Networked Media course session

General structure

The Master programme we offer is a two-year full time, intensive study programme with strong international, interdisciplinary, artistic, experimental and critical research orientation, with a small student group (of up to 20 people in total) and intensive exchange between students and staff. It combines

• artistic design practice
• theory and critical research of media, culture and the arts
• technological learning and study.

Curriculum
The three aspects mentioned above are covered by three core elements of the curriculum:

1. Thematic projects, running one trimester (12 weeks), typically supervised by international guest teachers (who can be artists, designers, media theorists or activists), and addressing one particular subject or issue of contemporary media.Their goal is to realize practical work, but they always include a theory syllabus. and addressing cultural issues in relation to information society and culture.Thematic Project have had such subjects as: What ‘hosting’, online and socially? What are Open Media? What is a book, whether analog or digital? Can urban planning be compared to computer programming, and can this be mapped in the streets? What is privacy in the age of “Web 2.0″? How can you realize media designs by soldering electronic hardware?Information on the previous, current and future Thematic Projects is on a separate page.)
2. Technical Course, a from-scratch introduction into media programming that teaches you to create your media, and think up solutions that do not come out of the box or off the shelf.It focuses on web technologies including HTML, CSS, Python, MySQL, Javascript, PHP.The Technical Course often explains general computer science concepts such as finite state machines and recursion, and then teaches you how to express them in a programming language (Python, but sometimes also Javascript and PHP), and create interesting hacks and works with it. You get individual guidance and tutorials based on your own work projects.The Technical Course is meant for students with and without previous knowledge of computer programming.

   (The in-depth Wiki pages of the Technical Course are here.)

3. Theory Session, a weekly seminar on cultural theory related to media, covering not only media theory in the narrow sense, but also aesthetics, philosophy, history of art, design, music and literature, politics, and being a general forum of reflection of the larger issues we deal with in media work.The subjects and readings are linked to the Thematic Projects. A Thematic Project on hosting, for example, has been accompanied by introductions into ethnography and cultural anthropology, a Thematic Project on Open Media with both media and political theories that reflect “openness” in often skeptical ways.
4. In addition, there are
   • group critiques were students present and discuss their current work,
   • excursions to exhibitions, conferences, or media/arts spaces
   • a great number of guest presentations and tutorials every trimester,
   • and last not least two days every week for individual tutorial appointments with staffers.

The three aspects of the program and curriculum – artistic design practice, study of technology and cultural theory – are closely intertwined. To give a simple example: a media player which you can fill with music, but not download from, manifests a technological issue that is also a cultural and political issue (of media “producers” vs. “consumers”, copyright and intellectual property), and has implications for artistic work.

The course is taught in English, lasts two-year, and will ask your full-time commitment.

A typical week

(Go here for our current trimester schedule.)

Monday:

Individual tutorial appointments with Aymeric Mansoux, between 10 and 18h.

Tuesday:

11-13 Technical Course, 14-18 individual technical tutorials with Michael Murtaugh

Wednesday:

11-13 Theory Session with Renee Turner or another invited lecturer, 14-18 a group critique, guest presentation, special workshop or excursion, otherwise individual tutorials with Aymeric

Thursday:

11-13, 14-18, Thematic Project

Friday:

Individual study, and individual tutorial appointments with Florian

Your two years of study

In the first four trimesters (i.e. study year 1 and first trimester of study year 2), students follow the complete course, in the last two trimesters, they concentrate on their graduation project.

Each Thematic Project entails the completion of a practical media work, and a critical essay (2500-3000 words/10 pages).

Master graduation entails the completion of a Master graduation project assessed by the exam committee, and of a Master’s thesis (8000 words/30 pages).