MFA.DM.2YR - MFA in Digital + Media (2yr)
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2025 - 2026 | 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.
Learning outcomes
Graduates of the MFA program are prepared to:
develop a thorough understanding of a range of technologies, including their material capabilities and characteristics, appropriateness for specific strategic applications, relevance within larger systems and impact on people and society.
demonstrate proficiency with a vocabulary of multiple material practices.
exhibit fluency in history, theory and criticism with respect to art, technology and new media practice.
organize teams and work collaboratively with people from a range of disciplines.
present work professionally through exhibitions, publications and other relevant contexts.
communicate cogently about their ongoing studio art process.
demonstrate effective writing skills as part of or in support of artistic practice.
contribute to the ongoing dialogue about research and new work in the field.
First year | |||||||
FALL | WINTERSESSION | SPRING | |||||
DM 7100 - Digital + Media Studio/Seminar 1 | 9 | open elective | 3 | DM 7102 - Digital + Media Studio/Seminar 2 | 9 | ||
DM 7103 - Media Perspectives | 3 | DM 7538 - Critical Theory + Artistic Research in Context | 3 | ||||
Digital + Media Studio Elective | 3 | Digital + Media Studio Elective | 3 | ||||
total credits | 15 | total credits | 3 | total credits | 15 | ||
Second year | |||||||
FALL | WINTERSESSION | SPRING | |||||
DM 7108 - Digital + Media Studio/Seminar 3 | 9 | open elective | 3 | DM 7199 - Thesis Project | 12 | ||
open elective | 3 | open elective | 3 | ||||
total credits | 15 | total credits | 3 | total credits | 15 | ||
notes:
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.
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.