Art & Technology is an interdisciplinary area in the Department of Art, designed to foster experimentation and realization of new forms and to help students develop their own unique vision and aesthetic as a fine artist, using and misusing technological tools. The MFA in the Department of Art is a fully-funded three-year degree program.
Our graduate students are focused on conceptualization as the driving force for creative explorations within digital media and advanced technologies. Computers and digital media are powerful tools of expression and we seek to expose our graduates to a wide array of creative approaches to understanding a critical use of technology that acknowledges history and theory while also defining what is next at the intersection of the arts, technology, and sciences.
James Hartunian, Cryotherapy
Tracy Szatan, Between 1 & 2
Jacklyn Brickman, The Seed Simulation Laboratory
Lynn Kim, Did You Know?
To get a sense of the kind of artwork graduate students are making here: See more videos by Art & Tech Graduate students on our Vimeo group.
The Ohio State University is ranked number 4 in the nation in the top 40 Public Animation School Programs in the US.
Faculty in Art & Technology are actively exhibiting their work nationally and internationally. Their work appears in art and science publications, such as Antennae Journal, Leonardo, Performance Research, Art Press, Artificial Life, Wired Magazine, Robots & Art, and Computer Graphics Magazine.
Art & Technology faculty and graduate students in are active in conferences and international exhibitions such as SIGGRAPH, Prix Ars Electronica (Austria), The New York Electronic Arts Festival, the International Society for Electronic Art (ISEA) and the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts.
In addition to two full-time professors in Art & Technology, there are professors specializing in film, sculpture, printmaking, glass, photography, painting and drawing, and ceramics, who work with graduate students from every area. The Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design is a research center located nearby that faculty and graduate students often utilize. Art & Technology also has relationships with affiliated professors in Molecular Genetics, Classics, and Physics, who bring expertise and knowledge to the area and promote interdisciplinary experimentation.
Graduates can take courses across the university; engineering, biology, art history, computer science, biomedical engineering, architecture, dance, design, and many others, are available to our graduate students.
All accepted MFA candidates are offered a teaching assistant position. This includes free tuition and a monthly stipend in exchange for 20 hours of work per week. Additional financial assistance is available through grants. Graduates are provided with either a shared or individual studio during the three years of their studies.
To apply to Art and Technology there are no specific courses applicants need to have completed as undergraduates, rather, we require a strong portfolio of creative artwork. That work does not necessarily need to be technological though does need to be poetic and conceptually oriented. The graduate course of study is highly independent and students are expected to focus on developing their own art-making practice.
Graduates with an emphasis in Art & Technology go on to become practicing artists and professors expressing their artistic approaches and ideas in video, film, interactive media, robotic installation, animation, and performance and new forms.
Art & Technology students pursuing an MFA produce an array of critically-engaged projects that take form as interactive installations, art robots, experimental videos, performances, animations and hybrids. Graduate students have many opportunities to present artwork throughout the 3-year MFA. The culminating exhibition takes place at the Urban Arts Space in downtown Columbus, Ohio.
- Application information, forms and deadlines available online at the Department of Art Website
- View student work of all MFA artists in past MFA exhibitions
- Visit the Art & Tech Vimeo channel for more videos.
- See list of past Art & Tech alumni.
- For specific questions about the Art & Technology area, contact Professor Amy Youngs