Throughout history, secular and sacred cultures have worked to impart a shared sense of what is real. People have told stories, shown artifacts, performed rituals and practices, or read crucial texts in order to build cohesive communities. Recent technological changes have introduced a dizzying number of platforms to publicize wildly competing claims about reality. In this course we will take a deep dive into concepts of the real, the post-real, simulation, interfaces, memes, representation, and more. We will pair creative assignments with critical readings and artworks by Indigenous, Afro-diasporic, Latinx, Asian, and other global theorists and artists, including the Initiative for Indigenous Futures, Baudrillard, Ruha Benjamin, data labs, and more. Over the semester, we will work with AI systems and companions on hands-on experimental research projects. This course increases our capacity to navigate the questions and opportunities of this new reality.

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