[spectre] Call for Applications: Piet Zwart Institute Networked Media Master

[Florian Cramer]

Piet Zwart Institute
Institute for Postgraduate Studies and Research
Willem de Kooning Academy / Rotterdam University
Netherlands

Master of Media Design and Communication : Networked Media 
Call for Applications

Application Deadline: May 1, 2010
http://pzwart.wdka.nl/networked-media


The programme is internationally known as the new media study programme
at the Piet Zwart Institute.

Summary

We offer a Master programme focused on a critical engagement with the
culture of the Internet and computer media, their artistic design,
technology and theory; a small (20 students in total), English-taught,
two-year full-time Master course with a multidisciplinary community of
students and teachers, and a strong emphasis on personal contact and
collaboration.  Our students, faculty members and guests come, among
others, from the USA, France, Serbia, Italy, Austria, Pakistan, Turkey,
and our 24/7 studio facilities allow you to make our school your
workplace.  We offer a challenging programme with trimestrial thematic
projects, theory sessions and a technical course.  Students receive
strong tutorial support with weekly individual meetings with both staff
and guests.


Multidisciplinarity

Whether you are a graphic designer wanting to develop your digital media
practice more thoroughly, an audiovisual artist interested in a more
informed and self-made media practice, an architect interested in media
as systems that impose social possibilities and constraints, a media
activist wanting to develop both practical and theoretical tools of
intervention, a computer and electronics experimenter wanting to sharpen
her or his artistic concepts, a media artist/designer looking for
research-oriented study in an international community of peers - this is
what our programme makes possible.


Programme

The study programme consists of a mix of theme-based projects lead by
international media artists and designers, researchers and activists,
theory sessions on arts, culture and media, a continuous technical
introduction into media-oriented computer programming, personal
tutorials and independent study. (For more details, visit our web site
http://pzwart.wdka.nl/networked-media .) Next to practical media work,
there is a strong element of critical writing for which you receive
tutorial support and feedback.


Subjects

Some exemplary themes of our trimestrial projects are: What are open
media, on- and offline?  What is publishing in the digital media age?
Can one build media in hardware? Can we compare urban planning to
programming and map it? Can we collectively design media according to
game rules?

Philosophy

In short, media design in this Master program strives for the creation
of media, instead of creating with off-the-shelf and out-of-the-box
technology. This is why Open Source is an important element of our
course, philosophically and technologically. Artistic work, theoretical
study and technological learning are the three core aspects of the
course that often overlap and lead to each other.


Faculty

Our faculty members and guests are practitioners and theoreticians in
digital media, art and design. This year, the faculty members include
Aymeric Mansoux (core tutor, member of the GOTO10 collective, PureDyne
developer), Michael Murtaugh (interaction design, computer science
graduate MIT Media Lab), Stock (hardware guru, former chief developer
V2_Lab), Florian Cramer (course director and research professor for art,
media and communication). Regular tutors include Renee Turner and Femke
Snelting (Geuzen collective), Gordan Savicic (MODDR_Labs), Roel Wouters
and Luna Maurer (graphic and media designers, co-authors of the
Conditional Design Manifesto), . The group of faculty members and guests
varies every year, and we regularly invite external media practitioners,
theoreticians and artists as guest tutors. For further information,
please see
http://pzwart.wdka.nl/networked-media/category/study-programme/staff/


Research Opportunities

The Master course is affiliated to the international research programme
Communication in a Digital Age at the Piet Zwart Institute. This project
investigates the future of communication design in relation to the most
current technological and social developments of media and
communication. As a Masters student, you can attend all its conferences,
lectures and workshops, have visiting research fellows as personal
tutors, and contribute your own projects to its published research.
Our past research publications include the anthologies "Software Studies"
(ed. Matthew Fuller, The MIT Press) and "FLOSS + Art" (ed. Aymeric
Mansoux, OpenMUTE).


Information

Students who will receive their Bachelor degrees in summer 2010 can
already apply now.

For application forms, application criteria and further information on our
curriculum or public programme, please see
http://pzwart.wdka.nl/networked-media/category/apply/application/ and
contact Leslie Robbins: l.j.drost-robbins -at- hro.nl


Piet Zwart Institute
Postgraduate Studies and Research
Networked Media
Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University
attn. Leslie Robbins
P.O. Box 1272
3000 BG Rotterdam
The Netherlands

-- 
Florian Cramer, Lector
Master Networked Media
Research programme Communication in a Digital Age
Piet Zwart Institute
Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam
http://pzwart.wdka.nl/networked-media
http://pzwart.wdka.nl/communication-in-a-digital-age