Course Description
Summary
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.
