new media function as a unique system of communication. While investigating the aesthetic conventions, economic conditions and infrastructures that affect the production of new media, we address the social and political contexts in which new media are disseminated, interpreted and privileged. We make connections across decades by focusing on the recurring themes of language, futurism, simulation, hyper-reality, transnationality and information.
Graduate major requirement; Digital + Media majors only Registration by Digital + Media department, course not available via web registration
Open to first-year graduate
(FALL)
DM 7108 D+M GRAD STUDIO/SEM 3
6 credits Kelly Dobson/Shona Kitchen
This course supports the exploration of theoretical, social, material, technical and contextual research and concerns in new media arts practice during the third semester of the D + M MFA program. It is a combined studio and seminar forum for Digital + Media second-year students. Students
conceptualize and discuss their studio-based work and their ongoing practice as they begin the thesis process. Working artist bibliographies are developed - both projects and texts. Readings in critical cultural theory, media art theory, philosophy, semiotics and other areas further support the contextualization and grounding of the innovative practical and conceptual approaches of students in the Digital + Media department. The course is a mix of individual meetings, an optional lecture and workshop series and group critiques. Guest lecturers and visiting critics may also become involved with this class in terms of critical/research aspects. Each student will practice articulating their art process and work towards thesis, and will contribute to the dialogue concerning the research and work of their classmates.
Graduate Major requirement: Digital + Media majors only Registration by Digital + Media department, course not available via web registration
(FALL)
DM 7152 RESEARCH PROJECT
3 credits Kelly Dobson/Shona Kitchen
This class takes the form of a series of group meetings to explore work related to student selected research projects. Each student may work on his/her own project, or work with the instructor and students to facilitate a particular research venture as part of a team. Students develop proposals for individual or a team based projects. This class also facilitates group critiques.
Participants will explore research methodologies and various forms of research as material, social, and symbolic creative practice. Lectures and workshops about technical, political, and practical aspects of research will support individual and group student work. The course design will be flexible depending on the topic areas of interest to individual students.
Please contact the instructor with any questions and for more details.
Open to graduate students and upper level undergraduates from both Architecture and Design and Fine Arts Divisions. Permission of Instructor Required
(SPRING)
DM 7197 DIGITAL MEDIA THESIS PREP 3 credits Lisa Morgan
In "On Permission to Write", essayist Cynthia Ozick distinguishes between the "good-citizen writer" and the "shaman-writer" The first, she says, writes dutifully; the second, "obsessively", "torrentially", and most crucially, with self-given permission. For artists and designers who have, by and large, favored visual over written expression, obsession and torrent probably come more naturally in the studio than on the page. This course seeks to bring that same uninhibited, exploratory, and illuminating sensibility to the thesis, to suggest that writing is not a duty, but rather can be integral to studio practice. We will look at writing about one's work -- its art-historical, theoretical, and personal sources; its form and process; its motivation; its interpretation -- as a kind of translation from form to language (one that can be as individual and authentic as our chosen materials). The course will include writing exercises designed to help us think more deeply and coherently about our work and ideas, as well as discussion of assigned readings. The readings are exclusively written by artists and designers: criticism, manifestos, journal writings, and artist interviews - a selection intended to suggest that in permitting themselves to write, artists and designers establish artistic agency, lineage, and history itself through that writing.
Graduate major requirement, Digital + Media majors only Registration by Digital + Media department, course not available via web registration
Open to second-year graduates
(FALL)
DM 7198 DIGITAL MEDIA GRAD WRITTEN
THESIS 3 credits Lisa Morgan
This seminar includes intensive group writing sessions. Individual meetings also will be conducted to support each student in assembling a comprehensive written thesis. Centrally our task together is to understand and evaluate actual studio work and to communicate this clearly and effectively within a comprehensive document. To accomplish this we will address: thesis rationale,
development of concepts, source material, context relevant philosophical, aesthetic and theoretical issues as well as working process. Structure, layout, documentation, and the mechanics of formatting will also be explored in depth.
Graduate major requirement; Digital + Media majors only Registration by Digital + Media department, course not available via web registration
Open to second-year graduate
Digital + Media Course Descriptions 2015 - 2016
DM 7199 THESIS PROJECT
6 credits Kelly Dobson/Shona Kitchen
This course supports the practical, conceptual, theoretical and historical development of the M.F.A. thesis (exhibition and written document). Students are required to work independently and in individual consultation with their thesis committee to develop and finalize the thesis exhibition and written document for presentation at the end of the year. The exhibition and written thesis should articulate one's personal studio art / design practice in an historically and theoretically informed context. Formal group critiques are required at the midterm and end of the semester. A major final critique with visiting critics is held in the context of the final MFA Exhibition. The accompanying written thesis is expected to be of publishable quality and is also placed within the public sphere through electronic publication and filing with the RISD Library.
Final submissions for this course include the presentation of a final exhibition, submission of the final written thesis, and timely completion of work for
preliminary deadlines throughout the semester (draft theses, exhibition plans and press materials). Please see Digital + Media Thesis Timeline for a clear sequence of required deadlines. Please refer to the Digital + Media Thesis Guidelines and Policies for clarification of the goals and expectations of the RISD D+M MFA.
Graduate major requirement; Digital + Media majors only Registration by Digital + Media department, course not available via web registration
Open to second-year graduate
This class is 6 credits in the Spring, enrolled with the Thesis Chair.
Permission of Instructor Required
(SPRING)
DM 7538 DIGITAL + MEDIA THEORY
3 credits Thomas Zummer
As critical phenomenology, the aim of this course is to influence two acts, how to see and how to critique digital media, as extension of unresolved conceptual and aesthetic problems and as catapult for entirely original practice and possibility. The approach is the 'theoretical crit' that students write each week in response to readings, methods, problems, and works closely explored. As in contemporary art, new media's objects and theories are becoming increasingly interdependent. Thus, rather than using theory to evaluate artwork, we examine both work and theory, coming to contemporary, formal, critical, and instrumental voice
through which to respond to assumptions and aspirations of each.
Graduate major requirement; Digital + Media majors only Registration by Digital + Media department, course not available via web registration
Open to first-year graduate students
(SPRING)
Independent Study
DM 8900 INDEPENDENT STUDY MAJOR
3 credits tba
The Independent Study Project (ISP) allows students to supplement the established curriculum by completing a faculty supervised project for credit in a specific area of interest. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses.
Permission of instructor and GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.
Register by completing the Independent Study Application available on the Registrar's website; the course is not available via web registration.
(FALL/WINTER/SPRING)
DM 8960 PROFESSIONAL INTERNSHIP
3 credits tba
The professional Internship provides valuable exposure to a professional setting, enabling students to better establish a career path and define practical aspirations. Internship proposals are carefully vetted to determine legitimacy and must meet the contact hour requirements listed in the RISD Course Announcement.
(SUMMER/FALL/WINTER/SPRING)
DM 8965 COLLABORATIVE STUDY
3 credits tba
A Collaborative Study Project (CSP) allows two students to work collaboratively to complete a faculty supervised project of indepedndent study.
Usually, a CSP is supervised by two faculty members, but with approval it may be supervised by one faculty member. Its purpose is to meet individual student needs by providing an alternative to regularly offered courses, though it is not a substitute for a course if that course is regularly offered. (FALL/WINTER/SPRING)