The IMA program, an interdisciplinary undergraduate Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Interactive Media Arts (IMA), starts from the proposition that computation -- the ability to code, learn new software, manipulate data, and create physical + digital interactions — is an essential creative capability, and that students who master those capabilities will be well-placed to invent the future.
Located in the world-renowned Tisch School of the Arts at NYU’s new Brooklyn campus, the IMA program offers a rigorous and exploratory course of study that teaches students fluency in many forms of digital interactivity, alongside an education in both the arts and liberal arts.
At the program’s core is the conviction that digital expression is an essential skill for all — artists, writers and designers as well as programmers and engineers. Students will learn to think about the relationship between digital tools, physical objects and environments, human interaction and technology’s impact on the world. The practical work involves creating and critiquing everything from networked software and apps to objects with embedded interactions — games, wearable devices, computational clothing, social tools, novel controllers, the whole range of objects and interfaces that have at their core interaction with a user.
Students will also engage in research and traditional scholarship, with a rigorous study in the liberal arts and an emphasis on research and clear expression through writing and speech that will prepare them for a career in any creative field –– developers, designers, artists, educators, entrepreneurs and scholars.
Students who successfully complete the program will receive a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Interactive Media Arts. The IMA BFA program offers students the tools to not just use technology but to understand it, modify it, and create it.
Starting in Fall 2019, IMA will be offered as a new minor degree open to current Tisch School of the Arts majors. Please click the link below for more information.