-lit through the birth of the personal computer into the era of the Web and smartphone. At every step along the way the expressive power of new media-the way digital media enables and shapes different modes of creative and cultural expression-will be of particular interest to us. Satisfies a requirement in the English major. Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies interdisciplinary major and minor. Satisfies a requirement for the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor. Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement.
Instructor Sample More and more the stories that compel us are vast narratives that sprawl across novels, comics, games, podcasts, performances, toys, amusement parks, and other platforms. These stories can span generations, even centuries. Vast transmedia narratives include popular franchises like Harry Potter or the Marvel Cinematic Universe but also absurdist productions like This House Has People in It or experimental literary works such as House of Leaves . While media franchises and massive texts are nothing new, social media and the web have dramatically expanded the possibilities of vast narratives. The internet has also empowered fans to participate in these vast narratives, generating wikis, fanfiction, vids, LARPs, and other cultural productions that extend the narrative universe in unexpected ways. This class examines the history of vast narratives and explores how contemporary transmedia storytelling operates. We’ll tackle questions about intellectual property, world-building, continuity, procedural generation, and interactivity. Along the way, we’ll pay special attention to the power of collaborative authorship and participatory culture. Satisfies Digital and Media Studies major requirement. Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Instructor Dietrick This course explores the relationships between art and electronic media in the 20th and 21st centuries. Focusing on the shift from industrial to information-driven economies, the curriculum outlines digital art’s historical trajectory, from important precursors like photography and early analog examples like video art. Special attention is given to film, gaming, 3D printing, architecture and interdisciplinary art practices. Satisfies a requirement in the Digital Studies minor. Satisfies an elective requirement in the Film and Media Studies interdisciplinary minor. Satisfies a Visual & Performing Arts requirement.
Instructor Mundy In this course, students will learn to conceptualize, design, and program mobile and console games that are playful, yet serious. Through a combination of technical and game-oriented topics including design, usability, physics, and coding in C#, as well as readings and discussions around the history, culture, and issues in game studies, students will execute interactive works that reflect a high degree of thoughtfulness towards the construction and impact on their intended audience. Satisfies a requirement in the Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor. Prerequisites & Notes Programming experience is highly recomended.
Instructor Mundy Using skills developed in ART 111 (Introduction to Digital Art), students will learn to create concept art, design levels, and develop animated characters for games, films, and virtual worlds. We will find inspiration in a wide variety of work, including classic animators (such as Lotte Reiniger, or Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas and Preston Blair at Disney), as well as contemporary game artists like Rebecca Sugar, Richard Hogg, and others. Inspired by these studies, students will develop their own ideas while experimenting with different software and workflows, including tools such as Fresco, Procreate, After Effects, Figma, Photoshop, and Blender. Students will also learn how to prepare their work and add it to a game using the Unity game engine. Class outcomes include game assets and short films as standalone portfolio pieces, and a final game project. This class is taught at the same time as DIG 250 Game Development to encourage collaborative games. Prior familiarity in game programming, art, or design is not required. Satisfies Film, Media, and Digital Studies major requirement. Satisfies Digital Studies minor requirement. Prerequisites & Notes ART 111 Introcudction to Digital Art or previous experience and instructor’s permission.
Instructor Kabala A course in the theories and practices of digital mapping as applied to the humanities and social sciences. The course brings together readings in the digital spatial humanities as well as hands-on mapping and spatial analysis through programming in the Wolfram Language (Mathematica). Students will learn how to choose geographical projections; work with points, lines and polygons; find, extract and analyze spatial data from humanistic materials; and tell stories (and lies) with maps. They will also read, think and write about real and imagined geographies, the meaning of place and memory, as well as the creation of space. The course will conclude with independent student projects on topics of their choosing. No background experience required. Satisfies a requirement in the Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor. Satisfies a requirement in the Data Science interdisciplinary minor. Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Instructor Sample, Ramanujan This course examines the ethical, social, and cultural dimensions of artificial intelligence. Through fiction, film, historical and theoretical readings, and hands-on work with AI tools and techniques, students will explore critical questions about AI and machine learning. The course will also critique representations of AI in popular culture. The course places a particular emphasis on understanding the intersection of AI with power, justice, labor, and the environment. This course does not count for the Computer Science major or minor. Satisfies Digital and Screen Media major requirement. Satisfies Digital Studies minor requirement. Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.
DIG 320Technology, Knowledge, and Wisdom from Antiquity to Today
Instructor Kabala While students these days are surrounded by technology and data, often from the time they wake up until the time they fall asleep, they would do well to think more deeply about why and how they are engaging with it. Luckily, questions about the wise and prudent ways in which humans should engage with technology are not new: they have in fact concerned generations of thinkers and spiritual masters going back thousands of years. And so this course invites students to confront the wisdom of contemporary technology not only by exploring contemporary data problems through hands-on computational exercises, but also by grounding their explorations in the lessons of ancient and medieval wisdom traditions. Students will read and discuss Platonic dialogues, Greco-Roman mythology, and Old Testament apocrypha, all while complete computational exercises in such fields as text analysis and machine learning using the Wolfram Language. We will also think about the wisdom of data and technology as presented in contemporary fiction, filmmaking, and oracles (Chat gpt). Satisfies Digital Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Data Science minor requirement. Satisfies Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Instructor Mundy This course will explore the use of sensors, motors, and other electronics to create web interfaces that interact with the physical world. We will hack, modify, and create systems which detect analog data and transmit it across the internet to our custom web applications or mobile devices and then back again. This course is designed for artists, designers, and programmers who wish to create culturally-relevant and technically-sophisticated electronics projects that are both utilitarian and artistic at once.
Instructor Staff This class explores the relationship between gender and technology in the digital age. We will consider the countless ways modern technology shapes our attitudes toward and experiences of sex, power, play, and work, and even the way digital technology shapes our bodies. Other topics will include the representation of gender in digital media, feminism and protest in digital spaces, queer gaming, and gender performance through social media. Satisfies a requirement in the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor. Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies interdisciplinary major and minor. Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
Instructor Mundy This course introduces students to advanced interface design and programming concepts for creating dynamic internet applications for both practical and expressive ends. We will explore themes through readings, discussion, and film that address the public, chaotic, and political space that is the internet. Students will be challenged to not only conceptualize, but execute culturally-relevant web-based applications using professional tools in order to comment on, critique, or celebrate online culture to challenge our understanding of the web and its possibilities. The technologies and skills this course introduces allows for alternating themes of game design, data visualization, and mobile application development. Satisfies Digital and Screen Media Interdisciplinary Studies major and minor requirement. Satisifes Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes
Instructor Mundy This is a game development course for students with substantial experience in game production and an interest in creating meaningful games and playful experiences beyond the everyday. Prior familiarity in game programming, game art production, and/or game design will prepare students to realize ambitious projects with a focus on advanced concepts using the Unity game engine. Students will work in teams to produce projects that explore and expand the potential of the medium through novel mechanics, interactivity, and other strategies. Each semester will include a theme, around which content and outcomes will be organized. For example, the course may include a service learning component that involves outside collaborators, hosting a game jam, or a focus on mobile games that use device sensors in unique ways. Students should have experience with a game engine like Unity, e.g. through DIG 250 (Game Development) or CSC 361 (Computer Graphics). Students will also explore special topics of their own interest, such as animation, game physics, interactivity, art production, or level design, to name a few. Satisfies Digital and Screen Media major and minor requirement.
Instructor Sample This seminar will explore hacking and remixing as creative and critical practices. In the process we will expand the conceptual domains of both terms. We will explore hacking and remixing across a range of forms, including code, software, social media, and digital writing. The social, ethical, and rhetorical dimensions of hacking and remixing will also be considered as students design their own hacks and remixes. Satisfies a requirement in the Communication Studies interdisciplinary major and minor. Prerequisites & Notes (Spring)
Instructor Staff Humanities Startup blends humanities research with startup culture in a collaborative theory and practice-based course. The class operates at the intersection of creative computing, digital culture, and humanities methodologies. Over the duration of the semester students will conceive, research, ideate, develop, and publicize a project that responds to a multidisciplinary research subject. While the class as a whole produces a single project, students will work on teams on specific aspects of that project. The collaborative project will be both technologically proficient and socially and historically conscious. The project might be serious or playful, and may take the shape of prototypes, software, hardware, public engagement, or any combination of these. No prerequisites are required; the course will play to students’ existing strengths while simultaneously pushing them to cultivate new areas of knowledge. Satisfies a requirement of the Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor and the Digital and Screen Media interdisciplinary major.
