Co-Directors
Karen Panetta, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Halligan Hall, x75976. karen@eecs.tufts.edu.
Howard Woolf, Experimental College, 95 Talbot Avenue, x73384. howard.woolf@tufts.edu.
Web site
http://excollege.tufts.edu/mma
The Program
The Multimedia Arts program is a collaborative initiative designed to promote creativity in our digital age. We offer an interdisciplinary minor that provides frameworks within which motivated students combine study in the arts with critical training in the uses of cutting-edge creative technologies. To this end, we concentrate our efforts in such areas as filmmaking, electronic music composition and production, electronic instrument design, web site design and construction, animation, CD and DVD presentation authoring, digital still photography, and 3D imaging.
A student interested in the program should read through our website carefully and then contact one of the co-directors as early in his or her undergraduate career at Tufts as possible.
Our Mission
The Multimedia Arts program actively seeks to break down the old divide between the arts and technology. We believe that students in engineering who are exposed to the arts and humanities make better engineers and that students across the liberal arts deeply enrich their education by becoming technologically literate.
Our Partners
Linking the School of Engineering with the School of Arts and Sciences, the MMA program is supported by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the Computer Science Department in concert with the Experimental College, Art and Art History Department, the Drama and Dance Department, and the Music Department.
The Interdisciplinary Minor
The Multimedia Arts minor is administered by the Communications and Media Studies program, in large part because MMA and CMS share many core values. The Multimedia Arts minor helps you develop skills relevant to many careers: project design and implementation, creativity and critical thinking, media and computer literacy, oral and written communication, as well as teamwork and leadership. Most importantly, these competencies are gained through an integrative approach wherein each student, working closely with an adviser, puts together his or her own plan for navigating the minor.
As with all interdisciplinary minors, students pursuing the Multimedia Arts minor must take a minimum of five courses. In addition, the MMA minor requires that you take a half-credit Colloquium during the fall of your senior year and complete a Senior Project.
A project completed for your major may not be used as the MMA Senior Project. In addition, except for the Senior Colloquium, all MMA classes must be taken for a letter grade. Finally, you cannot “double count” a course for the minor and a foundation requirement.
Requirements for the Minor
The specific requirements for the MMA minor incorporate four elements: work in multimedia practice, taking an appropriate set of electives, enrolling in the CMS Senior Colloquium, and completing a Senior Project
1. Multimedia Practice. Each student enrolled in the minor must take at least two full-credit, letter-graded courses from an approved list of classes that introduce students to the tools, methods, and theories current in the field (see section below).
2. Electives. In addition, each student must take three full-credit, letter-graded courses selected from classes offered by the supporting departments (Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Art and Art History, Drama and Dance, and Music) or from appropriate classes across the curriculum.
3. Senior Colloquium (half-credit, pass/fail). This is a mandatory course for students enrolled in any of the three CMS minors who are doing Senior Projects. It is to be taken in the fall of a student’s senior year and is designed to aid in the planning and successful completion of your Senior Project.
4. Senior Project (full-credit, letter-graded). The Senior Project is an original work which reflects an understanding of and facility with one or more of the expressive and/or conceptual disciplines associated with multimedia. Collaborative projects are strongly encouraged.
Questions/Further Information
Contact Howard Woolf (howard.woolf@tufts.edu) or Karen Panetta (Karen@eecs.tufts.edu). And check our website, excollege.tufts.edu/mma.
Core Faculty
Karen Panetta
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Co-Chair, Multimedia Arts
Animation for Engineering
Computer Aided Simulation
Howard Woolf
Experimental College
Co-Chair, Multimedia Arts
Filmmaking
Digital Imaging
Advanced Digital Media
Neil Hirsig
Information Technology Services
Computer Generated Animation
Multimedia Design
Paul Lehrman
Music
Music for Multimedia
Electronic Musical Instrument Design
Christine Cavalier
Art and Art History
Multimedia and the Visual Arts
Interactive Media |
