Computational Media Practice

Throughout the PhD, students are expected to engage in Computational Media Practice projects. These may take a wide range of forms, ranging from work in a lab on an ongoing collaborative project, exploratory proof-of-concept skills development in a new technology, or  solo work related to their own research topics. In some cases graduate students may also help mentor undergraduates in classes and labs.

Each year, the CMAC PhD students are expected to mount an exhibit of their ongoing work in the Rubenstein Art Center on campus. This exhibit typically opens in January and runs through March and provides CMAC students an opportunity for exhibition experience, and to solicit critical feedback on work that becomes part of the project portfolio, and in some cases, the dissertationwork.

Listed below are a few ideas focused on the dissertation, but which could potentially be undertaken at earlier stages in the program as the student develops the portfolio or completes courses that allow this option. 

1)  A major installation that embodies research concepts from the written dissertation or other work.

2)  A major performance and/or set of performances that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

3)  A major set of digital photographs/photo collages that embody aspects of research from the written dissertation or other work.

4)  A media ecology with a disparate series of elements that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

5)  A major database project that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

6)  A major visualization project that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

7)  A major sonification project that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

8)  A major hapticisation project that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

9)  A major geospatial/mapping project that embodies research from the written dissertationor other work.

10)  A major generative artwork that that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

11)  A major new speculative research form that exhibits an embodied relation to research from a CMAC or other Media Lab. The relation of this new form’s conceptual practice is articulated in the written dissertation or other work.

12)  A major work which explores new aspects of code generation that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

13)  A major internet based project that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

14)  The development of a new form of physical interface and/or physical interfaces that embody research from the written dissertation or other work.

15)  A major work exploring new aspects of AI that embodies research from the written dissertation or other work.

16)  The researcher may explore the creative and/or conceptual exploration of block-chain technology as a form of art practice.

17)  The researcher may explore embodied biological questions or assumptions as part of their practice.

18)  The researcher may develop an entirely new form of conceptual art as their practice.

19)  An entirely new form of embodiment related to Computational Media Arts and Cultures that explores research from the written dissertation can be positied and negotiated with the committee and committee chair.