AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

The School of Art at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
announces its new MFA program in Art and Technology. The new director of
the Art and Technology Program is Tom Leeser, currently Director of the
Center for Integrated Media, CalArts' interdisciplinary media concentration.
Tom is also a faculty member of the School of Art.

Art and Technology will be a two-year MFA program and will begin accepting
students for the fall 2010 semester. The new program is designed to enable
artists to pursue the critical and creative issues that arise in practices
that employ the use of new technologies and digital media. The students
will be encouraged to pursue work that crosses traditional mediums, enabling
the integration of new art forms with online strategies and performance. "We
are interested in attracting a diverse group of students from a range of
social backgrounds and a wide variety of intermedia and experimental
practices,” said Tom Leeser.

The Art and Technology Program in the School of Art will involve faculty and
visiting artists whose work engages computer programming, web based systems,
digital image making, digital sound design, immersive installation, digital
video, interactive multimedia and hybrid performance. The curriculum will be
integrated with studio based practices and open forums designed to foster
dialogue between students and faculty.

This new area of art practice will explore recent technical developments and
will focus on current social and political issues within the field of
culture and technology. It will also help to expand the interdisciplinary
exchanges that occur with other technology based programs at CalArts.

School of Art Dean, Thomas Lawson says, “This new program grows very
naturally from the work we have seen in the Center for Integrated Media this
past decade, and provides the Art School with a platform for growth that
allows us to bring new, and more complex ways of working collaboratively
into our already very rich mix. We are excited by the possibilities this
opens up for us.”

Tom Leeser has been active in the field of art and technology for over
twenty years as a digital media artist, writer, educator and curator. A
graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Tom began his career as an
experimental film and video artist, combining animation, found footage and
diary based images into cinematic investigations into perception and
narrativity. His film and video work along with his interactive
installations and public performances have been shown at Telic Arts
Exchange, MassMoca, The Santa Monica Museum of Art, The Kitchen, The
Millennium, The Knitting Factory, Siggraph and film and video festivals
worldwide.

"I'm extremely excited about the possibilities that will emerge from the new
program,” Tom said. “The combination of the creative and critical
sensibilities of the Art School at CalArts with the expanding field of
technology and relational based practices will be at the very least,
transformative. Growing out of the rich history of artistic experimentation
and critical investigations that is the hallmark of CalArts, this new
initiative will certainly push the boundaries of art making while
challenging the conventional ideas about what constitutes an art practice in
today's contemporary networked culture.”

Calarts is internationally recognized as a leader in the education and
development of professional artists. Successive generations of our graduates
have long been at the very forefront of contemporary creative practice.

The School of Art actively promotes both the creative environment and the
intellectual context for artistic experimentation. The School's programs
prepare graduates to thoughtfully challenge the prevailing conventions of
artistic expression, develop new forms, and become innovators and leaders in
their chosen fields.

Information on the program is available at our website:
http://calarts.edu/art/programs/artandtechnology

For further inquiries, contact Taryn Wolf, Associate Director of Admissions,
Admissions Counselor, School of Art Program: Enrollment Management,
Admissions Office Phone: 661.253.7857
Email: twolf@calarts.edu