The CENTER for INTEGRATED MEDIA
at the California Institute of the Arts

The Center for Integrated Media (CIM) is a project based, integrated learning environment for those graduate students interested in an interdisciplinary means to explore and critique performance, immersion, programming, interactivity, the Internet, digital video and digital audio as part of a multimedia based cultural practice. The Center is designed for students whose work has reached an advanced degree of development and who wish to pursue multiple lines of dialogue and integrate multiple forms of technology and media.

The goal of the Center is to provide space and resources for realizing the artist's intention and to create an interdisciplinary and collaborative structure for critical thinking and the understanding of media ecology.

Through a vital social community, the Center can be seen as fostering technological competencies as well as sparking critical discourse between artists, scientists and writers on issues related to new forms of media.

CIM invites visiting artists to lecture in the Conversations on Media Culture and Practice class and through the CIM Artist-in-Residency initiative. The artists participating in the residency visit the Center in the fall and spring semesters and work in collaboration with the students through a process of mentoring and critique.

Members of the CIM faculty participates in reviewing student work, giving feedback from a wide spectrum of experience and helping facilitate the production and planning of the students projects.

Workshops are also offered by the Center to address the constant stream of new tools, techniques and technologies. Topics include but are not limited to: network topologies, new software and hardware, programming basics, digital video production and editing, streaming media, interactive tools and new audio applications.

The students in their first year of joining the Center are required to take one semester of any approved elective course offered by a CIM faculty member (in the fall or spring semesters) and attend the lecture series Conversations on Media Culture and Practice in the fall semester.

They are also required to participate in the CIM Project and Critique in the fall and spring semesters. The project is developed with a faculty advisor during the academic year and is exhibited for a week in the Center's exhibition space. The project is also critiqued by all the CIM students.

Applications to the Center are processed through the student’s metier. The CIM core faculty reviews the applications and portfolios of each applicant during the metier admission process. Each student is required to provide an Artist Statement that explains the basis of their work, details their experience working with new forms of media and expresses their interest in working within an interdisciplinary context. The Artist Statement should also specifically state their goals while part of the Center for Integrated Media at the California Institute of the Arts.

For more information email im <at> calarts <dot> edu