THREE-YEAR BA PROGRAM IN MEDIA DESIGN AND MULTIMEDIA ARTS

INTRODUCTION

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
The three-year BA program in Media Design and Multimedia Arts foresees a training path that, starting from the awareness of the current media convergence, proposes a wide spectrum of techniques and methods and provides students with solid fundaments to have access to the professional market as an author/a programmer of linear and interactive audiovisuals, capable of designing and implementing all the contents and creativity forms applied to the media and of controlling and managing all the production phases. The cultural specificity is reflected in a phenomenological approach to the media and in a work on narration techniques. In this way the course provides students with all the necessary equipment to enter the market with awareness and in a critical way, being able to renew one’s productions and to be always up-to-date on contemporary issues.

DIDACTIC METHODOLOGY
A coherent theoretical-critical structure is constructed thanks to the lectures of renowned national and international interpreters of the critical debate on media appliances, on art and on the interaction between technology and society. In the technical labs digital media professionals work hand in hand with editing specialists, directors and experts in the field of cinema and TV production.
After an introduction to the various forms of narration and representation connected with the new media paradigms, students can choose to specialise either in audiovisuals production, or in digital animation, or in New Media Art (net art, media art, telematic art, tech art, syncretic art).
Students directly take part in various didactic productions including all the fields of audiovisual communication, from fiction to documentaries and animation. Besides curricular activities, students are involved in small extra-curricular productions for external clients and have the possibility to work side by side with professionals, however always supported by their faculty.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILES
The three-year program trains professionals in the cinema and show business sectors: authors of audiovisuals and multimedia installations, of animations, theatre sets, digital visual effects and characters. The course aims at training an author-designer capable of being at the same time an artist-researcher and a producer-entrepreneur thus being able to work as a free-lance professional or to take up various positions in the TV, audiovisual, animation, show business and new media sectors.

PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Media Design Laboratory produces each year more than 20 audiovisual works that are broadcast during the Nabawood festival where students can give visibility to their works that are evaluated by an external jury of artists and professionals.
Among the works produced for partners and external companies it is worth mentioning: promotional videos for the Natural Sciences National Museum, the British Council, a theme song for the RAI program “Palcoscenico” and the graphical and sound remake of Marianna Schivardi’s documentary “Il grande fardello/The great bother”. All these productions can be viewed in the network of the most important national and international short film festivals and are distributed on the youtube platform. In addition to this, research labs have been activated to work on web formats and productions in collaboration with some of the new web TVs operating in the Lombardy region. Students have therefore participated in pitching and contests with More than zero, c6tv, BonsaiTv, stream.it, Diesel Tv, MTV, CurrentTV.
For a more detailed documentation of the MEDIA projects please visit:
http://nabawood.wordpress.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/NabaMediaDesign

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Francesco Monico
Since 1996 he has been professor of Theory and Method of Mass Media at NABA. He is a member of the research team CAiiA at the University of Plymouth (UK); he is Director of the PhD M-Node research program and senior fellow of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto (CA).
Since 1989 he has worked for the broadcast networks (Rai and Mediaset) dealing with direction, text-contents and programme scheduling and has participated in the most innovative projects in the Italian TV scenario. He realised programs such as Pubblimania (Rai 3), la Notte dei Pubblivori (Rai 3), Jammin (Italia 1), Target (Canale 5), Ci vediamo in Tivù (Rai 2), Menabò (Rai Sat Extra).
He designed the cultural thematic TV network Tele +3 /Classica, and was in charge of the planning and direction of the programme scheduling for Sei Milano.
He participated in the work group of Inferentia DNM for the development of multi-modal interactive channels of brands such as Corriere della Sera, Ferrari, Maurizio Costanzo Show on line, Einaudi, Electa. He is a professional journalist: he wrote for Repubblica, l’International Herald Tribune/Italy Daily and today he writes for Wired Italia.
He is a member of the scientific committee of Festival Milano in Digitale (Milan in Digital Festival). He published for Meltemi the books “Il Dramma Radiotelevisivo, l’autore e l’estetica del mezzo” (2006) and “La Variazione Technoetica” (2008).

CURRICULUM

MEDIA DESIGN AND MULTIMEDIA ARTS SUBJECTS – I YEAR

DIGITAL APPLICATIONS FOR VISUAL ARTS I
Computer Graphics: The course allows the acquisition of the theoretical-practical basic notions of digital drawing, of digital graphic representation and of photo-retouch through standard software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. The course aims at providing students with the fundamentals for the visualisation and presentation of projects and for progressively building a digital portfolio of works starting right from the first year.
Digital animation techniques: this course aims at giving students a general training to prepare them for the various professions connected with animation cinema: from animators to inserters, from story-boardists to directors. Students will learn animation techniques, search for characters, stories, styles and will shoot frames with professional animation software.

MULTIMEDIA DRAMA
Screenplay fundamentals: this course represents the first approach to the screenplay for
images in motion (film, commercials, documentaries).
The written description of a character, the outline, the treatment, the screenplay and the storyboard are deepened in a practical way through the analysis of texts, films, short-movies, audiovisual products and individual exercises.
Story-telling: this course deepens the story-telling, both in texts and audiovisual products, going into the story-telling structures with proper tools: action, space, time, characters, stories.

AUDIOVISUAL LANGUAGES AND TECHNIQUES I
Editing Techniques I: this course introduces students to editing and provides them with the necessary theoretical and practical tools through practical training in the labs and the use of one of the most widespread tools for the editing of images, Final Cut Pro.
Linear Audiovisuals: this course introduces the audiovisual product as a significant communication tool through a semiologic analysis dealing with the language and the sign from minimal units to film articulation, expressed in audiovisual codes and sub-codes like the filmic punctuation and the “sound view”. It goes through the technical bases of
audio and video.
Compositing: students will acquire the basic compositing techniques of audiovisual products
and of the relation with the digital part for the production of multi-layer audiovisuals

MULTIMEDIA DESIGN FOR THE ARTS
TV Multimedia Languages 2.0: this course aims at communicating the cultural forms that are connected with radio and television in contemporary society: languages and formats that are specific of radio and television production and broadcasting and above all from starting from the point of view of the cultural organisation form of messages.
Art Multimedia Languages: this course intends to carry out a methodological analysis of the creative and artistic practice through the new media. In the vast and complex new media art scenario all those experiences will be detected that for approach and methos are close to media activism intended as a practice for the acquisition of tools, the sharing of knowledge, the intervention on and re-mediation of codes and languages in between art, communication and creativity.
Audiovisual Performance: this course introduces students to the techniques and languages of Live Media Performance and of Vjing, practices based on tools and languages that are similar and complementary to the fields of Graphic Design, Photography, Video, Music and Applied Arts in general.

MULTIMEDIA ARTS THEORY
This course proposes a reflection on the meaning of “Communication” and on its transformations thanks to the technological tools. Special attention will be devoted to the concept of “simulation” that plays a central role in the new media, also acquiring a techno-scientific dimension. In this context the ability of the media to (re)-create or simulate possible realities, will be investigated from a formal point of view (for example in the application of 3D graphics to cinema, advertising, video-games, to the meta-worlds such as Second Life), from a structural point of view (for example in robotics, artificial life, bio-technologies) and a narrative point of view (for example in news-making).

HISTORY OF NEW MEDIA
This course intends to provide students with the main cultural coordinates to understand the digital revolution that has been taking place in the last few years. The following issues will be dealt with: language and birth of writing, oral and written communication, thought and language, birth of modern science and of digital writing.

HISTORY OF CINEMA
The course has the following objectives: 1) an approach to the themes of audiovisual products in general and of cinema in particular 2) the analysis of the spectator-film relationship in order to make students’ vision of films more critical and effective
3) the knowledge of the cinematographic language and of the technologies underneath cinema 4) the knowledge of the production steps of a movie 5) the analysis of the reading modalities of a script 6) the knowledge of the main movements of the History of Cinema and of the most significant authors.

NEW INTEGRATED MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
Web 2.0: this course module aims at providing the theoretical and cultural bases necessary to use, diffuse and publish digital contents on Internet sites defined as Web 2.0, as well as to create the relevant contents according to the formats that are most suitable to each specific context. Participation and conversation dynamics will be analysed as well.
Basic multimedia alphabetisation: this course module provides the fundamentals to realise an audiovisual product, from video shooting to the basic audio and direction techniques.
Web Design: this course module provides students with enough information for
the production of a personal internet site using basic Html/Flash technologies.

MEDIA DESIGN AND MULTIMEDIA ARTS SUBJECTS – II YEAR

DIGITAL APPLICATIONS FOR VISUAL ARTS II
Video-games direction: the main aim of the course is to define the profiles of one of the new most significant expressive forms of the digital area. The various video-game types and technologies, regardless of them being intended for Playstation, Nintendo, XBox, the Web or more generically for the digital world, have taken up the features of real forms of art.
Video-games have today their own language and various codes that make them unique in the electronic communication sector.
Machinima: the theoretical tools that have been acquired by students will then be applied for the realisation of an individual project developed with the aid of a technology that make it possible to build audiovisual stories by using the graphical engines of video-games.
Digital animation techniques: this course is based on 3D animation through the software Modo and Maya and encourages students to explore the fields of modelling and animation of figures and scenarios, thereby acquiring a background of knowledge that can be used in many heterogeneous productions based on digital media.

PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographic Techniques: this course aims at providing students with the necessary skills to use digital photographic appliances. Both the shooting and the post-production processes will be analysed. Students will start with a study of light in order to subsequently learn how to use an optical bench, digital equipment and finally software devoted to photographic elaboration. Besides fostering the development of specific technical skills, students are encouraged to reflect on the photographic medium, to learn “to see” and “read” the photographic image as it is.

Photography Direction: this course intends to study more in depth the role of light and how to use it in any kind of photography production and to illustrate to students the photography management techniques both in the traditional audiovisual field and in the production of experimental filmed sequences.

INTERACTION DESIGN
This course introduces students to the techniques necessary to realise installations and interactive objects and to fast prototypization through digital techniques. Through the use of Arduino, students will learn how to transform theoretical design concepts into prototypes of interactive installations integrating a wide range of sensors and extend students’ practical experience beyond the use of key-board, mouse and screen.

AUDIOVISUAL LANGUAGES AND TECHNIQUES II
Editing Techniques II: the theory, the vision and the analysis of cinematographic and TV works as well as the practical experimentation allow students to acquire the ability and the sensitivity to create an audiovisual product autonomously. Students will operate on professional workstations (AVID 9000, AVID Xpress DV). Objective of the course is to train experts capable of working and interacting with professional editors.

DIRECTION I
Audiovisual Communication I: this course module introduces students to the real work in the audiovisual environment, both in production and post-production, through the use of labs for the elaboration and production of projects. Supported by the Screenplay Lab, the course leads students to the production of short films.
Digital Application for Set Design: in this module students will analyse the particular features of the communication medium as well as the features that characterise the TV Set Design Sector – both real and virtual set design – and digital environments in general.
TV Direction: this module provides the basic notions for the programming director’s work who is in charge of the production of radio-TV programs with both productive and editorial
tasks.
Audiovisual Direction I: this module introduces to the professional role of the director, i.e. the figure managing a technical and artistic team and guiding/coordinating authors,
screenplay-writers, actors, set designers, costume designers, cameramen and technicians.

NEW MEDIA AESTHETICS
The awareness of the impact of technologies on contemporary art and the reflections on art originating from the work of the Canadian communication theoretician Marshall McLuhan guide the development of media aesthetics. How did mass communication media influence artistic production? What role does technique play in artistic and communication production? To what extent is message (above all poetical message) bound to the medium that supports it?
What is intended with media aesthetics and net.art? And more importantly: is the artist-designer the antenna announcing change through his/her work? These are the questions to which this discipline tries to find an answer.

MULTIMEDIA LANGUAGES
Multimedia communication: students will create, develop and realise a project using a number of web technologies, laying particular emphasis on the dimension of audio and video interactive communication. This is an advanced course and provides an in-depth study of the techniques already acquired in the basic web design courses.

MEDIA DESIGN AND MULTIMEDIA ARTS SUBJECTS – III YEAR

HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ART I
The course traces the birth, the institutionalisation and the crisis of the Western representation model that has characterised Art in the modern age. The optical devices, the geometrical outlines, the idea of the square, the relationship between the observer and the image producer, the role of the client and the exhibition place will be the themes dealt with along this historical journey from Giotto to Velázquez up to Courbet, not according to a temporal linear development but in relation to the level of formalization reached by each of the issues treated. The course proposes a sort of deconstruction “Representation” as a status of the Western modern image.

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF MASS MEDIA
The course provides students with operating tools needed to understand the phenomenon of Media and to perform an analysis method of the effects of Media and Communication paying particular attention to psychological and social processes. Lessons will deal with the teaching of the “Toronto School of Communication” and will be specifically focused
on Marshall McLuhan’s intuition according to which “the Medium is the Message” considering also the economical and social effects. The study of Media leads students to consider how people and institutions are influenced by technologies.

DIRECTION II
Audiovisual Communication II: the course is developed in collaboration with both a director-producer and a screenplay-writer, the course aims at realising a professional audiovisual product with a documentary style.

Audiovisual Direction II: this module includes a number of meetings with professional directors who will support students in the realisation of individual projects.
Students will be introduced to the professional role of the director, i.e. the figure managing a technical and artistic team and guiding/coordinating authors,
screenplay-writers, actors, set designers, costume designers, cameramen and technicians.

SOUND DESIGN
After a technical seminar on the software Cubase, the course explores the world of audio:
recording, creation, editing and composition of sound through specific software. The course takes place in a dedicated lab equipped with a recording hall.

PROJECT CULTURE
This course aims at teaching students the importance of project as a tool that fosters communication and knowledge sharing. Two main issues will be dealt with: the rationalisation of creativity and research methodology.

DIGITAL MODELLING TECHNIQUES
The course improves students’ skills to create animations and allows to acquire the most up-to-date Rendering and Compositing techniques between 3D objects and video objects with software like Maya, Modo and Cinema 4D.

CONTEMPORARY ART PHENOMENA
Visual Culture: Objective of the course is to guide students in the critical analysis of images coming from different disciplines and of the heterogeneous languages that define the contemporary “visual culture” in order to enrich students’ visual and cultural heritage through the discovery of new aesthetics and of an original expressive universe. The program is declined according to the students’ specific teaching needs and comprises visits to exhibitions, conferences and meetings dealing with the relationship between the different languages of artistic expression
(Fashion, Photography, Graphic Design, Contemporary Art, Music).
Theory and History of Video art: The course focuses on the relationships between the avant-gardes of art and cinema and goes into those experiences defined as experimental movies, video-art, micro-cinema and nonfiction. The program is divided into two parts. The first theoretical part is composed of historiographic/analytical lectures dealing with the description of avant-gardes, the evolution of technologies (film, electronic, digital) and the analysis of authors’ different writing types, styles and methods through presentations, film-projections and discussions.

SEMIOTICS
The course is focused on the analysis of the communication process of which the mechanisms will be examined and de-constructed by using the methods developed by semiotics in its various movements (structural, interpretative, generative) and paying particular attention to communication and to the visual text in all its forms and non-verbal elements. The course aims at providing students with basic knowledge on how a graphic sign, a drawing, a billboard, a trailer, a video-clip can diffuse values and tell a story. The course foresees practical exercises on the issues dealt with in the thematic units.

Media Design BA in Milan, Italy