Digital Arts and New Media

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

(There were no substantive changes to the Digital Arts and New Media Program Description from the General Catalog 2006-08.)

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. Seventy-six credits of academic course work are required. Students will normally take three five-credit courses each term – one 5-credit course 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 three current areas of DANM faculty reasearch: participatory culture, performative technologies, and mechatronics. 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.

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.

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 enviromental worlds.

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.

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.

Digital Arts and New Media Program Planner

The following is the required academic plan for completion of the Digital Arts and New Media Program.

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.