Overview: The Transart Institute in cooperation with Danube University Krems offers an international low residency two year graduate art program leading to a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in New Media. The program is intended to lift the boundaries between applied and fine arts, traditional and new media, artists and scholars.
Students are free to pursue work in any media art-related genre and to create their own course of study, working independently and with the support of faculty and self-chosen artist mentors. Short periods of intensive residency permit students to continue with their professional work and keep a balanced personal life while participating in the program.
Up Close and Personal: Students work intensively in the summer and optional winter residencies on-site with guest faculty, artists, media practitioners, writers and theorists. Between residencies, students work one-on-one off-site with faculty by correspondence and with a self-chosen mentor in an exchange which includes a minimum of two studio visits per semester.
Program Goals: The purpose of this program is to create a space for students of all disciplines to interact with a wide range of artists, scientists, theorists, media practitioners and visionaries. Students investigate their work independently and transdisciplinarily in both a cultural and studio context. Whatever genres students choose to work in, the program is designed to: bring artistic content to new media; enrich student’s praxis; foster change; facilitate a connection between group and personal work; provide the means for contextualizing work in the wider world; and develop interaction strategies with audiences.
Independent Study: The academic year consists of two independent study semesters. Students are guided and supported throughout the program by self-selected outside mentors for their art or curatorial project and by Transart Institute faculty for their research by correspondence. Faculty will make mentor suggestions if requested. Student’s mentors are funded by the Transart Institute. Project progress, process and relationships are documented in both written and oral dialogues between students, faculty and mentors.
An average of 20 hours of schoolwork is expected per week (15 studio, 5 research), permitting students to continue with their current jobs simultaneously. The low-residency format provides an academic education alternative to traditional full residency programs.
Residencies: The three summer residencies are both milestones and pools of resources, taking place at the beginning, middle and end of the two year program. Each residency begins with closure to the previous year’s studies through seminars, intensive critiques, exhibitions, presentation and performances. With new students, current work done prior to commencing the program is presented, examined and discussed.
Residencies open with the graduate exhibtions, performances and a public vernissage. Sections one and three of the residency consist of studio workshops, guest lectures, artist and curator talks and critiques. The middle section of the residency acts as the starting point for new projects, facilitated by cultural theory seminars and meetings with faculty in order to plan, inform and finalize the coming year’s project plans.
Study Plan: Students prepare their individual art and research project plans in conjunction with faculty in planning sessions throughout the residency as their ideas develop, submitting a two semester project plan for approval at the end of the residency. Students have the opportunith to make adjustments to their plans up to the mid-term and again at the beginning of the next semester to accomodate change and growth.
Workshops: Students participate in two elected studio workshops per residency. Workshops are not intended to further technical virtuosity but to enhance creativity by exposing students to new approaches to working in various genres. It is recommended that students work with what they are technically familiar with for these sessions. Students should bring their own tools, whatever they like to work with i.e. cameras, powerbooks, sketch pads. Students aren't required to bring anything in particular unless it is listed in the course description or they receive an email from Transart Institute. Scanners, video projectors and printers will be available. 2006 workshop descriptions. 2007 TBA.
Presentations: Students participate in several group presentations and critiques conducted by studio faculty and visiting artists. Students present their projects and issues of delivery, method, content, aesthetics, technique, audience, media, genre, gender, culture and process are discussed by all.
Seminars: Students partake in one elected cultural studies seminar per residency. Seminars which are the cultural studies equivalent of the workshops help students to put their work in context and find ways to inform their art projects through research while also getting practice articulating these new ideas, ways of thinking and making connections through discussions and critiques. Seminars are chosen from current topics in media studies, philosophy, theory and art history. 2006 seminar descriptions. 2007 TBA.
Artistic and Academic Achievement: Each year, students create art projects (i.e. a film/video, an installation, a concert, a campaign, a performance, a website, a documented intervention, a book of photographs, etc.) and write a supporting research paper. Graduating students publicly exhibit and present their final art and research projects.
Students gain the critical, technological, and aesthetic experiences essential to creating informed and vital, content-driven work. Graduates acquire the means necessary for independent thinking, innovative work, active dialogues, and agile resourcefulness, in order to create a meaningful and enduring praxis.
