Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance

The Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance (IAWP) unit is an interdisciplinary digital arts and humanities research unit with a practice-based PhD. Faculty investigate past and present forms of digital art, writing, and performance, offering graduate students an environment in which to practice and research emerging forms of creativity.

The research conducted in the program reflects the rapidly transforming knowledge systems and digital media economies emerging from the substantial technological shifts currently taking place in our society. Digital creative work and critical media literacy play a defining role in our information society and are transforming all aspects of contemporary life, including the way many professional visual artists, multimedia performers, writers, publishers, digital humanists and archivists pursue their practice.

Traditional scholarly and creative work outputs such as the single-authored print book or conventional gallery exhibitions have already been challenged by the emergence of multi-authored and/or hybridized forms of transmission such as Internet art sites, electronic literature, live audio/visual performance, multi-platform storytelling or transmedia narratives, software art, interactive installations for public spaces, augmented reality, game art, networked media activism and innovative art applications for mobile devices and tablets.

IAWP’s internationally renowned and affiliated faculty collaborate with graduate students probing the significance of a digitally expanded, process-based research environment located in a cluster of interdisciplinary research labs. The program provides a flexible pedagogical structure that will lead to the creation of new and hybridized forms of art, writing, performance, scholarship, theory, design, curation, exhibition and publication appropriate for our current cultural moment.

The program concentrates its curriculum on digital forms of creativity so as to cultivate cutting-edge investigations into the practice, theory, history and philosophy of media and its relationships to creativity, communication, technology and information.

Doctoral students in the IAWP PhD program take 30 credit hours of required coursework in the first two years of the program followed by 30 dissertation credit hours for a total of 60 hours. At the end of their second year, students will take their General Examination. Once they have passed the General Examination, their research will focus on the creation of an original and substantial project centered on practice-based research. The final outcome of their research will result in a creative work accompanied by a significant dissertation.

The required coursework will include an interdisciplinary set of IAWP classes that introduces students to collaborative, practice-based research processes in the digital arts and humanities. The course work includes an Introduction to Practice-Based Research, Intermedia Studio Collaboratory, Doing Digital Humanities, Transmedia Writing and Publishing, Advanced Topics in New Media Art and Theory, Performance Making, and the Intermedia Seminar. Students are also encouraged to take approved courses located across departments inside and outside the College of Media, Communication and Infomation.

Students are expected to complete the program and their practice-based research project in four to five years.

Requirements

Applicants to the PhD program in Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance are expected to hold a Master's degree (MFA or MA preferred) or its equivalent from an accredited college or university and provide transcripts from every institution attended. In exceptional cases, applicants without a master’s degree may be considered for admission.

We encourage applications from interdisciplinary digital artists and/or humanists who have already started developing experimental modes of practice-based research in contemporary forms of artistic expression. Completed domestic applications must be received by the program no later than Jan. 15 prior to the fall semester for which entrance is sought. International applications should be submitted by Dec. 1. Late applications may be considered under special circumstances.

Successful applications typically meet or exceed the following criteria:

• Provide transcripts from all institutions the applicant has attended as an undergraduate and graduate.
• Have an undergraduate cumulative GPA of at least 3.2 and a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 in previous graduate work.
• Provide three letters of recommendation.
• Provide a 1000 word artist statement and proposal for a practice-based research project.
• Provide a resume or CV that includes academic and employment experience.
• Provide a portfolio of intermedia art work such as digital/Internet art sites, electronic literature, video and/or film work, digital humanities projects, mobile and web applications, audio files, etc. Format preference is web-based and could include links to Vimeo, Soundcloud, online publication and/or exhibition sites, personal sites, etc. DVDs with QuickTime files, images, texts, etc. are also accepted.

Meeting these criteria does not guarantee acceptance into the program. Because we accept relatively few new doctoral students each fall, we may have more qualified applicants than available openings.

For review and decision purposes you are required to upload an unofficial copy of your transcript(s) in the online application. We require one copy of the scanned transcript from each undergraduate and graduate institution that you attended. This includes community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs. While credits from one institution may appear on the transcript of a second institution, unofficial transcripts must be submitted from each institution, regardless of the length of attendance, and whether or not courses were completed. 

Scholarships

• Research or teaching assistantships, including a tuition waiver and stipend, as well as fellowships, are available.  PhD students may receive assistantships for a maximum of four years.
• Global Education