Step beyond doomscrolling and start asking better questions about the digital world you live in. This course invites you to explore technology not just as a set of tools, but as a powerful force that shapes culture, creativity, politics, and everyday life.

You’ll meet and learn from leading digital thinkers and practitioners, including Duolingo executive Bożena Pajak, multimedia artist Kamila Kuc, and AI expert Aleksandra Przegalińska, gaining firsthand insight into how technologies are imagined, designed, and used. The class also takes learning beyond campus through archival research at the Museum of History and Industry’s 21st Century Exposition and visits to immersive exhibitions like the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and Indie Game Revolution at the Museum of Pop Culture.

This is a hands-on, creative course. You’ll experiment with AI tools such as ChatGPT, Grok, Midjourney, and Gemini to create a final project in a format you choose—audio, video, image, or poster. Your project will take the form of an original technological manifesto, blending critical thinking with creative expression.

Along the way, you’ll learn how to read digital culture closely and critically. Course materials range from speculative fiction by Stanisław Lem and essays on digital culture by Geert Lovink to technology-focused animation, memes, games, creepypastas, and AI-generated content. You’ll examine how platforms, power, and ideology shape what we see on our screens and what they encourage us to believe, ignore, or desire.

By the end of the course, you won’t just consume digital media more thoughtfully; You’ll understand it, question it, and use it with intention. You’ll leave with sharper critical skills, creative confidence, and a clearer sense of how to navigate the digital and analog worlds with curiosity, agency, and purpose.