Digital Arts and New Media

Porter D-121
(831) 459-1554
http://digitalarts.ucsc.edu

Program Description

New technologies have profoundly changed contemporary culture and inevitably altered the role of the arts in society. The Digital Arts and New Media MFA 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.
The Digital and New Media MFA Program (DANM) is a two-year program. Students take courses in each of these interdependent and equally important program areas:

New Praxis—The term “Praxis” has many meanings, which include “translating ideas into action” and “action and reflection upon the world in order to change it.” New Praxis in DANM is comprised of “critique” and “practicum” which provide students with both the practical training and critical dialogue necessary to pursue their own individual goals as artists and cultural practitioners.

Studies—DANM “Studies” include required core seminars that allow students first, to explore an array of recent methods and approaches in Digital Arts and Culture, and then pursue the construction of specific genealogies and theories with a sustained focus on a particular topic, before beginning to develop a thesis project and paper by engaging in various dialogues at the intersection of theory and practice.

Collaborative Research—Faculty lead students in major collaborative research  projects that will result in publications and exhibitions. The following are descriptions of four current areas of DANM faculty research: mechatronics, participatory culture, performative technlogies, andplayable media. We ask that prospective students identify their working relationships with one or more of these areas in their application and statement of purpose. As new research emphases arise, other categories for potential project groups will be formed.

Mechatronics

Mechatronics is the functional integration of mechanical, electronic, and information technologies.  In DANM this framework may be employed for the development and production of physical, systems-based artwork that incorporates elements of robotics, motion control, software engineering, and hardware design. DANM mechatronics research involves the use of a variety of media that may include video, performance, and sculpture, for the creation of complex, kinetic, audio-visual systems for the exploration of temporality, materiality, experience, perception, as well as relations between biological/life-like forms and environmental worlds.

Participatory Culture

DANM’s participatory culture studies and research explore the role of information and communication technologies in what has sometimes been described as the shift from “top-down” culture to a “lateral” or “heterarchical” culture of participation and social engagement. In many social domains and practices, the human/computer interface acts as both a boundary and a bridge. Participatory culture research in DANM may encompass a range of projects in social computing, community-media activism and other modes of engagement that involve the design of new technologies and/or technologies that address social issues and help to democratize participation in culture and politics.

Performative Technologies

Research in performative technologies explores new methods for combining media and technology to create the visual, aural and connective material of performance. DANM performance research generates new public and performative spaces where digital media, communication networks, and interactive systems may be fused with lighting, movement, stage and sound design to create mixes of real-time/recorded shared multimedia experiences shared by audiences and performers at both local and remote locations. Ongoing projects in this area may include work in telematics, performance-driven real-time graphics, algorithmic composition of sound and image, computer vision and motion capture, and studies of ritual, performativity, embodiment, interactivity, and subjectivity.

Playable Media

Playable Media research explores the potential of computational systems for the creation of new media forms that invite and structure play. This group works to understand and create new ways for computer games and related forms to engage audiences, make arguments, tell stories, and shape social space. Ongoing Playable Media work combines game design and artificial intelligence research with writing, art, and media authoring.

Pedagogy—DANM trains future arts academics through practical experience. Students are awarded teaching assistantships as part of their overall support package as well as opportunities to assist faculty in workshops.

Requirements

The DANM MFA Program requires 74 credits of academic course work. In the first year, students will generally take three courses each term—one course in each of the program areas, New Praxis, Studies, and Collaborative Research. 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.

New Praxis

New Praxis in DANM is comprised of “critique” and “practicum.”

New Praxis–Year One

Practicum—This area of Praxis is designed to allow students to develop the conceptual, technical and practical skills they need to successfully complete projects that realize their own individual goals as digital media artists.

First-year students are required to take a Project Design Studio in the first quarter. This course guides the development of students’ individual studio practice, particularly in relation to the transition to digital media. First-year students also take basic courses in electronics and programming. In order to fulfill this credit requirement, students with advanced training in either area may choose to:

• serve as assistants in workshops for beginning students;
• Take electronics or programming electives offered in Computer Engineering; or
• Enroll in independent studies, as approved by their adviser.

Critique—This area of Praxis is designed to allow students to present their own work and review the work of their fellow students as a means of engaging in critical dialogue necessary to pursue their own individual goals as digital media artists. First-year students are required to present work-in-progress based on the projects developed in the project design course in both individual studio and group critiques, and participate in group critique discussion.

During the spring quarter first-year students identify and engage a thesis committee under the supervision of the program director.

New Praxis–Year Two

Practicum—During the fall quarter second-year students will work on the development of their thesis project proposal and abstract under the supervision of their thesis committee. Second-year students are encouraged to take practice-based electives and independent studies that facilitate the development of their thesis projects.

DANM 299—In the winter and spring quarters second-year students enroll in a minimum of 10 units of independent thesis research which is supervised by one or more members of their thesis committee.

DANM 215—Students work with faculty curator/coordinator on development of thesis projects specifically for the group exhibition context. Students contribute to development of exhibition design and collateral materials, while studying unique presentation and curatorial challenges of new media.

Studies

Students are required to take four Core Seminars over two years and have the option to take two Studies electives.

Studies–Year One

DANM 201 Recent Methods and Approaches to Digital Arts and Culture—In this seminar students examine an array of methods and approaches to research and writing in digital media art and culture and explore key theories concerning digital media and cultures.

DANM 249 Faculty Seminar—Series of DANM faculty lectures and panels designed to introduce first-year students to program faculty members and their creative work and research.

DANM 203 Dialogues and Questions in Digital Arts and Culture—A pre-thesis course in which students engage in dialogues at the intersection of theory and practice with the goal of producing a pre-thesis proposal and preparatory essay. Readings and seminar discussions will inform the development of pre-thesis project proposals and essays.

Studies–Year Two

DANM 202 Genealogies and Theories of Digital Arts and Culture—This seminar provides a sustained focus on a particular theoretical and/or historical premise—for example, an examination of “intermediality,” or the exploration of “framing stories” such as the history of perspective, or narratology—as a means of teaching a common approach to the construction of genealogies with digital art and culture. The course is intended to help students structure and develop their thesis papers as theoretical contextualizations of their thesis projects.

Elective—Students may choose to take an elective offered by the program or choose an elective from a broad array of graduate courses offered on campus with the approval of their adviser.

Collaborative Research

Students participate in a three quarter-long Collaborative Research Project group in one of four possible DANM research focus areas, which begins in the spring quarter of the first year. In the second year students continue with the final two quarters of their project group (fall and winter) in which they collaborate on faculty-initiated and directed research projects in a chosen focus area. This work is intended to provide the student with the opportunity to learn collaborative and practical research methodologies, and to participate in a professional level research project. The collaborative project group experience is intended to inform, but not necessarily contribute to, the student’s thesis project.

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 are expected to grow out of the research pursued in the project groups during the three quarters prior as well as work developed in new praxis courses. Each student will be expected to complete a 20- to 30-page 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. The chair and at least one other member of the three-person committee will be senate faculty and members of the DANM program faculty. A completed thesis project and paper must be submitted to and approved by the thesis committee before the degree can be awarded.

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 program in one or more of the arts disciplines (art or art history, film, multimedia, music, theater, video, etc.) or a Bachelor of Science program in computer science or computer or electrical engineering. Other successful applicants will have a BA or BS in another field but will be able to show substantial achievement in the arts, in technology or in digital arts.

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 web site between October and February for the following fall quarter. In addition to submitting an on-line application, students will be expected to submit a non-returnable representative sample of their work, i.e., a portfolio, on a CD, CD-ROM or DVD. Further information can be found at: http://graddiv.ucsc.edu.