Master in Audiovisual Innovation & Interactive Environments

The need for technicians and creatives who understand interactive media and generative language; who can see and understand the possibilities and limits of technology as a creative and narrative tool; and who know how to propose and create projects or prototypes that make use of such possibilities and validate their ideas.

This Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Innovation and Interactive Environments is composed of four interrelated thematic modules that deal with the disciplines and themes of visual culture; art and new media; real-time video; off-screen audiovisual; motion graphics; generative graphics; physical interaction design; tangible interaction; interaction systems design; interactive narrative; generative audio; musical composition and sound design; electronic prototyping; the design, control and simulation of light; digital manufacturing; wearables; virtual reality; mathematics and physics for audiovisual...

Students must develop a Master's Degree Final Project in which the acquired knowledge is applied to demonstrate that they have mastered these technical and creative skills with a sufficient degree of audiovisual and/or interactive innovation, and determine the feasibility of the project (budget, subsidies) and its positioning (arts market, institutions, festivals).

This master's degree is aimed audiovisual students from all disciplines (directors, producers, lighting engineers, soundtrack creators and sound designers, as well as programmers, animators and graphic designers in general), Audiovisual Communication, Fine Arts and Design students who are interested in technology, new media and interactivity; as well as professionals and engineering students who wish to acquire a deeper understanding of creativity in digital audiovisual media and interaction and want to expand their visual and aesthetic culture. The course is also intended for Architecture, interior design and scenography professionals and students who are interested in incorporating technology and new audiovisual media into the space, and for artists of all disciplines who are seeking a new field for experimentation in technology and audiovisuals.

* Laptop required.

Module 1 – Theoretical foundations of the new media 

Module 2 – Audiovisual innovation 

Module 3 – Interaction 

Module 4 – Master's Degree Final Project 

Module 1 - Theoretical foundations of the new media

This module is an introduction to artistic, aesthetic, technical and non-linear narrative theoretical foundations. It will cover concepts and basic terminology, as well as the corpus of notable projects in the field of audiovisual and interactive innovation.

• Art and new media.
• General culture relevant to the subject: experimental cinema.
• Bauhaus, Fluxus, MTV, 20th century music, architecture, etc.
• Fundamentals of history: state of the art, Lev Manovich, etc.
• Interactive narrative.
• Interactive audiovisual narrative, webdocs, scenographies and participatory projects.
• Introduction to algorithmic programming.
• Mathematics and physics for audiovisuals: arithmetic, trigonometry, colour spaces, vectors, oscillations and basic mechanics.

Module 2 - Audiovisual innovation

This module provides practical immersion in the new languages and real time audiovisual technologies, based on both algorithmic methodologies (through the code made by students using open source platforms) and the use of specific commercial software.

• Real-time video: artistic references. Visual music, experimental cinema, live cinema, VJ, resolume, qlab, vdmx, etc.
• Off-screen audiovisuals: artistic references. Perception and perspective, mapping, pixel mapping.
• Generative graphics: artistic references. Algorithmic systems. Processing.
• Design, control and simulation of light: light and perception. Artistic references DMX, 3D simulation.
• Generative audio and sound design. Artistic references. Digital audio, sound synthesis, dsp, PD, MAXMSP. Analysis of pieces, harmony rhythm, instrumentation, psychoacoustics, Reaper, Ableton, m4.

Module 3 - Interaction

This module presents the concepts and technical tools that are essential to understanding and creating non-linear projects in which the spectator becomes a participant and the controller of the audiovisual piece.

• Tangible interaction and integration of interactive systems.
• Theory of interaction design and interactive communication.
• Physical installations and full body interfaces.
• Communication protocols: OSC, MIDI, PHP.
• Tangible interactive systems, multi-touch, TUIO, embedded interaction, etc.
• Physical interaction design.
• Prototyping, digital production and wearables.
• Electronics.
• Virtual reality and augmented reality.
• Unity, Unreal.

Module 4 - Master's Degree Final Project

The Final Project (TFM) is a multidisciplinary project that integrates innovative technologies, processes and languages through a critical and coherent dialogue. The TFM can take the form of an interactive installation, a digital scenography, an interactive object or any other format that has been analysed during the master's degree.

The TFM, carried out in groups of 3-4 students, must be presented and defended before a panel of experts and media professionals who will evaluate its potential and implementation.