Performance and Media Arts is an interdisciplinary programme at AUT, engaging in contemporary modes of art and action.
The Master of Performance and Media Arts and
Postgraduate Diploma in Performance and Media Arts are interdisciplinary programmes engaging in contemporary modes of art and action. Students will develop projects that test how time-based forms, such as video, sound and live performance, might create emergent interfaces between art and social practice. The MPMA will emphasise
live or mediated performa
nce and the ‘performative’
qualities of bodies, objects and environments. Performance and Media Arts postgraduates will be
recognised internationally as innovative, experimental, and critical. They will be performance and media arts practitioners and researchers who are creative, political, theoretical, and technically capable. They will have demonstrated the ability to engage in a sustained period of research, create innovative and unique works for a range of
performance events, festivals, exhibitions, symposia, and publications and may progress to further study at doctoral level. The MPMA and PGDipPMA provide unique research and development opportunities for current and future industry practitioners through a collaborative, interdisciplinary model for practice-based research. AUT’s Art and Performance Research Group hosts regular symposiums including ‘Action and Delay: temporality and performance in media arts’ (2014) and ‘Misperformance’ (2009) to profile graduate research. Invited internationally recognized practitioners such as David Cross and Bruce Barber contribute to vibrant debate around performance in these public forums. Students will benefit from AUT’s close creative
partnerships with the Auckland Theatre Company and Digital Art Live (Aotea Centre). The Master of Performance and Media Arts also offers an annual postgraduate scholarship covering one year’s fees. Check out the website for more information www.aut.ac.nz/art-design/mpma
In 2015 students will work on related projects for
the Oceanic Performance Biennale ‘Fluid States:
Performances of Unknowing’ held in Rarotonga. www.fluidstates.org
Content and Delivery
The MPMA degree offers flexible hours of study
for professional artists who wish to develop an
interdisciplinary dimension to an existing practice, or experiment with new technologies. Both invited experts in emergent media platforms and supervisors with a diverse range of expertise aim to challenge former discipline boundaries; crossing between performing arts, such as dance and theatre, performance design to contemporary
performance art; as well as digital cinema, gallery-based installation and public art. Delivery of the programme will take place in the form of intensive workshops, weekly research blocks, student centred critiques, screenings and performances, reading groups and site visits. Year One
Postgraduate Diploma/Masters Programme
• Research, Context and Methods, in which
research skills are developed (30pts)
• Research Project, a self-directed creative project
(30pts)
• Space, Sound, Image and Performance (15pts)
• Emerging Paradigms of Performance (15pts)
• Performing Bodies (15pts)
• Interactive Performance and Media Arts (15pts)
Year Two
• Thesis
The MPMA has an intake both in semester one and
semester two throughout the year. For dates and
enrollment information, head to www.aut.ac.nz
