Το Master’s Programme in Digital Arts was the first Master’s Programme established in 1998 (Government Gazette 1239/8-12-1998, vol. B) at ASFA and more broadly in Greece, aiming to specialize in and strengthen contemporary artistic and technological research and the production of new knowledge, in accordance with international academic standards, in the field of Digital Arts, that is, visual arts using digital and New Media.
Its structure and curriculum have served as a reference model for related postgraduate programmes established more recently at other higher education institutions, particularly in visual arts schools in Greece.
Indicatively, the teaching staff of these programmes at other schools has, from the outset and to a very large extent, been drawn from graduates of the MA in Digital Arts.
Subject The MA focuses on specialization, research and experimentation in contemporary visual practices through combined time-based, interactive and computational media, together with systematic theoretical study across a range of fields and subjects related to the nature and character of these visual practices.
These fields primarily concern the historical and philosophical-aesthetic study of technical media — photography, cinematography, videography and digital computing systems — and cultural technologies, as well as the ways in which they are appropriated and used artistically at the intersection of art, technology and science.
The aim of the Postgraduate Programme in Digital Arts is to provide students with artistic experience, sustained engagement with the latest processes and developments in Digital Arts, and the technical knowledge, methodology and theoretical education required for the consistent development of artistic work or interdisciplinary research with an artistic orientation.
Through this feedback loop between artistic practice and theoretical inquiry, the Programme creates the conditions for strengthening its interdisciplinary research character and, above all, the reflective-critical thinking essential to creative expression with combined digital media.
This is achieved through specialized postgraduate studio and theoretical courses, special seminar cycles and intensive workshops on specific topics, aiming, in accordance with international academic standards, to develop specialization in artistic creation and research using digital media.
Throughout the course of study, close and continuous collaboration between students and teaching staff — artists, studio practitioners and theorists — plays a major role, providing effective support for all phases of research, formation, design, development and implementation of postgraduate students’ artistic projects.
The quality policy and the learning outcomes of the MA in Digital Arts reflect the aims outlined above.