Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art: Media, Technology and Entertainment

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, with the aim of fostering in our 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: 1) innovative forms of digital media practice within film and video production, video gaming, web-based interactive media and mobile media; 2) new pipeline models for media production, such as 3D processing for film and game development and physics-based medical and scientific visualization; 3) 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 interactive entertainment. The creation of interactive media requires a combination of skills from the traditional media of film and television as well as 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, we emphasize collaboration across the faculty and programs of Multimedia Studies and Computer Science and Engineering, both in the curricular sequencing and in studio capstones. 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.

Students will become familiar with the major developments in the history of multimedia production; understand the varied tactics for new media production; understand the implementation of technological developments in the public and private sectors; develop critical methods for analyzing animation, interactivity and new media works; develop a critical understanding of interface design and methods; become familiar with industrial structures and production pipelines; develop knowledge of object-oriented software methodology and methods; develop knowledge of user interfaces, non-functional objectives and design patterns; become familiar with the structures, intelligent use, and the implementation of modern database systems; and learn to deploy best media management practices, following recent trends.

With these goals in mind, students are able to develop a number of technical proficiencies, including: 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.