Comparative Arts and Media Studies

Explore crossovers and interrelations in the arts and the media, or in design. Engage with either intermediality or with the culture of design as a historical phenomenon, a conceptual framework and a cultural practice. The MA in Comparative Arts and Media Studies offers 2 specializations, one on intermedialities (below), the other on Design Cultures.

Intermedialities
The Master’s programme in Comparative Arts and Media Studies at VU University Amsterdam focuses on intermedialities in relation to the visual arts, cinema, literature, television and digital media. Intermedialities are crossovers and interrelations between the arts and the media, but also within and between various media. These have been intensified with the arrival of digital media and the “hypermedium” that arises from the on-screen interplay of words, images, and sounds and through the convergence of cinema, television, radio, journalism, e-books, and photography on the web. 



Different levels, different media & arts
In our MA Program we study intermedialities on different levels:

Exploring interconnectedness
Immerse yourself in intermediality as a general environment or cultural trend; one that appears to be all encompassing at present. Observe it in specific forms of interplay between and within specific media: cinema, television, visual arts, hypermedia and computer games.

Where technology meets tradition
Take a historical perspective on intermediality. Trace its roots not only in a technological history of media communication and recorded words and images, but also in a tradition of collage and montage, reproductions and serials, adaptation and synthetic critical art experiments.

Synergy and transgression
Explore intermediality as a conceptual framework within which to understand how specific media are defined in a world of increasing synergies and transgression of boundaries.

A staple of cultural life
Last but by no means least, study intermedialities in relation to institutions and cultural policy-making. What place does intermediality have in such activities as organizing exhibitions and writing reviews?

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