newMedia

The term New Media has come to define visual art crafted with digital tools. Yet all media have at some point been new, and while digital media are among the most novel in the visual art tool belt, the impulse to use them is as old as humanity. We still tell stories, having simply replaced the flicker of the campfire with that of the monitor.

At the same time, in a manner without parallel in history, digital media have democratized and globalized our stories, fundamentally changing the terms of exchange between artist and audience.

The newMedia area of concentration introduces artists to the tools at the core of this revolution, grounding digital practice in strategic, theoretical, and critical frameworks.

Starting with vector and raster graphics, students develop skills with multimedia, interactive, 3D modeling, and time-and-motion expressions. Throughout the program, relationships between digital and tactile worlds are explored through various output strategies including print, projection, website production, and digital fabrication.

newMedia & Digital Photo Studio

The Art Program provides all resources for the artist focusing on digital practice.

newMedia Wiki is an Open Education Resource written for Abington newMedia students, covering a range of topics. PASS provides up to 10GB of web server space students use for hosting web projects, accessed via browser at WebFiles. Sites at Penn State is a WordPress-powered blogging platform students use to build a portfolio of work.

Other tools include learning management at Canvas, unlimited cloud storage, a free subscription to LinkedIn Learning tutorials, and access to media and maker resources at Media Commons.

The newMedia and Digital Photo studio is outfitted with networked Apple computers, the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, AutoDesk Maya, Fusion 360 with Slicer, and Meshmixer. Open source equivalents to commercial software are also on board. All studio software is also available free for use on a personal machine with education licensing.