Media Arts and Technology

Overview

Media Arts and Technology provides opportunity for aspiring storytellers, designers, filmmakers, photographers, artists and technologists to exercise creativity through technology. The M.F.A. at Duquesne University is 42 credit hours. 

Students choose one of the program tracks: 

• Creative and Strategic Media

Creative and Strategic Media guides students in the art of telling good stories, through video, sound, text and graphic design. Students learn which medium best tells their stories and which messages reach their audiences for biggest positive impact.

The program enhances students' appreciation for ethical practices and public goods. Students develop sensitivity to the complex definitions of communities of people at large when the internet carries messages beyond historic borders and the United States moves rapidly toward a 'minority' majority population.

• Interactive Design

The confluence of the physical and digital worlds, technology, and media presents some of the most captivating issues in contemporary culture. Every day we interact with products such as smartphones, automobiles, and home appliances that have both physical and digital properties. And the way we interact with them varies - we touch screens, speak to devices, fixate our eyes or move our bodies. How (and why) are these products built? What problems do they solve? Are they easy to use, safe, helpful, and understandable? These are some of the questions we explore in Interactive Design.

Interactive Design integrates human-technology interaction, design, digital media, and information technology. Students learn to:

• Design products and interfaces (e.g., websites, mobile apps, auto dashboards, appliances)
• Design user experiences (UX) that may include locative media, wearables, augmented reality, Internet of Things (IOT)
• Research, design, prototype, and test products
• Evaluate product usability

• Photography and Film

Developing student creative competence and design thinking skills is central to our teaching philosophy. In each program track, project-oriented classes focus on creative and designed projects such as literary works, films and documentaries, photography exhibits, interactive apps and websites, digital user experiences (UX), and public relations and advertising campaigns.