[artinfo] postgraduate opportunities: MA in Media Design

[matthew fuller]

MA in Media Design
Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The MA in Media Design is a two-year full-time english-language
course offered by the Piet Zwart Institute.  We are the postgraduate
centre for art and design of the Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool
Rotterdam.

Systems not surfaces
Too often,  media design has simply been the arrangement of pixels
and plug-ins.  For us, the computer and the networks are where
dynamics that are aesthetic, social, political, technical, spatial,
linguistic, economic and numerical, meet and shape each other.  The
role of the designer is to track, sort and remix these dynamics in
relation to others.

A primary focus of the work is the internet, thorough education in
these technologies is a staple part of our work.  Core themes in our
programme are: transmission, use, behaviour, and experience;
knowledge and memory; the political economy of the information
society; citizens and consumers, public and private identities; urban
and virtual reality, network and diaspora.

Theory, Practice, Technology
In a working context where software is doing half the thinking and
doing for you, where is the divide between theory, technology and
practice?  This course is committed to a fundamental revaluation of
the division between these terms.  We will look for and invent the
technology that is in media philosophy; find the conceptuality of an
operating system; and design in a way that synthesises the power of
all three.

Connected to the MA programme is that of Media Design Research,
hosting a set of projects testing the social and experimental
possibilities for networked and computational digital media.
Researchers in this programme also act as tutors, guaranteeing a wide
range of contacts and insight for students.

For participants, work is carried out as a series of group and
self-initiated projects.  Information on these projects can be found
on the website below.
In certain cases participation in single projects may also be arranged.



Find more information and application forms at
http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/
Application dates for 2004-2005:
Recommended:  July 1st
Final application deadline: September 1st