my digital self
Fine Arts as Global Perspective - HNRS 2113

Instructor(s): Johannes Barfield

Course Description

"my digital self" studies authenticity, cultural ownership, the virtual human, and the restitution of artifacts in the digital age. This seminar course will discuss avatars, digital ownership, the creative process post copyright laws, deepfake as a counter-narrative, music sampling, and objecthood. The class structure will consist of group discussions and analyzing literature, films, and music. In addition, we will examine specific readings such as "The Ecstasy of Influence'' by Jonathan Letham, "Real Fake: Playing with Reality in the Age of AI, Deepfakes and the Metaverse" by Thijs Pepping, and "Restitution: The Return of Cultural Artefacts'' by Alexander Herman.
In this course, I want us to think critically about why and how your digital self may have potentially altered the physical world. For example, do you own your digital self, and is your digital self authentic? A deepfake is typically a digitally altered video of a human whose face or likeness has been replaced with someone else's to trick the viewer. With deepfake technology becoming almost indistinguishable from what is real, is video surveillance admissible in court anymore? Will you even need a physical body in this potential future world of artificial intelligence and virtual humans? 
As a class, I want us to consider questions like, who owns your culture? Is it you, a museum, a corporation, no one, or everyone? It is stated that the British Museum has collected hundreds of artifacts that may have been looted. The British Museum is currently returning about 72 artifacts that were in question. What does that mean for culture? Lastly, I want us to consider how some art practices like collaging and sampling intersect cultural appropriation, looting, and free creative expression. What does it mean to loot a facsimile or copy of a thing?

Texts

Real Fake:Playing with Reality in the Age of AI, Deepfakes and the Metaverse by Thijs Pepping, Menno Doorn, Sander Duivestein
● Restitution: The Return of Cultural Artefacts by Alexander Herman
● The Ecstasy of Influence by Jonathan Letham

Requirements

Assignments will explore virtual human existence and how it connects to objecthood and ownership. We will give presentations on topics like “who is your digital self?” Also, we will make video essays exploring technology and ownership topics. Lastly, we will conduct class discussions about readings and group projects. For example, we will scan ourselves into the computer using photogrammetry and create a digital version of ourselves. Next, groups will collage them into a single person.

About the Instructor(s): Johannes Barfield

Johannes Barfield is an American sample-based visual artist who works in installation, video, photography, XR (extended reality), collage, and sound. His work explores childhood memories, joy, appropriation as a means for survival, the repatriation of artifacts, objecthood, extinction, and the music played at family cookouts.
Johannes resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He received an MFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia.