Media Arts and Technology
PhD Program Overview
Fall 2007
1. Description of the PhD Program
The Media Arts and Technology PhD degree will prepare students for research and teaching positions in academia and for research and leadership positions in emerging digital media industries and practice. Doctoral students will be trained in the methods of scientific and artistic inquiry and independent research through advanced coursework and active research participation with the faculty. Through courses, group projects, a rigorous qualifying exam, and the dissertation, students will learn to perform advanced interdisciplinary research that advances the state of the art and helps to define the emerging field of Media Arts and Technology.
The MAT PhD offers three areas of emphasis within the disciplines of arts and engineering: (1) electronic music and sound design, (2) visual and spatial arts, and (3) multimedia engineering. Although students enter the program under one of these emphasis areas, they should graduate with broad knowledge of all areas and an in-depth research experience that crosses disciplinary boundaries.
2. Admission to the PhD Program
We seek PhD students who have the interdisciplinary vision that is needed to formulate innovative research questions in Media Arts and Technology, with the maturity and drive to focus on completing this research. All university graduate admissions requirements must be met and the application dossier must include the requisite General GRE examination scores. International students must submit TOEFL scores.
Each of the three main MAT emphasis areas has its own particular admissions requirements:
- Electronic Music and Sound Design applicants are expected to present a portfolio of compositions or sound art, as well as documentation of technical projects that they have undertaken, such as programming projects.
- Visual and Spatial Arts applicants are expected to present a portfolio of past digital art work, as well as documentation of technical projects that they have undertaken, such as programming projects.
- Multimedia Engineering applicants are expected to present transcripts and a portfolio that documents their past work, with a particular focus on applications or devices related to the arts and entertainment.
Three research foci define the primary interdisciplinary research groups of MAT:
(1) Multimedia systems (storage, transmission, and programming of digital multimedia; distributed multimedia systems in support of sound and video; media signal compression and transmission; media networks; scalable middleware for multimedia)
(2) Multimedia content (synthesis, processing, representation, and analysis of multimedia information–scientific or aesthetic; advanced tools for generating, analyzing, and manipulating multimedia content)
(3) Interactivity (presentation and human interaction with multimedia information in the context of interactive applications; visualization and immersive environments; interactive sound performance; interactive art installations; vision-based interaction)
Students may be admitted to the MAT PhD program in one of three ways:
1. With an MS or MA in Media Arts and Technology. Current MAT Master’s students may petition for entry into the PhD program; the preferred time to do this is at the regular graduate admissions deadline. Former MAT students must apply via the regular application process.
2. With an MS or MA in a related field (e.g., art, architecture, music, computer science, or electrical and computer engineering). The MAT faculty will determine whether additional coursework will be needed in order to achieve equivalence with an MAT Master’s graduate.
3. With a bachelor’s degree, for outstanding well-prepared students. These students must meet the requirements for an MAT Master’s degree along the way, including a thesis or project, and they receive an MA or MS degree in the process.
Starting with a Bachelor’s degree, the requirements for the PhD are typically completed within five to six years. For a student entering with a Master’s, the time to PhD would typically be three to four years.
3. Degree Requirements
The aim of the PhD curriculum is to prepare outstanding researchers and research-level practitioners who will become leaders in the growth and evolution of the field. To this end the curriculum provides a structured but flexible framework to ensure quality and rigor while encouraging the vigorous pursuit of new ideas. The MAT PhD is not a unit-count degree; rather, it is awarded upon demonstration of academic excellence and performance of original research. Students complete an individual program of study determined in consultation with their PhD committee.
There are three main requirements in order to complete a PhD in Media Arts and Technology: coursework, the qualifying exam, and research leading to a doctoral dissertation (including the dissertation proposal and the dissertation defense). The student advances to candidacy after completion of the coursework requirement and the qualifying exam.
Course requirements
It is the responsibility of each student’s advisor, in consultation with the PhD committee and the MAT graduate advisor, to ensure that the student has achieved the appropriate breadth and depth from coursework and independent study.
The primary mechanism to ensure breadth in the field is the set of core courses required in the MAT Master’s program. These courses cover topics and projects in art and media technology and are presented in an interdisciplinary manner:
MAT 200A – Art and Technology
MAT 200B – Music and Technology
MAT 200C – Media Technology
MAT 201A – Media Signal Processing
MAT 201B – Computing with Media Data
Students entering directly into the PhD without a Master’s degree must first meet the equivalent course requirement of the MAT Master’s program, which is 48 units of non-thesis-related upper-division and graduate courses.
Students who enter the PhD program with an MS or MA in another discipline (e.g., in Art, Computer Science, Engineering, or Music) are required to take or place out of the MAT core courses. These decisions are made by a committee of MAT faculty who evaluate the student’s educational background and experience in relation to the core course topics.
In addition to the core courses, each PhD student designs a plan of coursework in consultation his or her advisor, approved by the MAT graduate advisor. These courses are intended to provide the required depth to pass the qualifying exam and pursue advanced interdisciplinary doctoral research. This will typically include a mix of MAT elective courses and seminars, courses from other departments, and directed study. A typical plan may include around eight four-unit courses.
By the end of the first or second year (depending on previous experience and degree level), each PhD student should have begun to identify a dissertation topic and develop a plan of study to prepare for dissertation research. This includes arranging an advisor and a dissertation committee, identifying what other courses should be taken, and what resources, intellectual or material, must be garnered in order to successfully complete the dissertation.
The qualifying exam
The MAT qualifying exam is a rigorous comprehensive exam, with both written and oral components, that typically takes place at the end of the second year of the PhD program. The qualifying examination will be designed and administered by at least three faculty, at least two of whom must be MAT-affiliated faculty (0% or greater). Consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of the Media Arts and Technology area, the qualifying exam shall consist of three parts: (a) media arts, demonstrating knowledge of the history, theory and discourse, and practice of advanced media arts; (b) media engineering, demonstrating theoretical and technical mastery of media-related science and engineering; and (c) dissertation-specific, demonstrating adequate preparation for research in the knowledge areas particular to the candidate’s dissertation topic, under advisement with the candidate’s committee. This may require special preparation in research skills appropriate to the anticipated dissertation topic.
The result of a qualifying exam may be pass, conditional pass (some deficiency must be corrected as determined by the committee), or fail (the exam must be retaken within six months). A second failure will result in a recommendation for dismissal from the PhD program.
Passing the qualifying exam and the basic course requirements advances the student to candidacy. Once advanced to candidacy, students are typically expected to complete the degree within three years.
Dissertation research
A dissertation is an original, rigorous, and significant contribution to knowledge in the field of Media Arts and Technology. The composite nature of Media Arts and Technology requires sufficient creative latitude in the form of the dissertations pursued. It is anticipated that some dissertations will be content-driven (initiated from artistic or theoretical investigations) while others will be technique-driven (proceeding from scientific and technological investigations). In either case, rigor will be ensured by requiring that both the qualifying exam and the dissertation address all the aspects necessary for a completed work in this field, namely formal and conceptual issues, critical and discursive issues, and scientific and technological issues.
Originality shall be demonstrated by a) showing extensive knowledge of current theories and practices in the field, including their history, discourse, and prospect, and b) either addressing a known problem in the field in a new way, or addressing an emerging or new problem that the field has yet to fully recognize. Rigor shall be demonstrated by establishing clear and comprehensive research methods, stating a clear and well thought out hypothesis, carrying out thorough research experimentation to test that hypothesis, and carefully and thoughtfully evaluating the results.
In accordance with Academic Senate regulations, a PhD committee consists of at least three UC ladder-faculty members. Two of the committee members must be affiliated with MAT, and the committee chair must be in MAT. In special circumstances, non-UCSB faculty may be proposed as members. The chair of this committee advises the student on a course of study and directs the dissertation research. The committee is nominated by the program chair in consultation with the student and is approved by the graduate deans.
The dissertation proposal will occur sometime after successful completion of the qualifying exam. The written proposal must describe the dissertation topic, summarize the relevant background literature and state of the art, and present a comprehensive research plan for the dissertation, to be approved by the committee. In addition to the written document, the student is required to give a public presentation of the dissertation proposal.
When the dissertation research is complete and the dissertation is written, the student presents the dissertation defense, a public lecture based on the dissertation. The dissertation must be approved by the committee; it must also meet the filing requirements of the Graduate Division. The PhD is granted when all degree requirements are met.