Emergent Digital Practices

Office: Sturm Hall, Room 216
Mail Code: 2000 E. Asbury Ave., Denver, CO 80208
Phone: 303-871-7716
Email: edp@du.edu
Web Site: www.du.edu/ahss/edp

The MA in Emergent Digital Practices combines the pursuit of advanced, investigatory technical media skill-sets with focused research agendas contextualized within a broad liberal arts and digital humanities framework. The MFA in Emergent Digital Practices emphasizes methods and production of creative scholarly research and works shaped by broader art historical and cultural contexts. Students in both of the graduate degree threads of the EDP program will share key critical, theoretical, and historical resources, will be expected to excel in areas of creative expression and hands-on media production, and will be asked to acquire specialized investigatory skills. Students will learn to work together by utilizing advanced technical platforms and facilities combined with opportunities for heightened critical reflection and dialog.

EDP graduate students should strive to develop critical awareness, to articulate deep media literacies, to sustain new creative practices, and to foster outlooks engaged with the world around us. While invested in participatory forms of creation, performance, and interactivity, EDP graduate students are expected to engage in technical experimentation outside the realm of industry standards and creative, as well as critical, undertakings that surpass the limits of single disciplines. Students are also expected to be able to articulate the critical underpinnings of the things they devise and create through writing, speaking, discussion, and critique.

Advanced study in EDP will add scholarly and professional depth to the multiple artistic and cultural practices—both mainstream and alternative—that have developed alongside the powerful, networked, and mobile computing technologies of the 21st century. Advanced research in EDP will provide students with an awareness of broad contexts as well as definitive, professional-level focus and in-depth knowledge of the strategies and collaborative processes for complex, interdisciplinary cultural engagement.

Master of Arts in Emergent Digital Practices

The EDP MA degree at the University of Denver is unique in that it asks the student to balance the technical and the critical, the practical and the aesthetic. The MA degree is structured to build upon the body of knowledge each student already possesses from his/her undergraduate studies and expand and explore the consequence and possibilities that arise from the inclusion of technology into that field.

The MA student should be able to articulate and demonstrate advanced perspectives on emergent digital practices within interdisciplinary contexts. The MA student should also be able to synthesize knowledge of ideas and practices from across the spectrum of historical and contemporary contexts, focusing not just on making the new, but making the needed. And the MA student’s work should demonstrate accomplished means and mechanisms for critically evaluating the cultural dynamics of emergent digital practices.

The MA degree is designed around a two-year coursework structure with two courses being taken during each of the three regular quarters per year and then students have up to three years to complete the non-coursework requirements. It is not unusual for students to be able to have a part-time job (up to 20 hours/week) and still be successful on the program.

Master of Fine Arts in Emergent Digital Practices

Envisioning and actualizing artworks created with the latest technology — fueled by critical content — that’s the EDP MFA program.

While also demonstrating an understanding of Emergent Digital Practices within interdisciplinary contexts, the MFA student should be able to articulate a deep understanding of the art historical and contemporary contexts of art making, especially as they are being shaped by technology and the sciences. The MFA student should be prepared for public engagement through knowledge of the significance of established cultural institutions and frameworks such as galleries, museums, festivals, and other public spaces.

The MFA degree is structured as three years of coursework with students taking an average of three courses during each of the three normal quarters per year and then having up to two years to complete the non-coursework requirements. It is recommended that students pursuing the MFA degree are able to focus full time on their studies without simultaneous employment. The MFA degree is considered a “terminal degree” providing the necessary credentials to teach at an institute of higher education.

Faculty

Christopher Coleman, Professor, MFA, University at Buffalo - State University of New York

William H. Depper, Teaching Professor, MA, University of Denver

Rafael A. Fajardo, Associate Professor, MFA, Rhode Island School of Design

Kate Hollenbach, Assistant Professor, MFA, University of California Los Angeles

Laleh Mehran, Professor, MFA, Carnegie Mellon University

Trace E. Reddell, Professor and Director, PhD, University of Colorado-Boulder

Timothy Weaver, Professor, MFA, University of Colorado-Boulder