Screen Technology and Culture
Overview
This unit will prepare students to thrive in contemporary screen cultures through an industry project with a real-world outcome. Through a focus on screen production, exhibition, and reception, this unit will chart how film, TV, and screen entertainment have been shaped by changes in technology. Students will develop the historical perspective and critical distance necessary to question where screen media technologies have affirmed existing power dynamics and chart how they can be used by those in marginalised positions to challenge dominant views. Students will critique changing screen technologies and their impact on culture at a global and a local level and contend with opportunities the changing technological landscape has for change.
Requisites
The requisite for this unit MDA30016 is:
100 credit points
01-June-2025
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Map the impact of changing technology on exhibition, distribution, and reception, including grassroots and marginalised and indigenous perspectives.
- Apply a transhistorical perspective to better anticipate changes in the relationship between screen media, technology, and culture
- Challenge conventions through theoretically informed and industry engaged critical perspectives.
- Apply critical perspectives to real-world tasks in problem-based and project-based learning
- Use collaborative and professional skills to plan, develop and implement an innovative media project that responds to an industry brief
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-campus Class |
2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| On-campus Class |
2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| Online Activities Canvas Modules |
3.67 | 12 weeks | 44 |
| Unspecified Activities Various |
4.83 | 12 weeks | 58 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | Individual | 30% | 1,2,3 |
| Technology Project | Individual | 30% | 2,3,4,5 |
| Applied Project | Group | 40% | 3,4,5 |
Content
- Film in the Digital Age
- Streaming Services and Content Curation
- Special Effects and Computer-Generated Imagery
- Videogames and Screen Theory
- Virtual Reality and Screen Cultures
- IMAX and 4D cinema technologies
- Community Distribution
- Screen Promotion and Audiences
- Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
- Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
- Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Collaboration and negotiation
- Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Teamwork roles and processes
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
- Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.