Intermedia

“We are actively engaging the current cultural moment as a moving target that demands artists blur the boundaries between intellect and craft with a depth and versatility to cultivate their own creative pathways. ”
— Emily Ginsburg, Department Chair

Intermedia offers a rigorous program of study for students who intend to build interdisciplinary work through combined media, emerging media and conceptual inquiry. This encourages students to synthesize critical thinking, making, and research in the context of contemporary culture and creative practices.

With thematically diverse coursework, the curriculum emphasizes both theory and practice, presenting broad cultural perspectives in art-making throughout the program. Working with innovative and supportive faculty, visiting artists and scholars, students engage in a course of study that combines the conceptual, technical, and historical structures of traditional and contemporary art disciplines.

Professor Linda Kliewer’s Video Installation class took their videos into the streets of Portland. Photo by Heather Zinger ‘10.

Projects & Assignments

  • Transforming his relatives into a multimedia and merchandising experience, a student from a family of 15 children made figurines of siblings and parents, devised an interactive DVD of their stories, and created associated merchandise including T-shirts.
  • Another student investigated self-identity and gender by building a garment with exchangeable gender characteristics.
  • Exploring art as community, a student wrote hundreds of letters to PNCA students and staff; she then documented the responses. She staged events and performances making offerings to passersby, such as making waffles and giving them away during the First Thursday Artwalk. Finally, she created an environment featuring evidence and documentary materials of her interactions.
  • A student interested in the pervasiveness of violence in popular and consumer culture wallpapered, decorated, and tiled an entire bathroom in violent images from media and entertainment sources — even the toothbrush, rug, and shower curtain.


2012-13 Curriculum Chart

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