The photography area within Media Arts is an internationally renowned,
progressive, future-oriented and coordinated graduate and undergraduate
program that emphasizes the development of creative work, experimental
research and teaching. The area conducts a rigorous investigation into the
nature and meaning of photographic representation and its role in contemporary
cultural discourse. Students are expected to demonstrate commitment to
expressive inquiry, maturity of vision and take responsibility for their
professional development as artists. There is a strong emphasis on cross
disciplinary exploration.

The area provides a thorough grounding in traditional media as well as ample
opportunities to explore new media forms and techniques in conjunction with
historical photographic processes. Interaction with other areas in the
department and across the campus promotes interdisciplinary studies. There is
a broad and progressive approach to the practice and definition of
photography, encouraging students to question and expand the boundaries of the
medium.

A vigorous art history component, supported by one of the finest photography
book collections in the world, is required. Courses in all aspects of
photography, alternative processes, video, digital media, Internet art
installation and performance, bookmaking, desktop and online publishing, and
new media theory are available to optimize personal growth, skills
acquisition, and creative expression. Faculty in the Photography and Media
Arts area show their art work internationally including recent shows at the
Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, and Videobrasil and have been
recipients of major fellowships including NEA & Guggenheim.

Film/Video

The video area within Media Arts emphasizes interdisciplinary thinking and approaches to video as an art form as part of a larger investigation of moving image art. The video area is interested in the student's individual development and personal growth. Students are encouraged to seek links with other art forms as important sources of inspiration and critical understanding of their creative work. As part of a large liberal arts university, students are encouraged to seek relationships with other disciplines within the university. Students from diverse disciplines are encouraged to collaborate on creative projects across departments.

The classroom is treated as a laboratory for the creation, fermentation, and exploration of ideas that stress creativity as well as a place to discuss the relevance of those ideas relative to historical and contemporary issues. The area stresses the importance of interdisciplinary and multicultural understanding in the student's artistic, educational, and personal growth. The area actively engages students and their work with relevant historical, practical, aesthetic, and philosophical structures to help place themselves and their work within a larger contextual understanding of art making.

Video classes are restricted to upper-class undergraduate and graduate students. There are three levels of classes which are taught regularly: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Video Production. Class size is limited to 10 students. In addition, there are special topic classes which vary. All the classes are designed to combine hands-on experience in all aspects of video art making with practical and theoretical criticism, that provides historical, social and aesthetic backgrounds for the understanding of moving image art.

The video area has its own equipment dedicated to the classes including cameras, microphones, tripods, lights and 24 hour access to the video editing labs. New equipment is updated regularly. The editing labs are cross-platform. Mac based systems for beginning classes and PC based systems for the advanced classes. The video area is also linked with internet-2 capabilities which allows video conferencing. This capability allows us to hold multi-classroom critiques, watch, and make art works over the internet with other universities. The video area is located in a large room which serves as classroom, video-conferencing, shooting studio, editing lab and equipment cage.

Undergraduate students from the video area have gone into top graduate school programs, internships, and related jobs in the field. Graduate student alumni are now teaching at major institutions, have developed their own media art programs and have become chairs of media areas in universities, have won awards, grants, have been reviewed in national magazines, and their works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. See info on Filmmaking MFA Track and Film Studies.

Digital Media

The digital art area within Media Arts develops innovative approaches to the invention of new forms of artistic and scholarly knowledge. Most often our work is distributed over the Internet, on DVD, and in live performance. Students and faculty have created the Experimental Digital Arts Studio, a lab and seminar space where they can interact and engage with emerging and converging new media technologies.

The area is known campus-wide for being a leader in using technology in both our creative research and teaching. We have been long-standing partners with ATLAS and are continuing our technological leadership through TECHNE, a practice-based research initiative in digital art and media studies. TECHNE offers students an opportunity to use various new media technologies in collaborative learning environments and encourages participation in a highly technologized creative process of self-motivated personal discovery and artistic invention.

Faculty and students working in the area have exhibited their collaborative work internationally, especially in the growing fields of net art, games, digital narrative and animation, multi-user VJ performance, interactive cinema, web publishing, new media theory, and code art. We would like to foster a critical and collaborative art research environment where graduate students investigate new areas relevant to their own evolving practice.