D+M's core curriculum includes a three semester studio/seminar sequence, two seminars on the theory and history of media art and a thesis project at the end of the second year.

Core Studio + Seminar

This combined studio and seminar forum supports Digital + Media students as they research and develop the theoretical, social, material, technical, and contextual aspects of their emergent arts practices.

This course supports the practical, conceptual, theoretical and historical development of the M.F.A. thesis exhibition.

In this historical survey, we analyze the aesthetic conventions, narratives, and formats of works in new media.

Digital + Media Theory develops student’s ability to contextualize and interrogate their own work and practice within a larger cultural lineage.

This studio course is comprised of intensive writing sessions, group critiques, and one-on-one meetings designed to support each student in assembling a comprehensive written work.

Electives offered within Digital + Media typically take the form of studio courses that support the development of technical skills and conceptual integrity. General Electives may be run solely through Digital + Media or may be cross-listed with another collaborating department at RISD.

Electives

This course is a practical and conceptual exploration into electronic sensors, processors and actuators in the context of interactive art and design.

This studio will examine the applications of programmable living cells technology and biosensing.

This course will explore the technical and conceptual fundamentals of computer programming in the broader context of a sustained studio practice.

This course will explore how technology may liberate or fortify women and gender-nonconforming bodies via art—especially by forging and/or imagining feminist hybrid human forms

In this course we will employ a science fiction lens as we co-create future worlds which value ethical, equitable, and sustainable relationships.

Using technologies ranging from the intimacy of handheld devices to the monumental scale of a building façade, in this class we will learn to activate the space through multimedia content and relational strategies.

This intensive studio course investigates computational approaches to generating sound and image in real time.

Performance Systems focuses on programming and designing computer-based systems for sound art and music performance.

In this intensive studio course, students will focus on the creation of experimental sound works utilizing hybrid analog / digital systems.

In this course, students analyze and explore how the sensation of space is activated in the listener by making works using spatial audio techniques.

This course addresses the history and practice of art/literature made for and inseparable from the web, while teaching basic coding (in HTML, CSS, and jQuery), web-VR frameworks, and AI collaboration tools.

During wintersession, D+M graduate students are invited to design studio electives open to the entire student body in which “the digital” is both the means and the ends of inquiry.

Wintersession

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of digital imaging/video, creative coding, and theory using ecology as a theme.

This course approaches computer-generated images and three-dimensional models from both a technical and conceptual perspective.

In this course, we will develop techniques for remixing digital materials within the public domain.

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