MA in Media Design

Digital interactions in the age of artificial intelligence and the ecological transition. 

The MA in Media Design offers a two-year professional programme based on learning about all the various facets of interactive design. Whether you are a graphic or industrial designer or a computer engineer, you will address the societal challenges generated by artificial intelligence and new interfaces.

Our program focuses on three main axes. The first one is the impact of machine learning on contemporary cultures of design and how designers can help investigate AI/AI cultures and machine agencies. The second one is the multiple links between nature and digital technologies and their environmental impact. The last one focuses on interactive narration and game design. We investigate these three subjects through ethnographic research, critical seminars and aesthetic explorations combining technologies like 3D modelling, prototyping of critical objects or speculating on alternative futures.

The first year focuses on workshops and practical courses in the laboratory. You will learn to prototype interfaces, smart devices, video games and interactive experiences while broadening your understanding of the issues of user experiences. You will get to familiarise yourself with virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality, machine learning, creative programming and electronics. All the workshops take place in collaboration with professionals who will guide your work and form the basis of your future professional integration network. Theoretical and introductory seminars to research methods complement this programme.

The second-year is centred on your MA graduation project which includes a research paper and a practical project. Supervised by a tutor, you will carry out your diploma project from its exploratory to production phase while reflecting on its related exposure and communication. At the end of the programme, you will master the practical, playful, critical as well as experimental aspects of interaction design You will thus be ready to consider career prospects in creative industries, research and entrepreneurship. All through the two years of the master programme, there is a great dedication from the course to support the post-documentation of your work so you can finish your studies with a powerful dossier ready to be published in different mediums.

Since September 2020, the Master of Arts HES-SO in Media Design is a 120 ECTS degree.

MA Media Design lecturers, speakers & guests include: Alexia Mathieu, Nicolas Nova, Dominic Robson, Pierre Rossel, Mitchell Paone, Daniel Sciboz, Douglas Edric Stanley, Marie Dommenget, Jürg Lehni, Matteo Loglio, Studio Z1, Giulia Tomasello, Alice Stewart, Laure Krayenbühl, Marion Bareil, Constance Delamadeleine, Sabrina Calvo, Andreas Gysin, Nicolas Baldran, Cyrus Khalatbari.