New Program in
Experimental Intermedia Arts
Media and Fine Arts
Department
Experimental Instrument
By Gil Gragert
The visual and performing arts have warmed the historical soul of human thought and feeling. From early pageants and opera to mass media mixtures of contemporary art, music, dance, and performance, every culture has defined its hopes and fears, stories and ideas with a unique blend of its artistic bounty. With emerging technologies and a broader, global perspective come experiments and explorations into emerging aesthetics, shifting paradigms, new theories and a broader range of intermedia possibilities for the creation and presentation of these new works of art.
The Program in Experimental Intermedia Arts offers courses which lead to public performances and presentations which directly engage students in the creative process of intermedia art making. From its conception, historical evolution and cultural underpinnings, to applied techniques of current performance practices, experimental intermedia studies allow students to probe more deeply into the nature of their own creativity and to discover how their skills, knowledge and character might be applied to develop scholarly or creative intermedia projects. Perspectives gained through the study and practices of experimental intermedia arts can offer a wide range of benefits to students—from the acquisition of enhanced personal creativity and self-confidence to a professional portfolio of performances and creative work.
Students in the Experimental Intermedia Arts Minor will be able to engage materials, ideas and situations from personal perspectives and form them into original intermedia art works. They will study the theories, techniques and development of the intermedia arts through historical examination of an assortment of sources from, documentary to original intermedia productions, exhibitions and performances.
Minor in Experimental
Intermedia Arts
(20 Semester Credits)
Imda 340—Intermedia Arts
(4) Semester Credits, Fall
This course traces the history and recent developments in the areas of music, sound art, the visual arts, writing, movement, performance art and the new media, focusing in particular on the border regions between the various art forms, and the materials, methods, forms and practices developed by intermedia artists.
Imda 352—Creativity
(4) Semester Credits, Fall
This seminar examines the nature of creativity within the framework of an open studio space, focusing on the individual and collective strategies and approaches to creating experimental intermedia art works designed specifically for the studio space.
Musc 330—Experimental Music
(4) Semester Credits, Fall
This course explores the techniques, theories and applications of experimental music by directly engaging the materials of sound and developing individual and group methods and practices for creating original performances, compositions and installations.
Imda 430—Collaboration
(4) Semester Credits, Spring
This course examines the nature of collaboration in the arts in various experimental intermedia settings and situations. Students will form collaborative projects in which the dynamics of creative decision-making are applied to experimental art making.
Imda 459—Creative Capstone Project
(4) Semester Credits, Spring
This project allows students to work directly with faculty and guest artists to create an original production relevant to their particular artistic focus.