Media Projects and Research Application

Term: Fall only

Credits: 0-4

FTE: Fall only

Course Description (for Fall 2022):

As a culminating course for Master’s students in MCC, this course is meant to integrate skills and knowledge acquired during the program to produce a media project; this can take the form of a multimedia or audio production, podcast, Internet or other web-platform project (such as games, creative coding projects, sound art), a documentary film, a photographic essay (in book, gallery or cross-platform presentation), data visualizations, UX case studies, and the like. Every creative project must also be accompanied by a substantial bibliography and a formal scholarly introduction that discusses the project within any intellectual, historical, or aesthetic contexts that will help to situate it for an academic audience.

Students are expected to already have a project (or set of smaller projects) in mind, a prototype / outline / storyboard or similar, and the technical knowledge and skills to produce their intended final product. The course is organized as a workshop studio: students present their ideas, share drafts and working prototypes, provide feedback in successive rounds, towards the goal of completing their projects. The course demands a high-level of self-discipline and time management, commitment, and labor-intensive rounds of sharing and feedback.

Students will further have the opportunity to develop and present a polished oral presentation of their research project to an audience of MA students, and MCC faculty and staff.

• You should be working on a specific creative project which will merit wider dissemination:

1. 1. This could be a multimedia or audio production, podcast, Internet or other web-platform project, creation of digital project (such as games, creative coding), a documentary film, a photographic essay (in book, gallery or cross-platform presentation), data visualizations, UX case studies, and the like.

   2. The creative component must be accompanied by a formal 2,500-word scholarly introduction that discusses the project within any intellectual, historical, or aesthetic contexts that will help to situate it for an academic audience. This paper is not intended to be a personal, anecdotal reflection; it must critically engage with the key discourses, issues, ideas, and texts that the student researched in the course of creating the work. It must be accompanied by a substantial bibliography

   3. As you plan your project you should consider what form will best communicate the information you have gathered and the knowledge you have gained through the course of your investigation. Your personal skills, interest and long-range goals will ultimately be important considerations.

• You are required to enter the course with existing technical knowledge to carry out your project. You may pursue technical training while in this course (on your own, on-line, through media labs, at the apple store, etc.) This course will not provide technical training or skills.

• You are not required to have an advisor for this option.

• The professor teaching this course and MA advisors consider the applications. The final grade and product for this course is assessed by the professor teaching it that semester.