Information and Policies
Introduction
Creative technologies (CT) is an online- and hybrid-modality interdisciplinary arts and design major, led by faculty in Art, Music, and PPD (Performance, Play, and Design). Its curriculum features innovative teaching and learning environments, paired with an emphasis on emerging arts and design technologies and the active roles of artists and designers in cultivating a just and ethical society. Our courses intersect faculty commitments to justice, accessibility, equity, diversity, and inclusion—along cultural, gender, racial, economic, and social dimensions—with commitments to expanding access to innovative arts education, re-contextualizing and challenging Western and other hegemonic frameworks for art and design, and amplifying marginalized and historically silenced voices.
Students in creative technologies develop fluency in the languages and tools of contemporary media, arts, and design technologies, including technologies for creativity in sound, image, and animation; games and playable media; documentary and knowledge-curation media; web-based and participatory media; and creative interactions with machine learning and AI. At the core of the Creative Technologies ethos is a conviction that technology literacy is inseparable from technology ethics. Artists and designers are primary curators of knowledge, dialogue, and cultural representation; with those roles we hold a responsibility to cultivate community agency, democracy, environmental justice including climate action, and broad access to knowledge and social dialogue. To support that crucial work, the Creative Technologies program aims to prepare students for a lifetime of relevant, meaningful, and impactful creative engagement—while instilling capacity for work and play, activism and education, self-expression, self-efficacy, and even fun.
This program is primarily delivered in lab-based online environments — where the online presence that students create and perform with each other is just as important as the lessons they learn together as they make art, engage in critical inquiry, and critique. We aim to inspire collaborative art and design that connect online and traditional communities with creative vitality, critical inquiry, improvisation, and lasting meaning. You will learn how to navigate the platforms and venues in which sound and image, story and play, character and action, can be brought effectively to a wide and inquisitive public. And you will learn effective production practices—including improvisation, dialogue, research skills, and styles of collaboration—that bring complex, impactful projects to fruition.
Program Learning Outcomes
1. Gain literacy in creative tools for digital expression, and in the effective use of technology in arts and design: including digital platforms and algorithms, AI- and algorithmic arts and design tools, and emerging technology in a variety of media.
2. Critically comprehend media and media culture, potentially including institutions, creative labor and labor practices; the ethics of data, information, and digital platforms; with a focus on digital media's diverse impacts on dialogues surrounding tradition, culture, and racial, social, and environmental justice.
3. Understand contemporary creative practices in their contexts: relating them to the impactful practices of our contemporaries and predecessors; contextualized by theory, history, and ethics in the arts, design, and media.
4. Learn strategies for bringing complex work to completion, individually and collaboratively, across a variety of media, including written, image- and sound-based, performance-based, and socially engaged media.
5. Cultivate a mindset of curiosity, dialogue, and growth, with respect to one’s work and process, and its social and ethical impact. We learn from mistakes as well as triumphs—ours and others'—as we work toward meaningful creative work and social change.
6. Learn to engage in informed social practices, shaped by reflection on practical activism for positive change; individual and collective identity; sustainability; equity; and justice; and by a community-focused commitment to re-contextualize and challenge Western and other hegemonic frameworks for art and design.
Academic Advising for the Program
Students who plan to major in creative technologies should meet with the academic advisor early in their UC Santa Cruz career to create an academic plan that can accommodate the inflexible nature of major course offerings.
For more information and advising on the creative technologies major, please contact the undergraduate advisor at creative@ucsc.edu.
In-Person Residency
Creative Technologies has an in-person residency requirement. This means that undergraduate students need to take at least six credits of in-person classes for three quarters. All other classes may be taken online.
The expectation for students starting as frosh is that they will take in-person courses in their first year, including the College Core course; after the first year, they can take all of their classes online and do not need to be physically in Santa Cruz.
The expectation for transfer students is that they will take a Breadth of Arts elective class and the colloquium class in person each quarter of the first year, and the second year can be entirely online.
In all cases, students have the option of remaining in the Santa Cruz area and taking some classes in person, or they can be fully remote after they have completed their in-person requirements. The CT major advisor can assist students looking to explore their modality options.
Getting Started in the Major: Frosh
Students interested in majoring in creative technologies are encouraged to speak with the CT advisor early in their academic career. Due to the rigid nature of the courses, students move through the program in cohorts beginning their junior year. Incoming frosh do not need to satisfy any requirements prior to arriving at UCSC.
During the first two years, students should complete their general education requirements and major qualification requirements. Instruction in coding, 2D drawing, 3D modeling, and/or audio design is encouraged.
Transfer Information and Policy
Creative technologies is a non-screening major. Transfer students planning to apply to UC Santa Cruz with this major are not required to complete specific major preparation courses for consideration of admission.
Transfer students who have not taken any in-person courses at a UC campus prior to beginning the CT major are required to take at least six credits of in-person UC courses per quarter for a minimum of three quarters after transferring to UCSC, for a total of 18 in-person credits completed during their time as an enrolled UC student. Transfer students may fulfill this requirement by taking in-person colloquium and elective courses in their first year after transferring.
Recommended Pre-Transfer Courses
To establish foundational knowledge and practices in arts and/or design prior to the major, the following courses are recommended prior to transfer:
- Coursework in programming, 2D drawing, 3D modeling, or sound design.
- At least one course in a justice-related topic, including but not limited to: courses in critical race and ethnic studies (or similar), indigenous studies, labor studies, disability and accessibility, feminist studies, gender studies, and/or courses on postcolonial or decolonizing practices.
- At least one course in critical art and media studies, including but not limited to: courses in the dissemination and interpretation of contemporary media; visual and aural culture studies; film studies; documentary or archive studies; media history; relationships between media, power, and representation; and critical studies of journalism, social media, or popular culture.
Planning for General Education:
Due to the availability of online courses outside of Creative Technologies, students are encouraged to complete the UCSC general education requirements in one of three ways:
- Complete the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) from a California Community College.
- Complete the general education requirement from another University of California campus, if transferring from another UC.
- Complete equivalent courses at another institution to apply toward the general education requirements at UCSC.
If students have not completed the general education requirements, they should ensure, prior to transferring, that they have completed coursework that satisfies the Ethnicity and Race (ER), Scientific Inquiry (SI), Statistical Reasoning (SR), and Composition (C) general education requirements. The Creative Technologies curriculum satisfies the remaining GE requirements.
Getting Started in the Major: Transfer Students
Students are admitted to UC Santa Cruz with a “proposed major” in most cases, and later petition to officially declare the major. Junior transfer students must be formally declared by the deadline in their second quarter of enrollment.
Transfer students are strongly encouraged to participate conscientiously in Summer Orientation, connect with the Creative Technologies undergraduate advisor, and utilize transfer-focused campus partners like STARS upon their arrival.
Major Qualification Policy and Declaration Process
Major Qualification
Qualification for the creative technologies major is determined by required coursework and a personal statement. In addition, prospective students are advised to consider a range of recommended courses that can help prepare them for the major.
Major Qualification Coursework:
Courses in the following two categories are required as part of the major qualification process. Students should consult the list of approved major qualification courses.
- One introductory arts course in theory or history
- One practice-based, "maker"/production-oriented arts course
Personal Statement:
Prospective majors’ personal statements should address three issues:
- (~1 paragraph) Describe relevant courses you have taken that you believe support your goals in the creative technologies major. You may wish to consult our list of “Recommended Courses” below.
- (~2 paragraphs) Describe a creative project that you are proud of, completed either in a course or in your own personal practice as an artist. Did you intend it for a specific audience, and if so, how did that intention shape the work? What did you hope audiences would gain from it? You may opt to describe a series of smaller projects, if you wish.
- (~1 paragraph) What are your aims in creative technologies? What kind of creative arts or design practices do you envision working on after you have completed your degree?
Additional Recommended Courses:
In addition, the following courses are recommended prior to qualification:
- Coursework in programming, 2D drawing, 3D modeling, or sound design.
- At least one course in a justice-related topic, including but not limited to: courses in critical race and ethnic studies (or similar), indigenous studies, labor studies, disability and accessibility, feminist studies, gender studies, and/or courses on postcolonial or decolonizing practices.
- At least one course in critical art and media studies, including but not limited to: courses in the dissemination and interpretation of contemporary media; visual and aural culture studies; film studies; documentary or archive studies; media history; relationships between media, power, and representation; and critical studies of journalism, social media, or popular culture.
Students who enter as frosh need to complete these major qualification courses early in their studies so that the petition to major status is accomplished by the end of their sophomore year.
Transfer students should complete the required coursework and declare the major by the end of their second quarter.
Appeal Process
Students who are informed that they are not eligible to declare the major may appeal this decision by submitting a letter to the department chair within 15 days from the date the notification was mailed. Within 15 days of receipt of the appeal, the department will notify the student and college of the decision. Appeals should be sent via email to creative@ucsc.edu.
How to Declare a Major
Students should submit a petition to declare as soon as they complete the major qualification requirements; or reach their declaration deadline quarter (whichever comes first).
The Petition for Major/Minor is available in MyUCSC. Go to your Student Homepage and select the Undergraduate Student eForms tile > Petition for Major/Minor.
Students will either be approved, denied, or provided with conditions (e.g., completion of some courses with certain grades) that will be resolved within at most one more enrolled quarter, even if they have not completed major qualification courses.
Letter Grade Policy
This program does not have a letter grade policy outside the university's Pass/No Pass limit and minimum grade requirement (more information is available on the Pass/No Pass website).
Required Equipment
Given the online nature of creative technologies and its subject matter, students are required to own either a laptop computer, or a desktop computer and a tablet. Technology chosen in these categories need not be brand new, but should be capable of running the latest version of its respective (Mac, iOS, PC, etc.) operating system. Some creative technologies coursework will require a webcam and microphone, which are integrated into most recent devices.