Curriculum
The DMA Summer Institute curriculum is based on materials covered in the department’s undergraduate curriculum. Each class is taught by one instructor and one program assistant. Students explore a variety of media examining various practices and design methods applied to the domains of 2D image, net, 3D worldbuilding, and motion design. Broadly addressing a common theme, all four classes contribute to the creation of an integrated, multi-media exhibition at the end of the program.
3D Worlds
In this course, students will learn the basics of 3D worldbuilding using kitbashing techniques in Unity. Students will learn how to design immersive, virtual environments through hands-on experiments and tutorials. The final deliverable for this course will be a navigable 3D build in Unity. In addition to the playable Unity executable, students will provide the full project folder, a brief project description of their world’s narrative and an explanation of how their stylistic choices express these concepts.
2D Image
Students explore graphic design as image-making coupled with basic typography through a series of fun and fast-paced assignments and exercises for print and digital media. All projects address principles of design such as form, data, composition, hierarchy, and creative intent. Students develop a design process and develop a visual vocabulary through hands-on experimentation and projects.
Motion
This course explores the expressive power of moving images and sound when freed from traditional narrative constraints. The emphasis is hands‑on and experimental. Students will dive into time‑based media as an endlessly flexible language. From camerawork to sound to AI, we’ll treat moving images as material you can shoot, remix, glitch, or conjure from text prompts. Students will focus on building meaning through composition, juxtaposition, rhythm, and experimentation. Emphasizing the use of various accessible tools and techniques that students can continue to use beyond the course.
Net
This course focuses on the web as a medium for creative expression and artistic intervention. Through examples and tutorials, students study the web in the tradition of art, activism, and creative coding. Using techniques like computer programming, collage, appropriation and strategies of artistic self-expression, students analyze these forms for their aesthetic and social potentials. References to relevant artworks are provided, both in and outside the field of web and interactive art.
