MFA IN DIGITAL + MEDIA
2023-2024 | Curriculum | 2-year program
MFA candidates in Digital + Media explore art, technology and emergent practices. The program encourages students to use a wide range of research methods and forms—both digital and analog—to investigate technology as a creative medium and cultural-historical phenomenon.
Informed by critical and decolonial theory, environmental science, sound studies and more, the curriculum supports students in developing robust research agendas and independent studio practices. Faculty also encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue with researchers at Brown University, the University of Rhode Island and with other individuals and institutions outside the world of art and design.
MFA FIRST YEAR | ||||||||
FALL | WINTERSESSION | SPRING | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Digital + Media Studio/Seminar 1 | 9 | Open Elective [b] | 3 | Digital + Media Studio/Seminar 2 | 9 | |||
Media Perspectives | 3 | Critical Theory + Artistic Research in Context | 3 | |||||
Digital + Media Studio Elective [a] | 3 | Digital + Media Studio Elective [a] | 3 | |||||
TOTAL credits | 15 | TOTAL credits | 3 | TOTAL credits | 15 | |||
MFA SECOND YEAR | ||||||||
FALL | WINTERSESSION | SPRING | ||||||
Digital + Media Studio/Seminar 3 | 9 | Open Elective [b] | 3 | Thesis Project | 12 | |||
Open Elective [b] | 3 | Open Elective [b] | 3 | |||||
TOTAL credits | 15 | TOTAL credits | 3 | TOTAL credits | 15 | |||
Total Credits: 66 | ||||||||
Notes:
[a] Students in the Digital + Media graduate program are required to take one D+M Research Studio Elective (each course is 3-credits) in the Fall semester and the Spring of the first year. In the second year, majors must take a D+M elective, an open elective, or an ISP/CSP in Fall, Wintersession and Spring.
[b] Open electives may be chosen from any department at RISD, including D+M, or from courses offered at Brown University. Options for Wintersession elective in the first year include a course from any department, including D+M, or an internship. International study through a RISD travel course is also possible. In D+M electives, students work either alone or in teams on a variety of interdisciplinary projects. Some D+M electives are cross-listed with other departments at RISD. Part of the brief of each cross-listed collaborative elective course is on leading edge projects that bridge technology and media arts practice across disciplines to explore creative/expressive approaches to contemporary art, action, research and production.