Create, challenge, move, and inform through art and expression in our MFA in Film and Media Art program. Here, you’ll work with image and sound, and traditional and emergent media forms. You'll develop an understanding of film, video, audio, and interactive media production—and you will channel this understanding into the creation of multimedia works. To ensure that creative, talented students at every stage of development find a place in our program, we give you the opportunity to apply into the three-phase curriculum at whichever level best matches your experience.
In this program, you will:
Whether you want to explore film, documentary, fiction narrative, experimental media, animation, installation, interactive art, or sound design, we will give you the tools, skills, and experience you need. Cultivate your creative voice. Apply to our graduate program in Film and Media Art today.
The MFA in Film & Media Art program seeks talented and ambitious students at all levels offering three entry points.
Our unique program provides students of all levels with the opportunity to develop as engaged and versatile creative professionals and media artists. Students will work with image and sound to entertain, inform, persuade, and challenge, using both traditional and emergent media forms. They will develop an understanding of the disciplines of film, video, audio, and interactive media production, bringing this understanding to bear on traditional and convergent media works.
The MFA in Film and Media Art is a terminal degree for students who wish to pursue careers as media production professionals and artists, or who want to teach at the college or university level. Students are able to explore a variety of media production genres—computer animation, documentary, experimental media, fiction narrative, installation, interactive art, and sound design—with a degree program that provides foundational knowledge in the use of media technologies, theory, critical and historical context, and media business while offering a set of courses of advanced training and mentorship in their specific area of interest.
Our program has three distinct entry points and varies in length from 2-3 years depending on which phase of the program you begin in. This approach allows us to welcome creative students at any stage of development. Once you are admitted to the program, the Graduate Program Director will work with you to create a custom curriculum based on your unique needs.
We have a place for all creative film and media artists - whether you are new to the field and need to build a strong foundation before beginning your thesis project, or you are ready to dive right into thesis production. Take the next step and apply today!
There are 3 distinct phases to the program to help students acquire the specialized skills and creative resources required for the collaborative nature of production work. Students in the Film and Media Art program study the history and critical theories that provide the foundation for their work, so as to understand the context of their creative output and to be able to evaluate its effectiveness.
Students will have the opportunity to apply for advanced standing during the admissions process. Advanced standing will allow a student to begin the program in either Phase II or Phase III.
Phase I – Foundational (6 semesters; 64 credits)
Most students will begin the program in this phase. It builds a solid foundation in the first semester in theory and history and an intensive introduction to writing and production skills in a variety of media platforms.
Phase II – Intermediate Practitioner (5 semesters; 52 credits)
After meeting with the Graduate Program Director, students will develop a customized plan of study that allows for artistic exploration while developing the technical proficiency to undertake their thesis project.
Students will begin to focus in one or more areas of media production, computer animation, documentary, experimental media, fiction narrative, installation, interactive art, and sound design or an individualized hybrid form.
For example, a student pursuing professional and artistic development as a documentary filmmaker could take the History of Documentary seminar and the Documentary Workshop and Advanced Documentary courses. Electives and directed study in advanced production (e.g. cinematography, producing, editing and interactive media) are also available, so the aspiring documentarian could also opt to take courses in interactive media and computer animation.
Phase III - Advanced practitioner (4 semesters; 40 credits)
Students in Phase III come ready to begin working on their thesis project. Students meet with their program advisor to select courses that support their thesis work as well as their specific learning needs. In addition, students concentrate on developing their artistic vision through the thesis proposal process while building new skills and learning advanced production techniques. The MFA Production Workshop is a key component to the program and provides students with support in producing an ongoing body of work within a collaborative, creative community. In the MFA Production Workshop, students present works-in-progress to their peers and faculty for critiques.
Once you have completed your thesis project, all students take part in a public screening of MFA works for the year. This is the last MFA requirement and a celebration of student achievements.
The MSc in Filmmaking and Media Arts is designed to deliver a portfolio of skills required in contemporary screen-based production contexts. If you are a filmmaker, freelance media producer, or an independent media artist seeking to develop advanced skills and learn key industry practices for building your career, the MSc in Filmmaking and Media Arts has been specifically designed for you. Through practical workshops, industry master classes, and history and theory courses you will have the opportunity to learn from industry professionals, media artists, and world leading academics in film, television and digital media theory.
The programme will offer a combination of formal lectures, practitioner led workshops, seminar discussions, screenings and one-on-one tutorials.
The practical elements of the course will feature high levels of support and direction in relation to pre-production materials, including developing pitches and storyboards as well as hands on support in relation to delivery of the individual film/media art projects.
Industry workshops are designed to give you the skills and knowledge needed in contemporary screen-based media contexts, while history and theory courses are offered to link industry practice with cutting edge theory in the field.
The programme has 4 components:
The programme will equip you with the ability to develop a career as a media producer, with a particular focus on low-budget productions for film and television. You will have the opportunity to explore and develop freelance industry practices and a portfolio of skills enabling you to work as an independent practitioner in today’s creative industries.
It is an innovative programme that teaches artistic, technical and professional skills and is designed to support graduates that are interested in working for large media companies or who may wish to pursue their own independent filmmaking and/or media arts practice. The programme also offers the research preparation necessary to successfully pursue a practice-based PhD.
You will learn things such as how to make films or media art pieces on low-budgets, how to take an idea from pitch to production, how to manage and sustain workflows, the processes involved in applying for arts funding, how to enhance your public profile and the processes involved in administering a start-up company.
This Research Master's programme in Media, Art and Performance Studies is an interdisciplinary and internationally oriented research-based programme which offers an advanced training in academic research skills appropriate for today's highly dynamic and interdisciplinary field of media, visual arts and performance.
Contemporary media, art and performance increasingly play with and transcend disciplinary boundaries. Intermedial and performative practices both produce and critically investigate cultural transitions in today’s mediatized and performative culture. Such synergies invite to explore how emerging forms of media, art and performance – while historically and culturally embedded - interact with and relate to social and cultural transformations.
As a student of this programme, you will be introduced to and specialise in new research areas and methodologies, necessary for investigating emerging media, performance and contemporary art forms within today's rapidly changing culture. In relation to this you will also reflect on the role of the Humanities in both academic and public debates.
Central concerns in this programme are, amongst others:
We approach this broad field from a range of comparative and intermedial perspectives, focusing primarily on the dynamics of change and exchange between media, contemporary arts and performance within a culture and society in transition.
In this programme you will reflect on questions such as how media have developed from the time of early cinema up to current new media art; how the definition of 'live' has changed alongside these mediatised cultural forms. How has the performative turn changed the ways we think about audiences? How do media technologies facilitate new methods of self-staging and social performance? What is the influence of media and technology on way we curate and educate in museums and archives and other cultural institutions.
In this age of selfies, datafication, (self-) staging and re-staging, and playful learning, you will examine how various media, art forms, and performance have been used for critical analysis, civic engagement, entertainment and educational purposes. You will do this by asking how digital technologies, dramaturgical and artistic strategies alter ways of dealing with knowledge production and distribution, and how these transitions have contributed to and also ask for new methods of research.
This programme will train you as a researcher within the field of Media, Contemporary Art and Performance Studies, to either prepare you for a PhD position, or for research-oriented positions in professional contexts of cultural institutions such as archives, museums, art institutions, theatres, for education, (non-)governmental organisations, or in creative industries.
After completing the programme:
The Research Master’s is aimed at excellent students from both the Netherlands and overseas, who have a background in the history and theory of contemporary art, or media and performance studies with a focus on theatre, dance, film, television, and/or digital media.
Alumni of the Media, Art and Performance Studies Research Master’s have been successful in obtaining PhD positions in various prestigious international programmes. Graduates also find their way to other job markets. For example in the domain of curation, dramaturgy, or media consultancy. Read more about possible career prospects.
The MA in Digital Media is unique in its combination of practical and theoretical approaches to contemporary media and technology.
The established and exciting degree is designed to help you understand digital transformations in media, culture and society and apply this understanding in practice, in the media and creative industries and in further research. You will be equipped with skills that can be applied to current and future developments in digital media, social media, computing and other aspects of technology.
The MA in Digital Media educates aspiring media practitioners and academics as well as early and mid-career professionals who seek to reflect on their roles in a structured and stimulating learning environment designed to give all students up-to-the-minute knowledge of digital media and the skills to apply that knowledge to future developments.
The MA offers two pathways:
Pathway 1 is a theory programme where you learn about developments in digital media and technology from a wide range of perspectives
Pathway 2 is a theory and practice programme where you can explore transformations in media, culture and society through the practice of contemporary digital communication. You will work with one or more of the following to create installations, apps and single- and multi-screen work that's responsive to the continually changing digital landscape:
Acclaimed academics and practitioners
Benefit from the experience and expertise of one of the world’s leading media and communications departments. The programme is co-convened by Professor Joanna Zylinska and Daniel Rourke, and you will be taught by theorists and practitioners of international standing.
Work placements and internships
The MA in Digital Media regularly attracts offers of work placements and internships. In the past these have come from Google, The Science Museum and N1creative.com. There is also £6,000 bursary available for UK students studying this course. Find out more about the Stationers' Postgraduate Bursary Scheme on our departmental awards page.
Facilities
Our students have access to state-of-the-art facilities including well-equipped lecture and seminar rooms, exhibition spaces, computer facilities and digital media suites.
The department is also currently host to the renowned philosopher of media and technology, Bernard Stiegler and students will have access to his modulein Media Philosophy as well as priority access to the innovative and popular option After New Media. Designed to complement the MA in Digital Media, this course provides a framework for thinking about the current media environment as well as future forms of human and computer interaction.
An established record
The MA in Digital Media has been redefining media theory and practice since 2004. Our students become proficient in:
MA Digital Media students have access to the pioneering option ‘After New Media’, currently a non-assessed online module which explores the themes of self mediation, ethical mediation and intelligent mediation, and develops a framework for thinking about 'life' after new media. As well as accessing a series of podcasts, students are offered reading groups and a masterclass with Professor Sarah Kember co-author of the book Life After New Media on which the course is based.
Overview
The programme consists of:
Core modules
Seen take-home paper; essays; dissertation or practice/theory project and other production work for image-making.
We provide graduates with skills that are cutting edge: in the critical analysis and/or creative production of digital media; in the disciplinary knowledge and conceptual frameworks necessary for current and future forms of media and technology; in the awareness of how digital media and technologies are re-shaping society from the ways we communicate (through social media and web 2.0) to the increasingly ‘smart’ environments in which we live.
Our programme provides a theory and practice pathway and prepares students for work in the following areas:
This exciting new multidisciplinary Master's programme is fully designed to reflect the needs of contemporary interactive media industries, bringing together creative technologies, interactivity and design practices within digital cultures with the user in mind.
Interactive Media Practice combines a wide range of digital creative technologies primarily combining digital literacies design, technology and interaction, through user-centred design for commercial outputs to an industry standard.
Interactive Media Practice places the user at the centre of the experience and focuses on design and content creation in areas such as mobile app development, wearables, games, rich media websites, interactive guides and installations, immersive VR, next generation advertising and virtual and augmented reality systems, through to social media powerful eMarketing and entrepreneurship through innovation protocol.
According to the late CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, the app industry "is worth several billion pounds annually and employs around 40,000 people, representing approximately 10% of the total audio-visual workforce. Sectors such as sound-driven games and apps show an even wider growth where providers such as Apple have paid a total of two billion dollars to apps within the US alone".
Adobe Systems (UK) fully support the programme with high recommendation, based on the development and key principles the course offers, which is rare and unique. We embrace excellent contacts within the interactive media and games industries, including regular visits and master classes from industry professionals at the top of their game.
Adobe Systems (UK), said: “This Interactive Media degree offers an ideal grounding for those wishing to work in the digital media industries, which increasingly require people who work with technology from a creative perspective. This is the course that will create the next generation of interactive media stars! ”
The course embraces a hackathon culture with specialist hack labs boasting newly designed flexible learning spaces for students to work more collaboratively on innovation protocols fostering cross-pollination of new ideas creatively. Many students will be working on live industry briefs as well as their own projects independently within and outside our course clusters. This collaborative approach to learning and research often leads to successful projects, which are commercially viable and quickly gain industry recognition through our end-of-year show.
“It’s a really multi-faceted MA, bringing together creativity, technology skills and digital media, with an entrepreneurial thread.” – 2015 graduate.
Our students learn to examine the communication of ideas in a networked world through our entrepreneurship incubator programme and consider the many impacts of digital media in everyday life, for commercial trajectories through practice-based projects.
As one of the top 100 international universities in the world, the University of Westminster's School of Media, Arts and Design currently boasts a series of professional recording studios, a new teaching recording studio, professional technology labs and access to an array of post-production, and multimedia facilities built and equipped to the highest standards.
Using the leading industry software, you will be involved in designing and making interactive digital media content for delivery over the Internet, on tablets and mobile devices and for installations to designing compelling user interfaces creating a great user experience, this also extends to the development towards creating content for the ‘internet of things’.
The MA in Interactive Media Practice course will prepare you for this sector, by leveraging and integrating the fine blend between creativity and technical capacities. You will also benefit from having access to a range of highly regarded industry practitioners who will offer you exceptional insight and working knowledge within the field, both challenging and encouraging your technical and creative fair. On this master's degree you will develop commercial-level interactive media and digital content production skills.
This multidisciplinary course prepares you to work in a wide range of industry combining theory, practice, and bringing together technical, creative perspective on new media systems, interactive technologies and digital culture as well as exploring new emerging creative technologies, producing an industry professional who can produce as well as explore future creative technologies.
Students are encouraged to work with technology experimentally in a creative way, collaboratively, and to apply emerging and existing technology in new and innovative ways, research and the experimental application. You will also have hands-on experience creating content for mobile, tablet wearables, VR, AR and content-rich media websites, advanced web production, and UX design, all of this with the user in mind.
The course will provide skills in the relevant multimedia software, media-rich web production, Unity, UdK, website design and development to mobile app development. You will be taught creative coding, where the course encourages the use of a wide range of programming languages delivered by industry practitioners. We also have accreditation and training opportunities for those students wanting to develop their skills more prolifically within selected software via triple A initiative, outside of the Master's.
These include mobile apps, mainstream games, interactive installation, and eMarketing, with an emphasis on core creative skills. The course also prepares and enhances your ability in producing interactive media, methodologies and production workflows, supported by a robust understanding of the technologies and theories involved.
The Interactive Media Practice degree offers an ideal underpinning for those seeking employment in the digital media industries, which increasingly require people who work with technology from a creative perspective. This is the course that will create the next generation of interactive media talent who are both enterprising and creative.
Our approach on the course is implemented through hackathon culture as seen in technology start-up sectors, where cross collaboration through interdisciplinary approach is very welcomed. Students are encouraged to apply from design, non-programming or non-technical backgrounds as well as technical backgrounds.
The following modules are indicative of what you study on this course.
Modules
interdisciplinary opportunities we offer create an engaging professional experience investigating the practice and discourse of fine art. You can choose areas of specialism in drawing from the archive, art in space and place and curating art, alongside your own studio work.
Full-time students use our purpose-built studio space. You have access to a wide range of workshops and technical expertise from all areas of media and fabrication. These include • sculpture • painting • live art • drawing • computer programming • metalwork • video editing • dark rooms • sound studios • film production equipment • printmaking.
Our teaching staff are experts in fine art and art education who not only exhibit their work but also contribute to conferences, journals and publications at national and international levels.
Vibrant and supportive learning environment
The course offers a supportive community to foster your practice and your ambitions as a fine art professional. It is particularly suitable if you are • open-minded • ambitious • keen to experience new personal challenges that expand your creative development • interested in understanding all areas of the fine art discipline.
You are encouraged to create experimental and innovative works and to engage with the critical context of art in our time. Dialogue with peers, practicing artists and structured teaching throughout the course enables you to identify your practice within the wider field of fine art to achieve new goals, develop networks and find new inspirations to enrich your creative ambitions.
Excellent creative resources
We have a comprehensive range of technical resources and an excellent programme of high profile guest artists from across the visual arts spectrum to stimulate debates on issues of art and culture. If you are doing your work placement in another European country there may be funding available through the Erasmus programme.
Dynamic and creative art community
Fine art students work and exhibit in the heart of Sheffield's Cultural Industries Quarter. The course has links with • Sheffield Contemporary Arts Forum • studio groups such as S1 and Bloc • Yorkshire Art Space Society • the Showroom Cinema • Site Gallery.
Sheffield has a dynamic and vibrant creative community. We work collaboratively with artists and curators, as well as researchers and students in other areas. You have access to a network of public galleries, art organisations and artist-run spaces. Opportunities for exhibiting and publishing take place throughout the year.
MA and MFA study
MA and MFA students complete the same modules during the course except that MFA students complete an extra project module. The MFA project encourages you to develop professional skills that help you to identify, instigate, and deliver projects with external partners, such as communities, galleries or businesses. You find a project partner, agree a brief and then deliver the project to a professional standard.
This course is part of the Sheffield Institute of Arts (SIA), an amazing, diverse community of makers – where staff, students and partners work as equals to deliver real innovation and creativity. SIA opened in 1843 and is one of the UK's oldest Art and Design Schools. We have recently moved into the Head Post Office, a redesigned Grade II listed building. It includes state-of-the-art workshops which provide you with a unique studio-based learning environment in the heart of the creative community.
Core modules
In this module you extend your knowledge of the range of approaches to research that have been used in art, and those that derive from other disciplines. You are introduced to an advanced range of contemporary critical theories, and examine key texts embodying these theories. Principles of research planning and the theory and practice of information searching ensure you are ready to effectively carry out your own research and critical practice.
During this studio-based module, you produce a body artwork in preparation for an exhibition. Your work may manifest itself across a range of contemporary art practices arising from individual intellectual and creative concerns. You have access to specialist workshop surgeries where you can seek individual support and advice to further your practical work.
On this module you produce a body of work in any chosen media form. It draws together strategies of research, professional practice and critical thinking to form an advanced, mature, informed and professional practice. The module holds together these key aspects to reflect, and enable transition into, the wider contemporary art world.
Optional modules
You select from options that are led by research active staff who will introduce you to their own professional interests including • art writing • curating art • art in space and place • drawing from the archive • gallery – public realm: making art inside and out
MFA core module – MFA students only
You reflect on and consider methodologies of fine art to develop an individual method of making.
Your work on this final MFA project involves public presentation of your work supported by a mentor who guides you as you make the leap into the professional world.
Self-negotiated models of examination enable students to present agreed bodies of work for self and peer group assessment as well as evaluation by tutors.
We provide a learning environment that supports your individual needs while developing your involvement in the wider art world.
You are regularly involved in a range of exhibition, curatorial, performance, screening and publishing projects at regional, national and international levels.
You gain confidence to exploit opportunities for practicing artists and work in associated fine art-related culture. You can also register for further study at MPhil/PhD level within our Art and Design Research Centre.
Graduate successes include
Taught Masters degrees in History, Art History, Philosophy and American Studies at Sussex, a top 20 University
Create your own story at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Creative Arts!
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