Academics
Our program contributes to the University of Denver's mission to engage and empower students by promoting intellectual engagement, creativity and technical skills. Our program fosters a synergy of theory and practice by combining critical thinking and imagination. We balance scholarly investigation and innovative research with creative making, collaboration and community engagement.
Our goal is for students to experience, understand and contribute to the emergent forms and practices taking shape through technology in art, design and culture. In independent as well as collaborative projects, our undergraduate and graduate students demonstrate their ability to create, thrive and connect.
In the Emergent Digital Practices program, you will:
- Imagine, plan, create and critically examine digital and physical spaces for connection and conversation between people, technology and ideas.
- Understand and articulate the interactions among the digital arts, humanities and sciences.
- Synthesize your own research and work that explores the visual, sonic, interactive, tangible and participatory forms of art and technology.
- Develop, incorporate and foster sustainable practices in digital arts and digital design.
- Cultivate and implement strategies for personal reflection and expression, critical exchange and public discourse.
Undergraduate Degrees
The Emergent Digital Practices (EDP) major emphasizes the new forms of interaction, performance, collaboration and engagement developing as technology converges with knowledge and practices from across the arts, humanities and sciences.
Shaped by investment in participatory forms of creativity and critical engagement, EDP asks students to work together to develop strategies and processes for addressing complex interdisciplinary topics and problems beyond the realm of industry standards and proven application. We support new kinds of student and faculty interactions and collaborations by combining cutting-edge classrooms that are equal parts laboratory, studio, think-tank and stage.
For students looking to combine their EDP skills and knowledge with an additional major or topic of study, the BA degree or minor in EDP gives you the opportunity to learn to synthesize ideas and practices from across the spectrum of historical and contemporary digital culture and contexts. Our BFA takes a fine arts approach to digital practices in art and design, and generally won't be accompanied by a second major.
Ready to Pursue a Major or Minor in EDP?
Featured Courses
EDPX 3120
Making Critical Games
About this Course
Students are challenged to create games (board, physical, video-, and hybrid games) that respond to social conditions in a critical manner while still maintain an essential ludic quality. Public good and civic engagement projects are welcomed. The course may be repeated with instructor permission when projects vary. Specific topics will very each time the course is offered, and the course is repeatable up to 3 times.
EDPX 3350
Sustainable Design
About this Course
This course surveys and functionally implements the foundations of sustainable design strategies as a praxis intersecting the domains of digital media design, dissemination, community organization and networking. The course builds upon the basic paradigms that have coalesced in the organizational and critical platforms of the sustainable design movement including ecology/environment, economy/employment, equity/equality and education/pedagogy/dissemination. The class reviews a wide spectrum of sustainable design strategies including: mapping of consumptive origin-thru-fate, green materials usage, creative commons, open source software/hardware movements, collaborative design, predictive complexity modeling, biomimicry, evolutionary design methods, and greening infrastructure among others.
EDPX 3800
Topics in Digital Making
About this Course
This course provides an in-depth exploration of the emergent digital practices of a technology or method for making (for example, wearables; interactive projections; augmented reality; immersive multi-channel soundscapes). Students learn the social/historical context of the particular method and consider the role and function their creations serve when it becomes public.
