Program Description
Studio art classes combined with unique academic courses ranging from traditional art history to the visual culture of everyday life. As the everyday use of images expands exponentially across digital media, the combined BA program in Media Arts and Culture responds by probing the ways in which people see and understand the world around them. Study how art, architecture, and media technologies intersect to shape the understanding of the local and global cultures in both historical and contemporary contexts.
The program provides first-hand experience in the conceptualization, curation, funding, and organization of exhibitions, events, and workshops and gives insight into existing art economies and models for new and expanded networks of cultural practice. It also enables avenues for graduate studies: art and architectural history, curatorial and museum studies, information science, and art conservation.
The Media Arts and Culture program gives students a critical background in which to interpret and contextualize the historical legacies of art, media, technology, urban ecologies and the built environment and to apply their historical and theoretical knowledge to projects that investigate the complexity of contemporary culture. While the development of research and studio skills is essential within this program there is also a strong emphasis on first hand observation through the following:
urban field research, community and collaborative models
- media literacy and digital skills
- research-creation projects that emphasize the relationship between image, text and sound
In addition to the introductory courses in Visual Culture and Media Arts at the first and second year levels, students will take courses in the history of art, photography, architecture, and the urban environment. Specialized upper level seminars currently include: Contemporary Photography, Urban Ecologies, Detroit Architecture, and Border Cultures.
