Digital Arts and New Media M.F.A.

Introduction

New technologies have profoundly changed contemporary culture and inevitably altered the role of the arts in society. The Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Program serves as a center for the development and study of digital media and the cultures that they have helped create. Faculty and students are drawn from a variety of backgrounds, such as the arts, computer engineering, humanities, the sciences, and social sciences, to pursue interdisciplinary artistic and scholarly research and production in the context of a broad examination of digital arts and cultures.

Curriculum

The DANM curriculum is designed to provide students with both the practical training and critical dialogue necessary to pursue their own individual goals as artists and cultural practitioners. The curriculum comprises core and research group-specific courses. Required core courses explore an array of recent methods and approaches in digital arts and culture. The research groups enable the student to pursue the construction of specific genealogies and theories with a sustained focus on a particular topic, by engaging in various dialogues at the intersection of theory and practice. While participating in the research group the students will also develop their thesis project and paper.

Research Groups

The DANM cohort is subdivided into research groups, each group of students focusing on a different research topic within the broader field of digital arts and new media. Each research group is led by a faculty member (or members) who serves as the faculty advisor to all students in their group. This faculty lead establishes a set of courses specific to their research topic, which are taken in addition to the core courses. Through these courses and faculty mentorship, students learn collaborative and practical research methodologies specific to their topic, have the opportunity to participate in professional-level academic research, and are provided a peer group pursuing similar research to their own. Coursework involves students working on faculty-initiated and -directed research projects, and creating their own related individual and collaborative projects. Research groups may also result in result in publications and exhibitions. The research experience and coursework in the research groups is intended to inform the student’s thesis project. Students are admitted into a specific research group, and generally take the courses specific to their group in their first year. 

Research groups may vary in topic every three years, depending on participating faculty. The DANM Principal Faculty will review the progress of current research groups every spring quarter in relation to the overall direction of the program and needed areas of expansion or shift. For fall 2020 and beyond, admission there are the following research groups: Games and Playable Media, which explores radical approaches to interactive and playable media design;  Future Stages which proposes a radical rethinking of live performance using critical and performative technologies, and the Isaac Julien lab which focuses on digital installation and multiple viewpoint technologies. The Isaac Julien lab also offers a concentration for students interested in media curating.

Applications

Prospective students in the Digital Arts and New Media program will have a foundation in the arts with some demonstrated interest in technology or a foundation in technology with demonstrated background in the arts. Many, but not all, entering students will have completed a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) program in one or more of the arts disciplines (art or art history, film, multimedia, music, theater, video, etc.) or a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) program in computer science or computer or electrical engineering. Other successful applicants will have a B.A. or B.S. in another field but will be able to show substantial achievement in the arts, in technology, or in digital arts.

Prospective students are asked to identify their choice of research group in their application and statement of purpose. Admissions are tied to DANM research group foci. New students are admitted into a specific research group based on the quality and relevance of the student’s prior work and expertise in their chosen area of focus.

In certain cases, students who demonstrate excellent potential for the program but lack proficiency in a “cross discipline” will be admitted to the program with the understanding that they will take courses during their first two quarters of study to make up that deficiency. An arts student lacking sufficient programming experience, for example, will be expected to take one or two programming courses in their first two quarters in addition to the DANM program requirements.

Students will apply online through the Division of Graduate Studies website between October and January for the following fall quarter. In addition to submitting an online application, students will be expected to submit an online portfolio. Further information can be found at the Division of Graduate Studies website.

Requirements

The DANM M.F.A. Program requires 72 credits of academic course work. In the first year, students generally take three courses each term. In the second year, students primarily take elective courses, work with their thesis committees, and pursue independent and directed research leading to the completion of the thesis project and paper.

Course Requirements

Core Courses

The core courses explore an array of recent methods and approaches in digital arts and culture. All students complete each of the following courses. DANM 280 (a 2-credit course) is taken every quarter (six times); DANM 299 is taken twice, in any two quarters of the second year. 

Research Group Courses

The faculty lead of each research group establishes a set of courses specific to their research topic, which are taken in addition to the core courses. Students are admitted into a specific research group, and take the courses specific to their group in their first year. Each research group and its courses are described below. There is a curricular planner specific to each group in the Planners section.

Experimental Play

Over the last 40 years we have seen a blossoming of new models of play. From the rise of the New Games movement and the role-playing game genre (in the 1970s) to the current moment’s rise of autobiographical, political, and independent art games on increasingly democratized platforms, to the emerging capabilities of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality platforms, we are changing who plays, how we play, and what play can mean. Each offering of the Experimental Play course will involve the creation of a different game prototype, producing a wide range of vibrant ideas from the research group’s activity. A likely model is that one of these projects will be brought to completion as (part of) each student’s thesis work.

Experimental Play has three required courses; take the following course three times:

Future Stages

Future Stages investigates how we can stage “liveness” in a radically interconnected digital world and expand upon basic theatrical relationships in new and culturally relevant ways. Collaboration and integration of design, media, and storytelling are critical to this approach. Experimentation with new forms can reanimate the basic values of theater, foregrounding the essential nature of a live event and the creation of meaning in dialogue with an audience. By providing a laboratory environment with access to performance technologies, Future Stages will engage students in collaborative research and production that explore how media and narrative intersect in the cultural sphere.

Future Stages has six required courses; take all the courses below and THEA 294 is required to be taken twice. Students produce their thesis productions in THEA 151 Studies in Performance in either winter or spring of their second year. THEA 151 replaces DANM 215 MFA Exhibition Production.

The Isaac Julien Studio Lab

Engaging a range of artistic disciplines, students in this lab will draw upon moving and still images to create visual and sonic languages for production, exhibition and installation. While the commercial imperative, in our digital age, has dictated built-in obsolescence as an integral character of electronic media, this research group, in contrast, will consider the archive as an intrinsic part of a creative method—sampling, remixing, and reproduction. This research group invites artists who want to conceptualize, create, and exhibit works involving moving and still images.

The Isaac Julien Studio Lab has three required courses; take all the courses below and DANM 250F is required to be taken twice.

Elective Courses

Electives address areas of needed skill development or thesis topic specialization. In addition to Core and Research Group courses, some students must also take elective courses to meet the total 72-credit requirement, and/or maintain their full-time status in a given quarter. The number of elective courses to be taken is specific to the research group a student is in; see the Planners section below for details. The following DANM courses are approved as electives, but are not offered every year.

Other Suggested Graduate Courses for Electives

Beyond the DANM elective courses listed above, generally any 5-credit graduate-level course may be counted for elective credit. Students are encouraged to consult with their advisors about choosing electives that directly support their thesis research. Independent studies can be counted for elective credit with approval of faculty advisor. Below is a list of suggested courses that may be of interest to DANM students. Please note courses may not be offered every year or may have prerequisites or restrictions on enrollment.

Thesis Requirement

Students are required to complete a thesis project and written paper under the supervision of their thesis committee. The thesis will be an arts project with digital documentation accompanied by a written paper. Thesis projects may be individual or collaborative and may grow out of the research pursued in the research groups during the three quarters prior as well as work developed in core courses. Each student will be expected to complete a paper discussing the student’s preparatory research as well as the theoretical significance of the project. In the case of collaborative projects, each student will be required to submit his or her own paper. During the thesis year, students will make at least two progress presentations to their thesis committee. A completed thesis project and paper must be submitted to and approved by the thesis committee before the degree can be awarded.

Applying for Graduation

By the end of the second week of the quarter of graduation, students complete the Application for Masters Degree form and submit to the DANM graduate adviser. After successfully completing an Oral Defense of their thesis, the student submits their completed thesis to ProQuest via upload, and a hard copy of their thesis title page, signed in ink by all thesis committee members, to the Graduate Division office.

Planners

Experimental Play Research Group Curriculum

Future Stages Research Group Curriculum

Isaac Julien Studio Lab Research Group Curriculum