Long Island University's MFA program in New Media Art and Performance seeks to imbue students with a broad understanding of the contemporary artistic landscape, and to arm them with both the practical and conceptual tools necessary to traverse it. The program seeks to deepen and expand a student's personal creative practice through the integration of a range of interactive multimedia technologies. Coursework is focused on the development of new works for the stage, screen, gallery, public space, and the web – multimedia artworks that live in the here and now, that question assumptions and cross traditional barriers.
Geared equally well toward established professionals seeking new skills and toward emerging artists at the beginning of their careers, NMP gives students the opportunity to engage with new media in the way that best suits their individual artistic goals.
A 42-credit program, the NMP MFA combines classroom training in new media technologies and software, real-world production experience, and the history, theory and pedagogy of technology in the arts. Students come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, including theater, music, dance, film, visual art, and design, and work with renowned faculty to create, develop, and produce new multimedia works for performance and installation, culminating in a major thesis project in the second year of study.
The program provides access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, including the 320-seat Kumble Theater, a motion-capture lab, audio and video editing labs, and a brand new 800-square-foot studio space, designed and built specifically for NMP. A key component to the program is providing students with the necessary time, space, and resources to develop technically sophisticated artwork. Situated in the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University, just up the road from BAM and in the heart of the Brooklyn cultural district, NMP offers students a dynamic and exciting environment in which to learn new skills, create new work, and forge new artistic partnerships.
Contacts:
Nancy Grove, Administrator of NMP : nancy.grove@liu.edu, 718-488-1198
John West, Recruitment Coordinator: john.west@liu.edu, 718-488-1084
Donna Uchizono, Artistic Director: Donna.Uchizono@brooklyn.liu.edu
Program Details
The New Media Art and Performance MFA is an interdisciplinary professional degree program that provides training in multimedia collaborative design and in the history and theory of modern media. The program is geared for well-established professionals: active directors, designers, choreographers, performance artists, filmmakers, videographers, and photographers who are interested in significantly expanding their creative vocabularies and boundaries.
Specific Courses Include:
History of New Media and Performance
A reading and writing intensive, this course surveys the history of new media and performance inventions, techniques, and genres, venues and aesthetic approaches to stage, screen and multi-site work.
Issues and Methods in New Media Art and Performance
Essential to a graduate student’s understanding of critical theories surrounding the field of new media performance and global trends in performance theory, this course surveys seminal artists in the field so that students can demonstrate fluency in the field.
Collaborative Critique
This course is required of all NMP students during each of three semesters in the program. The course meets 4 times per semester, bringing together first and second year students, faculty from art division departments, and guest critics, to watch and discuss student works, works in progress, and concepts/proposals. Students will gain valuable insight on their work from a variety of theoretical and aesthetic perspectives, and professional and academic backgrounds. When not presenting, students will participate in class discussion, learning how to give feedback, and how to structure articulate, objective criticism.
Introduction to Production Technology
This class seeks to arm all first-semester NMP students with the knowledge necessary for basic operation of NMP equipment, including computers, projectors, video cameras, sound and lighting equipment.
Creative Studio I: Digital Tool Box
This course introduces students to the technologies necessary for professional projection design for installation and performance, including digital video cameras, projectors, and projection surfaces. Software instruction is focused on techniques for manipulating and editing digital images and video for projection. Software packages covered include Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, After Effects and Isadora.
Inter-Arts Seminar I
A performance composition course, students develop a series of individual and collaborative performance and installation projects beginning to incorporate multimedia technology. Critique-driven, with a strong focus on the creative integration of media with performance.
Creative Studio II: Advanced Projection Design
This course builds on the work done in NMP 601, focusing on more advanced techniques for projection design. It is centered around building a series of projection projects that assimilate all of the techniques learned over the two semesters of projection design.
Creative Studio III: Music, Sound, and Digital Audio
Students will be introduced to the concepts and techniques of contemporary music and sound art, and will develop a series of sound projects using the industry-standard digital audio environment, Pro Tools.
Creative Studio IV: Interactivity
This introduction focuses on creating generative and interactive audio and video projects for performance or installation.
Inter-Arts Seminar II
Students will conceive, develop, produce, and defend a single work for performance or installation over the course of one semester. This course is critique-driven, with a focus on the creative process, structural cohesion, strength and transparency of concept, and understanding one’s work within a historical and cultural context.
Inter-Arts Seminar III
In this course, students will continue to explore the dimensions of space and time and how they interact and effect performance and new media. Discussions will include the nature of stage space and architecture’s relationship to media. Through exploring these topics, students will survey the technologies and artistic approaches necessary to the creation of digital and/or interactive environments for performance and installations.
Inter-Arts Seminar IV
An advanced composition course that continues to develop compositional and artistic skills and furthers the creative integration of media in performance and/or installation.
Urban Artist Apprenticeship
The student chooses a well-known artist or scholar working in a field relevant to new media performance, and seeks a letter of invitation from the artist to serve as an apprentice. The artist and student draft a syllabus specifying the working relationship, goals, and outcomes for the apprenticeship, such as a paper, performance, installation, or other project, which they will pursue over the course of a semester.
Urban Artist Serving Community
This internship asks the student to teach the technology learned through NMP to an economically or educationally underserved group of students or adults whose work in various artistic disciplines can be reinforced with new media art and technology.
Independent Study
Student selects an advisor and proposes, develops and produces a new work for performance, installation, or other project.
Introduction to Motion Capture
Motion capture technology is becoming a crucial element in of movie making, video game programming, live performance, biomechanics, and other fields of science. This course provides an introduction to motion capture for animation and performance purposes.
Pre-Production: Research and Development
Each student will propose a thesis idea, choose a committee, delineate a timeline for research, development, and production of a thesis project, and begin written documentation. The course will include a number of workshops, including written thesis format and style, grant writing, publicity, a teaching seminar, and post-graduation opportunities.
Thesis: Document
The student works independently to develop and generate a written thesis documenting the thesis performance and setting it in theoretical and historical context.
Thesis: Production
The student works independently to develop and present a production.
Do I need to have an undergraduate degree in media arts or performance? What are the minimum requirements for admissions?
You do not need an undergraduate degree in media arts or performance to apply for admissions. The minimum requirements for admissions are an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university with a minimum 3.0 GPA and a portfolio that demonstrates artistic ability. For more information regarding the portfolio requirement, contact the department recruiter or program director.
I'm not much of a performer but I am interested in creating media work for the stage. Will I be required to perform?
Performance is not required. Students may choose to work in another capacity or create installation pieces.
Will I have an opportunity to take undergraduate dance/music/art classes to continue nurturing my abilities in these areas?
Yes, NMP students can audit courses in Long Island University’s arts division – including courses in music, theater, visual arts, media arts, and dance.
What are the opportunities to present work? The department sponsors fall and spring shows with an array of advertising and support. Students also produce work independently both on-campus and off. Recent venues where students have presented their work include Dance Theater Workshop, University Settlement, Joe’s Pub, LaMama ETC Annex, the Ontological Hysteric Incubator, and Here Arts Center.
What are the costs associated with producing work for the program?
The department provides a great deal of support to keep production costs to an absolute minimum. Students should budget at least $500 a semester for production costs and supplies.
I'm worried about the cost of tuition? Are there scholarships?
Financial Aid is available through the school and most graduate students take out educational loans to invest in their education. In addition, the department has a very limited number of competitive Graduate Assistantships that provide tuition assistance. Please contact the program administrative director for more information.
I want experience teaching at the undergraduate level, is this built into the program?
Teaching is not the emphasis of the NMP program. None the less, many of our students have secured adjunct positions or conduct workshops in dance, theatre or media arts.
Does the university offer housing and housing assistance?
The university offers graduate housing just a few blocks from Campus. For more information, please see http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/housing. Most students who need assistance finding roommates or apartments for off-campus housing use craigslist.org.
Facilities
LIU benefits from its location in the heart of Brooklyn’s cultural corridor, where students can witness first-hand, current trends in performance and the critical thinking that permeates art in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Academy of Music produces multi-cultural and multi-media theater, opera and dance works from around the world through its Next Wave festival. Renowned artists and organizations such as BRIC, Mark Morris, the Urban Bush Women, Urban Glass, and others sit in the surrounding neighborhood steps away from the LIU campus.
Specific Facilities
NMP Pratt Studio
An 800-square foot studio space, designed and built for the New Media Arts and Performance program, the Pratt Studio features multiple screens and scrims, five projectors, sound system, MacBook Pro laptop computers, multiple video cameras, tripods, and other equipment exclusively for NMP student use.
Kumble Theater
Impeccably crafted for the dramatic and technical demands of dance, music and theatrical productions, this elegant, 320-seat theater provides finely tuned acoustics and top-tier lighting, projection and other electronic capabilities. With a stage featuring a “sprung” floor extending to the seating area, the theater fosters an intimacy between performers and their audiences.
Humanities Gallery
Enclosed in glass, this elegant and striking gallery space features rotating exhibitions and is available for student installation projects.
Performing Arts Complex
In addition to the Kumble Theater and Humanities Gallery, a Performing Arts Complex includes a black box theater/studio and dance and music studio spaces.
Media Arts Facilities
Extensive Media Arts facilities include nonlinear editing suites, a motion capture laboratory, digital video and film production labs, advanced black & white color darkrooms, a customized television studio, analog and digital audio studios, theater-sized video and film screening rooms, and multi-platform networked computer graphics labs.
Additional Studio Spaces
Students can also access additional rehearsal and studio spaces through the dance and music departments.
Community Spaces
In addition, NMP students have presented their work in and around the campus and are encouraged to present projects off-campus. Possible venues in the immediate surrounding neighborhood include: BRIC Studios, Mark Morris Dance Group, The Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Irondale Arts Center, 651 Arts, along with other spaces.
Presentation of Work and Touring
Students have recently presented projects at several New York area venues including Dance Theater Workshop, University Settlement, Joe’s Pub, LaMama ETC Annex, the Ontological Hysteric Incubator, and Here Arts Center, among others. Many have also been presented further afield at spaces like Earthdance in Plainfield, MA and festivals such as the Big Range Dance Festival in Houston, TX.
Faculty
Donna Uchizono, NMP Artistic Director
Nancy Grove, Associate Professor, Visual Arts, NMP Administrator
Robert Aquino, Professor and Chair, Music
Larry Banks, Associate Professor and Chair, Media Arts
Bob Barry, Associate Professor and Chair, Visual Arts, and Division IV Coordinator
Maya Ciarrocchi, Adjunct Associate Professor – Projection Design
Gloria Cooper, Associate Professor, Music
Michele Darling, Assistant Professor, Media Arts – Digital Audio
Stuart Fishelson, Professor, Media Arts
Donna Hash-Campbell, Associate Professor and Chair, Dance
Kevin Lauth, Professor, Media Arts – Videography, Editing
Marjan Moghaddam Professor, Media Arts – Computer Art, Animation
Laura Mroczkowski, Adjunct Associate Professor – Performance Technology
Barbara Parisi, Professor, Communication Studies, Performance Studies, and Theatre
John Sannuto, Associate Professor, Communication Studies, Performance Studies and Theatre
Joseph Silovsky, Adjunct Associate Professor – New Media Design Strategies and Composition
Aleksei Stevens, Adjunct Associate Professor – Digital Audio
Christina Yang, Adjunct Professor – New Media Theory
Visiting Faculty
Marlon Barrios Solano
Wendall Harrington
David Lang
Peter Ksander
Marina Rosenfeld
Japhy Weideman
Visiting Artists
Kim Arrow
Blondell Cummings
Sharon Friedler
Phil Kline
Meredith Monk/The House
Paul Scolieri
DJ Spooky
Jeffrey Stolet
Admission Requirements and How to Apply MFA Program in New Media Art and Performance
The NMP program has the following requirements for admissions:
- Applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent from a foreign institution) from an accredited institution of higher learning by the time they enroll in NMP. For graduates of foreign institutions, equivalency information and translations may be obtained through the World Education Service, (212) 966-6311.
- Applicants must supply official transcripts of previous undergraduate studies demonstrating scholastic competence sufficient to succeed in course work at the graduate level.
- Applicants must submit a statement of academic purpose (maximum 500 words).
- Applicants must submit an artistic resume.
- Applicants must submit an artistic portfolio. The portfolio should include documentation of two to three works, which best demonstrate the applicant's previous work. The portfolio may be submitted in the form of a website or CD/DVD. If you have questions regarding the portfolio, e-mail Nancy Grove, at nancy.grove@liu.edu.
- Applicants must submit two (2) letters of recommendation from artists/teachers in a position to discuss the applicant's work/studies.
- The TOEFL will be required of all students for whom English is not the native language, regardless of citizenship or study at an English language institution. The minimum accepted TOEFL score is 79 for the internet-based test, or 550 for the written test.
- GRE scores are not required.
How to Apply:
Applicants must also complete the official graduate application to Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Electronic submissions are preferred: www.brooklyn.liu.edu/apply.
TOEFL scores and academic transcripts must be sent to the Admissions Department.
Applicants must send Statement of Academic Purpose, Artistic Resume, Artistic Portfolio, and Letters of Recommendation (preferably in a single package) directly to the NMP program:
New Media Art and Performance Program
Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
1 University Plaza
Humanities Building, 2nd floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Attn: Donna Uchizono, Artistic Director
Applications for the fall semester 2010 are due by June 1, 2010 and for the spring semester 2010 by November 1, 2009. Early application is suggested.
Further information on admissions: (718) 438-3031
nancy.grove@liu.edu
