The aim of this course is to enable students to discuss key concepts of critical theory—such as visual culture, ideology, representation, the culture industry, the society of the spectacle, surveillance, gender, simulation, politics of representation, and posthumanism—in the context of visual communication design. The course aims to help students analyze visual media products, advertisements, digital platforms, social media images, virtual spaces, and synthetic media practices through cultural, ideological, ethical, and aesthetic perspectives. In this respect, it contributes to visual communication design culture, theoretical knowledge, visual literacy, design research and criticism, ethical awareness, and interdisciplinary thinking.

The course examines the historical and theoretical foundations of visual culture through Benjamin, Adorno and Horkheimer, Marcuse, Barthes, Debord, Foucault, Berger, Mulvey, Sontag, Baudrillard, Stuart Hall, Bauman, and posthumanist thinkers. It focuses on the critical analysis of contemporary visual culture fields such as advertising, social media, photography, digital platforms, virtual spaces, synthetic media, and generative artificial intelligence.