IMAGE, IDENTITY, ALGORITHM: RETHINKING PORTRAITURE IN THE AGE OF AI

Credit Hours: 3 · Graduate

Prompted by recent developments in AI-driven facial recognition technologies, this course examines the history of photographic portraiture with an eye to understanding how the medium has helped to question, define, and police conceptions of the “self.” Readings will include both classic essays by Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Siegfried Kracauer and others and recent discussions of machine surveillance, AI ethics, and contemporary image economies. Graduate students will be assigned 30-60 pages of extra weekly readings, attend 4-5 extra meetings, and be required to write a substantial research paper of at least 20 pages at the end of the semester.