New Praxis in DANM is comprised of “practicum” and "critique"
New Praxis–Year One
Practicum—This area of Praxis is designed to allow students to develop the conceptual, technical and practical skills they need to successfully complete projects that realize their own individual goals as digital media artists. Practicum consists of three courses in the first year, which introduce students to project design, electronics, and programming:
DANM 210—Project Design Studio (Fall) guides the development of students’ individual studio practice, defining a research area in relation to digital media.
DANM 219—Introduction to Electronics for Artmaking (Fall) is an intensive dive into electronic devices used in artmaking, providing hands-on experience with sensors, motors, switches, gears, lights, simple circuits, microprocessors, and hardware storage devices to create kinetic and interactive works of art. Students are billed a materials fee. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.
DANM 220—Introduction to Programming for the Arts. (Winter) covers aspects of computer programming necessary for digital art projects. Students learn to manipulate digital media using program control for installations, presentations, and the Internet. No prior programming experience required. Enrollment restricted to graduate students.
Note: Students with prior experience in programming and/or electronics should discuss their background with the instructor and their advisor to determine if the course is needed or if an alternative course should be taken to fulfill this credit requirement. Students seeking an alternative means to fulfill this requirement may choose to:
- serve as assistants in workshops for beginning students;
- take electronics or programming electives offered in Computer Engineering or Computational Media; or
- enroll in independent studies, as approved by their advisor.
Critique—This area of Praxis is designed to allow students to present their own work and review the work of their fellow students as a means of engaging in critical dialogue necessary to pursue their own individual goals as digital media artists. First-year students are required to present work-in-progress based on the projects developed in the project design course in both individual studio and group critiques, and participate in group critique discussion.
During the spring quarter first-year students identify and form a thesis committee under the supervision of the program director.
New Praxis–Year Two
Practicum—During the fall quarter second-year students will work on the development of their thesis project proposal and abstract under the supervision of their thesis committee. Second-year students are encouraged to take practice-based electives and independent studies that facilitate the development of their thesis projects.
DANM 299—Thesis Research. In the winter and spring quarters second-year students enroll in a minimum of 10 units of independent thesis research which is supervised by one or more of their thesis committee.
DANM 215—Exhibition Production (Winter). Students work with faculty curator/coordinator on development of thesis projects specifically for the group exhibition context. Students contribute to development of exhibition design and collateral materials, while studying unique presentation and curatorial challenges of new media.