We teach designers to give form to emotions and ideas through medium, composition, and storytelling.
The Department of Media Arts, Design and Technology provides a truly interdisciplinary major for students who are interested in exploratory and innovative experiences that blend traditional and emerging creative practices. The Media Arts, Design and Technology program sets students on the path to design leading-edge artifacts and experiences that engage, entertain, and impact.
Media Arts, Design and Technology (MADTech) students are prepared to enter many fields in the creative industries from professional design firms to entertainment and educational technology companies. As “artist-designers,” students in the MADTech program learn to be creative practitioners and image-makers who bring form to emotions and ideas through the exploration of medium, composition, and most importantly, storytelling.
Students and faculty in Media Arts, Design and Technology challenge the status quo through creative technology acuity, experimentation across creative mediums, and articulation of creative ideas and vision through verbal and visual explanation.
Media Arts, Design and Technology students study to be:
Visual Storytellers
MADTech students bring a compelling visual form to narratives that result in career paths in the creative industries from animation, game design, and interactive exhibits, to soft materials construction, and digital/print media publishing.
Critical and Creative Thinkers
MADTech students are taught to be critical and creative problem-solvers with a willingness to take risks to translate creative ideas into prototypes and products.
Experimenters
MADTech students are constantly uncovering new methods, materials, techniques and technologies to enhance their products and ideas by pushing creative boundaries both technically and conceptually.
Makers
MADTech students don’t just propose concepts and prototypes, they take steps beyond idea schematics to prototype and make the products and artifacts that they are designing.
Entrepreneurs and Innovators
MADTech students forge new paths in artifact and experience design that places human engagement, enrichment, and learning at its core.
Media Arts, Design and Technology Undergraduate program
The Department of Media Arts, Design and Technology Undergraduate program gives students the opportunity to learn as they develop their creative portfolios through a wide range of two-dimensional and three-dimensional traditional materials and computer-based processes including drawing and illustration, visual composition, soft materials construction, fibers, graphic and interactive narratives, motion graphics, visual effects, animation, web design, game design, interactive and computational media, virtual and augmented reality, 3D modeling, digital fabrication, and more.
The first two years of the undergraduate Media Arts, Design and Technology degree focus on principal foundations that explore, develop, and strengthen the student’s knowledge of visual and interactive processes. Students focus the remainder of their studies in intermediate and advanced-level classes that encourage depth in traditional materials and computer-based processes and breadth in creative experimentation.
Media Arts, Design and Technology Graduate program
The Department of Media Arts, Design and Technology Master’s program, focuses on Experimental Media Arts. The MADTech program encourages students to explore the intersection of digital and material technologies to create interactive and engaging experiences that push the boundaries of storytelling, learning, and play.
The outcome of graduate student work can be the development of creative portfolio works that are backed by rigorous exploration, discovery, and historical and contemporary precedents. The MADTech student can also choose to complete a written research-focused thesis on new cross-disciplinary practices in Media Arts, Design and Technology.
