Since this is an optional subject for students in their third or fourth year, they should have a basic knowledge of film history and philosophy. The students must also be capable of putting forward complex critical analysis of cultural products within the terrain of media, as well as the technologies that produce these objects.

1. Knowledge and use of concepts on image culture. 2. Knowledge of philosophical interpretations of contemporary audio-visual communication. 3. Interpretation of audio-visual productions in light of said theories and of major cultural transitions. 4. Handling of analysis categories on forms of representation in mass culture. 5. Incorporation of theoretic tools to study the impact of mass media in our consciousness and sensibility.

1. Introduction. Philosophy and audio-visual media. - What is Philosophy? - What is a medium? - Why is it necessary to think media? 2. Media, entertainment or critique? - Archaeology of the media. - Thinking the photographic image. - Sound recordings. A critical approach. - Cinema. From the fair grounds to mass seduction. - Television, consumerism and new dynamics. - Video cameras and talking back. - Internet, smart phones and screens in dialogue, or not? 3. Critical Approaches. - Cultural Studies. - Feminism and Queer Theory. - Artistic discourses. - Contemporary Visual Culture, the image and the gaze. 4. Meta-representations - Thinking through images - Images that think themselves 5. Group presentations.

The course will be structured as a series of introductory lessons guided by the professor. Each of the topics shall be presented by the professor, who will concentrate on a series of concepts and showcase a series of examples to be analyzed in class. To complete the session, the students are expected to engage in debate and comment of recommended texts and the examples seen in class. The last sessions will be dedicated to group presentations.