The Center for INTEGRATED MEDIA at the California Institute of the Arts

8/1/05

The Center for Integrated Media is an interdisciplinary, peer-to-peer experiential learning environment for those graduate students wanting to explore and critique computer programming, interactive systems, the Internet, digital video and digital audio technologies as part of their artwork. The Center is designed for students whose work has reached an advanced degree of development and who possess the desire to integrate multiple forms of media into new modes of expression.

The goal of the Center for Integrated Media is to combine art, science and technology within an interdisciplinary and collaborative structure as a basis for developing new creative strategies.

These strategies can be seen as fostering unique technological methodologies as well as opening up critical dialogues between artists, scientists and writers on issues related to new forms of media.

Integrated Media invites visiting artists to the Center through the lecture series "Conversations on Digital Culture and Practice" and through the Integrated Media Artist-in-Residency. The artists participating in the residency visit the Center in the fall and spring semesters and produce a project in collaboration with the students.

Members of the faculty participates in critiquing student work, giving feedback from a wide spectrum of experience and helping facilitate the production and planning of the students Integrated Media project.

Workshops are also offered by the center to address the constant stream of new tools, techniques and technologies. Topics include but are not limited to: network topologies, new software and hardware, programming basics, operating systems, digital video production and editing, streaming media, interactive tools and new internet applications.

The students in their first year of joining the Center are required to take one semester of any elective course offered by an IM faculty member (in the fall or spring semesters) and attend the lecture series "Conversations on Digital Culture and Practice" (in the fall semester).

In the following year(s) they are required to take the "Integrated Media Critique" (in the fall semester) and the "Integrated Media Practicum and Lounge" (in the spring semester). They are also encouraged to take elective courses offered by the IM faculty through the various schools.

While in the Center all students are required to work on a specific Integrated Media project on a yearly basis. This project is developed and produced in the fall and spring semesters and exhibited in the end-of-year annual Integrated Media Show.

Applications to the Center are processed through the student's metier. The entire Integrated Media core faculty reviews the applications and portfolios of each applicant during the admission process of the metier. Each student is also required to provide an Artist Statement that explains the basis of their work, details their experience working with new forms of media and expresses their interest in the Center for Integrated Media at CalArts.