Interactive Arts and Technology Master of Arts Program
School of Interactive Arts and Technology | Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology
間眅埶AV Calendar 2012 Spring
The master of arts (MA) is one of three degrees offered in SIAT in art, design, media and information technology with particular expertise in the computational and interactive aspects of art, design, new media learning, business, computer games, cognition, performing arts, social science and cultural studies. The program is geared toward students who wish to learn about technology and how it is made and used.
The program has the quadruple objectives of: first, research and development of new computational technology in the context of complex human organizations and situations; second, research into the acts of designing, making, and managing technology; third, inquiry into and use of research methodologies that enable interdisciplinary collabouration and the development of new technologies; and fourth, application of new technologies in society and industry, particularly in creative areas of art, design, games and media.
間眅埶AV Requirements
There will be annual admission with the possibility of early or out-of-cycle admissions in special cases.
The minimum standards will be those of 間眅埶AV, as described in the Graduate General Regulations, augmented by the following specific requirements.
The school aims to admit students with diverse backgrounds, across the broad areas in which our faculty have disciplinary expertise. The following admission requirements encourage such diversity while setting minimum standards for acceptance into the program.
Students will be admitted to study for either the master of arts (MA) or master of science (MSc) degree. Students may articulate between the MA and MSc degrees by meeting the admission and program requirements of the degree to which they articulate and with the approval of the graduate program committee. A student may make one application for articulation.
Minimum Standard Entrance Requirements
- an undergraduate degree in a field related to the proposed program of study. For example: BSc computer science, BASc engineering (electrical, communications, computer engineering), BA or BSc in education, management, economics or communications, BFA in art, design or performing arts, BA in art, art history, architecture, linguistics, psychology or philosophy, BArch, BLArch, BID.
- OR an undergraduate degree in a field related to the proposed program of study in another, related discipline. In this instance, applicants must establish the relationship between the discipline in which they hold their previous degree(s) and this program, and explain how they would benefit from this program.
- a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better at a Canadian university, or equivalent, for the undergraduate degree.
- two reference letters from suitably qualified persons.
Additional 間眅埶AV Requirements
English Language Proficiency
Students must demonstrate proficiency in the English language through one of the following means.
- a previous undergraduate or graduate degree completed at a university where English is the applicant's primary language of instruction
- a minimum score of 88 with a minimum of 20 in each category on internet based TOEFL
- a minimum score of 570 on the paper-based TOEFL test with a minimum TWE score of 5
- a minimum score of 230 on the computer-based TOEFL test with a minimum TWE score of 5
Portfolio/Interview
Candidates who are considered for admission may be required to submit a work portfolio and/or be required to attend a personal or telephone interview during the latter stages of the admission process.
Advising and Supervision
Students entering the program will be assigned an interim advisor. The interim advisor has two main tasks: advising the student on issues related to study within the program and assisting the student in identifying and approaching potential senior supervisors. There is no requirement that the interim advisor has a role in supervision once the senior supervisor is approved. Student supervision will comply with graduate general regulations section 1.6 Supervision.
The normal size of supervisory committees is two members.
Degree Requirements
The primary requirement is the thesis. The course requirements support the student?s thesis research.
Required Courses
Students complete IAT 800 Foundations of Computational Art and Design * (3)
and one of
- IAT 801 Qualitative Research Methods and Design (3)
- IAT 802 Quantitative Research Methods and Design (3)
*may be waived for those with sufficient formal educational background in art and design computation.
MA students complete at least four additional courses from the following core courses and electives.
Core Courses
Students complete two of
- IAT 810 New Media (3)
- IAT 811 Computational Poetics (3)
- IAT 812 Cognition, Learning and Collaboration (3)
- IAT 813 Artificial Intelligence in Computational Art and Design (3)
- IAT 814 Knowledge, Visualization and Communication (3)
Electives, Special Topics and Directed Readings
Students complete two courses from electives, special topics and directed readings courses. Required or core courses that are not completed as part of the degree requirements may also be completed as electives. Subject to supervisory committee approval and graduate program committee approval, students may fulfil part of these requirements through other appropriate graduate courses at 間眅埶AV or elsewhere (the latter subject to 間眅埶AV rules on external courses).
Normally, all students complete at least one course toward these requirements as either an elective or special topics offered within the program. For determining degree requirements in core, elective, special topics and directed readings categories, the number of courses with at least three units each shall be used. At least one elective must be a research methods course appropriate to the student?s course of study.
Directed readings are seminar or tutorial experiences that develop special research interests in depth and with faculty supervision. Students should not expect to complete a directed readings course when a substantively comparable 間眅埶AV course exists.
Directed readings should be distinct from work undertaken toward the thesis. Normally, directed readings should not be completed under the supervision of a senior supervisor. Normally at most one directed readings course is completed.
The following courses may be used to satisfy elective requirements as specified:
- IAT 832 Exploring Interactivity (3)
- IAT 833 Performance, Technology and Embodiment (3)
- IAT 834 Mixed Methods in Design Research (3)
- IAT 835 Sustainable Interaction Design (3)
- IAT 842 Theory and Design of Games (3)
- IAT 844 Spatial Computing (3)
- IAT 845 Methods for Research into Technological Systems (3)
- IAT 846 Interactive Systems for Design (3)
- IAT 847 Metacreation: Endowing Machines with Creative Behaviours (3)
- IAT 881 Special Topics I (3)
- IAT 882 Special Topics II (3)
- IAT 883 Special Topics III (3)
- IAT 884 Special Topics IV (3)
- IAT 885 Special Topics V (3)
- IAT 886 Special Topics VI (3)
- IAT 887 Special Topics VII (3)
- IAT 888 Special Topics VIII (3)
- IAT 871 Directed Readings I (3)
- IAT 872 Directed Readings II (3)
- IAT 873 Directed Readings III (3)
Designated Research Methods Courses
The following research methods courses satisfy the research methods requirement in the elective course requirements. This course requirement must be relevant to the student's thesis work and be approved by the student's supervisor and the graduate program committee as being appropriate. Courses external to SIAT may also be used to satisfy this requirement and must be approved by the student's supervisory committee and the graduate program committee.
- IAT 801 Qualitative Research Methods and Design (3)
- IAT 802 Quantitative Research Methods and Design (3)
- IAT 834 Mixed Methods in Design Research (3)
The research colloquium is an important part of the program. Students present in one seminar and are expected to attend a large majority of the seminars for at least two academic terms.
Research Colloquium
The research colloquium is an important part of the program. Students present in one seminar and are required to register in the following colloquium course for at least two academic terms.
- IAT 805 Research Colloquium (0)
Thesis
Students produce and defend a thesis as part of degree requirements. All 間眅埶AV regulations regarding thesis form and examination process apply. The standards of scholarship (quality of work) for the master?s degree are no less than those for the doctorate, except the scale, scope and originality of the thesis may be less.
Commonly, the master?s thesis shows refinement of a developed scholarly specialization, a useful replication of established note and, in some cases, a pretesting or prototype of supporting ideas for eventual PhD research.
Students who are working on their master of arts thesis enrol in the following course. This course will not count toward the course work requirements.
- IAT 897 MA Thesis (6)
Academic Requirements within the Graduate General Regulations
All graduate students must satisfy the academic requirements that are specified in the Graduate General Regulations (residence, course work, academic progress, supervision, research competence requirement, completion time, and degree completion), as well as the specific requirements for the program in which they are enrolled, as shown above.