Digital Arts and New Media M.F.A.

Introduction

The Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) program has suspended admissions for the 2024-25 year.

The Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Program in the Department of Performance, Play & Design serves as a center for the development and study of digital media and the cultures that have arisen in response to these forms.

New technologies have profoundly changed contemporary culture and inevitably altered the role of the arts in society. While digital media has provided new possibilities for creative and political expression for some, it has also amplified existing divisions and perpetuated oppressive structures in alarming ways. Social stratifications based on income, education, race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, and geographic location are also reflected in the digital divide, wherein a select few have full access to the means of technological production and its resultant impact on society.

DANM strives to close the debilitating causes of the digital divide by implementing inclusive policies, programs and tools that provide broader access to digital media literacy. 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. Required core courses explore an array of recent methods and approaches in digital arts and culture. Students shape their interdisciplinary arts practice by selecting Research Topics courses that align with their interests. In the Research Topics courses the student pursues 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.

Research Topics and Pathways

The Research Topics courses focus on different topics within the broader field of digital arts and new media. Each student takes three Research Topics courses in their first year. Students may select any three courses from the list. Some faculty have created a recommended set of Research Topics courses that represent a pathway through the degree that is specific to their area of research. 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 may also result in publications, performances and exhibitions. The research experience and coursework in the research groups is intended to inform the student’s thesis project.

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.) or Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.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.

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 is taken every quarter (six times); DANM 299 is taken twice, in any two quarters of the second year. The requirement to take DANM 280 each quarter is commonly waived during quarters when students take DANM 250G.

Research Topics Courses

The Research Topics courses allow the student to select a pathway through the major that aligns with their interdisciplinary practice and thesis interests.

For a custom pathway through the degree, take any three courses from the list below in the first year of the program. All courses may be repeated for credit. Students generally take one Research Topics class per semester.

Current Faculty-Designed Research Topics Pathways

Some faculty have created recommended sets of Research Topics courses that represent specific pathways through the degree that are specific to their area of research.

The current Research Topics Pathways are listed below, and describe the course requirements for each. There is a course planner associated with each pathway in the Planners section.

Experimental Play

Over the past 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.

The first quarter is an introduction to theories of Experimental Play and coursework involves rapid prototyping and iteration of potential thesis projects. The second quarter moves into advanced theory and practice, with coursework focused on making games as activism and resistance. The third quarter focuses on thesis committee formation, thesis project direction, entrepreneurship and research funding opportunities.

Experimental Play requires taking DANM 250E three times.

Future Stages

Future Stages investigates how we can reanimate theater in a radically interconnected digital world and expand on theatrical relationships in new and culturally relevant ways. Working in large scale theaters in the Department of Performance, Play & Design, we will experiment with hybrid and mixed-reality performance and incorporate post-dramatic approaches to theater using devised, transdisciplinary collaboration. Future Stages students will investigate contemporary languages that allow makers, actors and technologists to push beyond our present understanding of theatrical production and reception. Future Stages also offers the option to work with Prof. Marianne Weems and her New York-based company The Builders Association in the second year of the program.

Future Stages has four required courses; take THEA 294 / DANM 250H (the Futures Stages seminar and studio course) three times and THEA 151 one time (a full-scale, fully resourced MFA production). Students produce their thesis productions in THEA 151 in either winter or spring of their second year.

The Moving Image 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 DANM 250G once and DANM 250F twice.

DANM 250F and DANM 250G may be retaken for credit as electives in the second year.

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 pathway a student chooses; 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 copy of their thesis title page signed by all thesis committee members, to the Graduate Division office. Please see the Graduate Division's Dissertation and Thesis Preparation Guidelines documentation for details, including requirements for hard copy versus digital submission of title page and signatures.

Planners

Student's Custom Research Topics Pathway (Default)

Experimental Play Pathway

Future Stages Pathway

Moving Image Lab Pathway