Performance & Interactive Media Arts, M.F.A.
Student Learning Outcomes
Mission Statement
The programs in Performance and Interactive Media Arts provide students with training, theoretical and technical background, and practical experience in the conceptualization and production of collaborative, multi-disciplinary artworks. Working groups emerge from a cohesive community of artists made up of the students and faculty of the programs. Works are presented in a performance setting. Students learn to use technology as a means of extending their personal artistic practice and facilitating cross-disciplinary artistic collaborations. Students with diverse academic, artistic, professional, and cultural backgrounds enter the program, form a close-knit community, and work in collaborative groups throughout the course of study, with close mentoring by faculty members. In the second year a major collaborative thesis production is created and presented in a professional venue.
Program Meta-goals
- Form a functional, cohesive, supportive, and self-managing community of artists that supports the collaborative groups and projects emerging from it.
- Collectively agree to, during the course of study, place the work of the community (and the collaborative groups that form from it) before individual artistic work
- Collectively agree to place a high priority on mutual respect and constructive behavior in the interactions of the community's (and collaborative groups') members
- Collectively understand that the PIMA studio is your fellow students, and that to spend time “in the studio” means to spend time with your collaborators, regardless of the physical location of the meeting. Collectively agree that students will spend, on average, 20+ hours per week in face-to-face collaborative situations.
Program Goals
- Provide background in current collaborative performing arts practices, and a historical framework for understanding these practices
- Provide background and training in collaborative co-creation techniques and strategies
- Provide background and training in techniques and strategies for creating and presenting live performances
- Provide experience of live performance training, preparation, exercises, and practice as part of the course of study
- Provide background and training in live performance production technology
- Provide background and training in interactive media programming with an emphasis on use in live performance
- Provide background and practical experience in researching, establishing, and co-producing performances in cooperation with a community or community group
- Provide background and training in university-level teaching and course design
- Provide experience of a broad range of practical collaboration experiences
- Provide experience of performing arts production in professional venues
- Provide experience of event publicity, documentation, archiving, and electronic distribution
Program Objectives
- Students will be able to research, analyze, and write scholarly papers on current collaborative performing arts practices (Goal 1)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of a historical framework for understanding current collaborative performing arts practices (Goal 1)
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of, and proficiency in, collaborative co-creation strategies (Goal 2)
- Students will demonstrate practical and theoretical knowledge of techniques and strategies for creating and presenting live performances (Goal 3)
- Students will participate in live performance training, preparation, exercises, and practice as part of the course of study (Goal 4)
- Students will demonstrate practical and theoretical knowledge of live performance production technology (Goal 5)
- Students will demonstrate practical and theoretical knowledge of interactive media programming with an emphasis on use in live performance (Goal 6)
- Students will successfully research and establish a relationship with a community or community group (Goal 7)
- Students will collaboratively co-produce a performance in cooperation with a community or community group (Goal 8)
- Students will design university-level courses, including syllabi, schedules, objectives, assignments, and practical sample classes (Goal 9)
- Students will engage fully in collaborative co-creation of all major projects in required classes throughout the course of study (Goal 10)
- Students will demonstrate practical performing arts production in professional venues (Goal 11)
- Students will demonstrate ability in event publicity (Goal 12)
- Students will demonstrate ability in event documentation (Goal 12)
- Students will demonstrate ability in archiving and electronic distribution of event documentation (Goal 12)
