Media Technology MSc Program
February 9/10/11/12 and 16/17/18/19
The Media Technology MSc program is a place where students are encouraged to develop a creative approach to science. The students are educated to translate their personal interest and inspiration into research projects. The program is open to unusual questions, unconventional research methods and forms of output that exceed the traditional thesis format. This includes installations, games and books as possible result from a research. The semester project is a good example of such an approach.
Exhibition 50%
The global theme for this year's semester project is "50%". From this global theme five sub-themes are derived: mid-life, floating, halfway, layers and indivisible. The students have been working in groups of three that each have chosen their own sub-theme.
The Semester Project has three phases. First of all the students are asked to explore their theme in the broadest sense (social, mathematical, biological, et cetera) and discover what it could possibly relate to. After gaining sufficient insight in the theme they are asked to formulate compelling statements related to the theme. Only once this is stage is completed they are asked to translate their statements into an installation. Together these installations form the semester project exhibition. Watch the project descriptions at
mediatechnology.leiden.edu.
Besides the exhibition the program includes a lecture by
Bas Haring on non-textual scientific projects that are meant to convey a statement or trigger reflection; a graduation presentation by Alice Bodanzky on her concept for an intelligent self-moving material shape; a lecture by Wim van Eck and Maarten Lamers on the use of real animals in computer games; and a 'meet the makers' session where the participating students explain who they developed their installations.
LECTURE
Non-textual Scientific Output
Bas Haring
Thurday February 9th, 16:00
Location: WORM, Boomgaardsstraat 71, Rotterdam
Bas Haring is a Dutch philosopher and writer of popular science and children's literature. He holds a temporary special professor chair in the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Leiden and is the initiator of the Media Technology MSc program.
In this lecture he will focus on non-textual scientific projects that are meant convey a statement or trigger reflection. Art and Science is currently a hot topic. This lecture focusses however on less conventional output of scientists that has similarities to art, and is often meant to trigger a debate within the scientific world itself.
OFFICIAL OPENING:
Welcome by Alex Adriaansens
February 9th – 17:00
Location: V2_Institute for the Unstable Media
PUBLIC GRADUATION PRESENTATION
Developing an Expressive Independent Shape-changing SurfaceAlice Bodanzky
Saturday February 11th, 16:00
Location: V2_Institute for the Unstable Media
Advances in material science and engineering allow computation to be embedded everywhere. Computers will soon be designed to take any shape, thus radically changing how we interact with our material environment. To explore these developments in a meaningful way, we must first understand the properties and possibilities of computationally enabled materials. This research has led to a proposal for an actuated shape-changing surface itself and investigations into its expressive qualities. It focuses on the surface's ability to move in space following programmed variations in terms of texture and topology patterns.
MEET THE MAKERS
Sunday February 12th, 16:00
Location: V2_Institute for the Unstable Media
Get to know the what and why behind each installation in the exhibition. In short presentations, each project team explains how their work came about and what lies behind it. There is place for discussing the works and ask questions to the makers.
LECTURE
Using Real Animals and Organisms in Computer GamesWim van Eck and Maarten Lamers
Saturday February 18th, 16:00
Location: TENT, Witte de Withstraat 50
Computer games have undergone major changes in the last decade: the Wii made us play more physically, smartphones made us play more casually, and serious gaming is the current hype. Will biological-digital games be next? What computer games can you play against real cats, pigs and hamsters? Why do crickets play Pacman? How to play Pong against bacteria? This lecture is about scientific research into hybrid biological-digital games.
