Media, Art and Performance Studies

Overview

Emerging technologies and practices in transition 

The Research Master’s is aimed at excellent students from both the Netherlands and abroad, who have a background in the history and theory of contemporary art, or media and performance studies.

Emerging media, art and performance

As a student of the Media, Art and Performance Studies programme at the Utrecht University , you will be introduced to and specialise in new research areas and methodologies, necessary for investigating emerging media, performance and contemporary art forms within today's rapidly changing culture. In relation to this you will also reflect on the role of the Humanities in both academic and public debates.

Central Concerns in the Programme

• the role and meaning of (visual) media in a mediatised society, inter- and transmedial practices in theatre, dance, film, television, digital media and visual arts 

• spectator- and usership, the performative turn in contemporary arts and media

• technology, materiality and corporeal literacies

• game, play and activism

• changing institutions, mobile and/or location-based media, urban interfaces, navigational screen-based practices

• art and media ecologies

Research Questions

In this programme you will reflect on questions such as:

• How have media developed from the time of early cinema up to current new media art?

• How has the definition of 'live' changed alongside these mediatised cultural forms?

• How has the performative turn changed the ways we think about audiences?

• How do media technologies facilitate new methods of self-staging and social performance?

• What is the influence of media and technology on way we curate and educate in museums and archives and other cultural institutions.

Career Prospects

This English-language programme prepares you for PhD studies in the Netherlands or abroad. After graduation you will also be qualified for positions in academic or research institutes or cultural organisations requiring specific academic skills in media, art and performance studies at Master's level. The programme can also be an excellent starting point for a career in cultural policy and consultancy in the media sector or art world. 

Graduates also find their way to other job markets. For example, an alumnus of the programme now works as a researcher on issues in media history in the Dutch television industry. 

Another one has been recruited by the Dutch Ministry of Culture and Education and a third is cross-media researcher at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Others work successfully in the domain of media consultancy.

Accreditation

Accredited by the NVAO - Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders.