Comparative Arts and Media Studies (Ma)

The one-year international Master’s programme in Comparative Arts and Media Studies at VU University Amsterdam focuses on current developments in the fields of media, arts, and design. It offers two interdisciplinary tracks: one on intermedialities in media and art; the other on design cultures. While the former studies the crossovers between various media and the visual arts, the latter researches product, graphic and fashion design in a broad cultural context. The MA programme combines a comparative approach with a historical and theoretical focus.

The specialization in Intermedialities in Media and Art is a one-year programme and consists of core seminars (30 ec), electives/internships (12 ec) and a thesis (18 ec). It 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.

The specialization in Design Cultures is a one-year programme and consists of core seminars (30 ec), electives/internships (12 ec) and a thesis (18 ec). It is all about the study of product design, graphic design and fashion in a broad diverse cultural context. The focus is on both the designer as ‘author’ and the complex chain of production, sale, consumption and criticism in which design operates and derives its many different meanings. Design Cultures restores design as the core object of academic interest without detracting from the cultural and material context in which it operates. The programme combines a generalist, comparative approach to design with a clear focus on history and theory.

Overzicht van de opleiding (pdf)