::fibreculture:: New BA Digital Media in Lüneburg/Hamburg, Germany

[Ned Rossiter]

via Mathias Fuchs <mathias.fuchs at creativegames.org.uk>

Subject: New BA Digital Media in Lüneburg/Hamburg, Germany

Establishing a new bachelor degree in digital media raises particular opportunities at this historical moment, where not only ‘social media revolutions’ and the latest gadgets from Apple, but also NSA intelligence leaks and the work of databases, algorithms and networks have become central topics of public debate. How can all this be taken into account, without forgetting that these same technologies are also used on a rather mundane level to transform everyday practices of producing, sharing and consuming media content?

The Digital Media BA at Leuphana University in Lüneburg aims to bring these multiple aspects together: the global and the local, the historical and the contemporary, along with the theoretical and the practical. Students will analyze histories, concepts and methods alongside technical systems and tools that define digital media and its practices. Hands-on introductions to the foundations of programming, databases and networks are provided as well as the critical use of digital media, including video, audio, games, apps or mash-ups. Such a combination of programming, DIY/Maker-Culture and critical theory is essential given the central role of digital technologies in cultural production today.

Accordingly, the Digital Media BA merges many different traditions in new ways: German media theory of older and newer generations will (re-)connect with net criticism, and international research on the manifold aspects of our digital cultures, including work from China, India and Latin America. Whether approaches starting from the social or the technological, key starting points from Marx to Luhmann to McLuhan will be introduced and discussed. Students will encounter a highly transdisciplinary version of digital media studies. Theories in computing meet practices in the humanities, and radically critical positions converge with pragmatic issues of career development and future employment.

The BA is taught in English. Classes are held in Hamburg and Lüneburg, a small town close to Hamburg. Students have the opportunity to complete part of their program abroad, for example at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. Teachers are part of the community of researchers at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana, and students will encounter their research first hand.

Fees are very low: €1580 per year, including free public transport. Applications for this year’s cohort are open until 15th July 2013. If you know someone interested in a Digital Media BA, please forward this information: http://www.leuphana.de/en/college/bachelor/the-major/digital-media.html

-- 
Dr. Mathias Fuchs
Ratiborstrasse 18
 10999 Berlin, Germany
 phone: +49 3092109654
 mobile: +49 17677287011
http://creativegames.org.uk/