Next semester, honors students will have the opportunity to examine theorist Walter Benjamin’s concerns about art’s role in the face of technological progress in the Retro Reading course led by Curtis Maughan, director of the World Languages and Digital Humanities Studio. Close-readings will be enhanced by explorations of AI platforms and open world video games, among other contemporary technologies.

In “Technology in Crisis,” students will be guided through an extensive analysis of one of the most influential essays of the 20th century, “The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility” (1936) by the German Jewish theorist-philosopher-public intellectual Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). As movies became the primary mode of mainstream entertainment in the 1930s, many of Benjamin’s peers questioned whether film could be considered art. Benjamin, however, posed a different question: How has film changed the very nature of art? Since its publication, Benjamin’s essay has been referenced whenever society has had to reconsider the boundaries of art in the face of technological advancements, from the golden age of television to the digital era, making it especially relevant to our current moment at the dawn of AI.

“Anyone who is excited by, worried about, or interested in how the explosion of generative AI will radically change our media landscape should consider taking this course,” Maughan said. “We will develop and deepen our understanding of the present moment by looking back to an analogous moment in the 1930s, when the explosive growth of film began to impact all elements of daily life, from the dissemination of news to the creation of celebrity to methods of scientific inquiry.”

While the course no longer requires an application, interested students should register early to secure a spot. For more information about the course, contact Maughan at cmaughan@uark.edu.