Ebook: Making Media Theory: Thinking Critically with Technology

Making Media Theory is about the study and practice of media theory. It looks at experimental research methods and engages in media analysis, inviting readers to engage directly with the materiality of media – looking at the media itself and considering the implications having to do with labor and technoculture. Within applied media theory, the author creates digital objects to think with, where digital art practices serve as problem-solving tool for social and philosophical issues.
Examples include the smartphone basket – where one of the workshop chapters asks the readers to weave a straw basket, equip it with a sensor and LCD screen, and then use the object to think about how other cultures and identities might theorize media. It’s to think about the politics of appropriation. The book is organized as having a theory chapter and then a practice chapter, which is accompanied by an online component containing updates, links and supplemental material.