[spectre] New BA Digital Media in Lüneburg/Hamburg, Germany

[Mathias Fuchs]

Subject: New BA Digital Media in Lüneburg/Hamburg, Germany

Establishing a new bachelor degree in digital media raises particular 
opportunities at this historical moment, where not only ‘social media 
revolutions’ and the latest gadgets from Apple, but also NSA 
intelligence leaks and the work of databases, algorithms and networks 
have become central topics of public debate. How can all this be taken 
into account, without forgetting that these same technologies are also 
used on a rather mundane level to transform everyday practices of 
producing, sharing and consuming media content?

The Digital Media BA at Leuphana University in Lüneburg aims to bring 
these multiple aspects together: the global and the local, the 
historical and the contemporary, along with the theoretical and the 
practical. Students will analyze histories, concepts and methods 
alongside technical systems and tools that define digital media and its 
practices. Hands-on introductions to the foundations of programming, 
databases and networks are provided as well as the critical use of 
digital media, including video, audio, games, apps or mash-ups. Such a 
combination of programming, DIY/Maker-Culture and critical theory is 
essential given the central role of digital technologies in cultural 
production today.

Accordingly, the Digital Media BA merges many different traditions in 
new ways: German media theory of older and newer generations will 
(re-)connect with net criticism, and international research on the 
manifold aspects of our digital cultures, including work from China, 
India and Latin America. Whether approaches starting from the social or 
the technological, key starting points from Marx to Luhmann to McLuhan 
will be introduced and discussed. Students will encounter a highly 
transdisciplinary version of digital media studies. Theories in 
computing meet practices in the humanities, and radically critical 
positions converge with pragmatic issues of career development and 
future employment.

The BA is taught in English. Classes are held in Hamburg and Lüneburg, a 
small town close to Hamburg. Students have the opportunity to complete 
part of their program abroad, for example at the School of Creative 
Media at City University of Hong Kong. Teachers are part of the 
community of researchers at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana, 
and students will encounter their research first hand.

Fees are very low: €1580 per year, including free public transport. 
Applications for this year’s cohort are open until 15th July 2013. If 
you know someone interested in a Digital Media BA, please forward this 
information: 
http://www.leuphana.de/en/college/bachelor/the-major/digital-media.html

-- 
Dr. Mathias Fuchs
Ratiborstrasse 18
   10999 Berlin, Germany
   phone: +49 3092109654
   mobile: +49 17677287011
http://creativegames.org.uk/