Maymester 2017 on Creative Media Practice now in session
CMAP 8010: Creative Media Practice will run from May 8 to June 1, 2017. This series of workshops will be taught by Vanderbilt professors and staff experts from different disciplines and departments. Week 2 and 3 will draw on a digital media artist and practitioner in residence (Gustavo Vazquez, University of California Santa Cruz) who will supervise student work in daily sessions, help students hone their skills, and comment on progress through daily critique sessions.
CMAP 8010 is designed both to foster graduate students’ skills in various areas of digital media practice and to help doctoral candidates to develop creative solutions to present research projects in their fields of specialization and matters of public concern. During the first week of this course, students will expand their proficiency in digital sound and image manipulation, the design of websites and mobile apps, as well as the development of basic video games and 3D and virtual reality presentation formats. Meeting twice daily in 2-hour sessions, Vanderbilt faculty and staff experts, will expose students to different software and hardware options in these areas and deepen their knowledge of creative digital practice necessary to develop more complex hybrid media products. During the next two weeks of the course, students will apply these skills to develop two individual or collaborative projects under the daily supervision of a creative media artist and practitioner.
The first project will translate the academic research interests of participants into creative self-contained media presentations. The second project will reach beyond the campus walls to focus on an issue of public interest. Under the guidance of a creative media artist and practitioner, students will identify a topic of current concern, do field work to capture still or moving images, gather sounds or conduct interviews, and then organize their materials into presentational formats that can address academic and non-academic audiences alike. Daily meetings with the creative media artist and practitioner will allow students to enhance and refine their respective work and probe innovative ways to communicate their intentions.
In week four of this course, participants finish up their work and present it to their cohort. They will also, in two additional seminar settings, discuss the impact of their work for their future teaching and research and deliberate the possibilities of carrying out creative media work in their professional futures, whether they chose to pursue academic or alternative-academic careers.
This course is required for students pursuing the Joint-Ph.D. program in Comparative Media Analysis and Practice. If seats are available, other graduate students are able and welcome to enroll as well. The course has no prerequisites.