MFA in Media, Technology, and Entertainment

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The Master of Fine Arts program in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies is an interdisciplinary degree offered in collaboration with the Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The degree combines film, video, interactive media and computer animation faculty with computer science and engineering faculty to provide graduate students innovative approaches to digital entertainment that stretch creative and scientific boundaries. Students are challenged to think in artistic, scientific and industrial terms about:

• innovative forms of digital media practice within film and video production, video gaming, web-based interactive media and mobile media;
• new pipeline models for media production, such as 3D processing for film and game development;
• practical applications, such as interface design, hardware and software, enhanced content delivery and ubiquitous computing.

The program is intended to prepare students for creative careers in the emerging field of digital media. The related entertainment industries along with the evolving interdisciplinary nature of the arts require a combination of skills from the traditional media of film and television. They also require a deep understanding of the effects of interactivity upon the quality of experience as well as grounding in the computer sciences to understand hardware build, coding, interface design and data delivery within multimedia systems. Therefore, the program emphasizes collaboration across the faculty and programs of Multimedia Studies and Computer Science and Engineering while envisioning expanded cross-disciplinary activities throughout the University. The fundamental philosophy of the program stresses creativity of expression, experimentation and excellence in execution as well as innovation in the field of entertainment technologies and an earnest appreciation of the fine arts.

With these goals in mind, students are able to develop a number of technical proficiencies within 2D and 3D computer animation; interactive, web-based and mobile media; video production and post production; multimedia integration and content delivery. Following a collaborative work model, students are also able to develop specializations within the program while learning to map their technical skill sets onto a broad range of industry settings and using a broad range of visualization strategies.

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