MA Creative Technology Degree
At a glance Prog. code:
- Course facilities:
- State-of-the-art technical labs
- Course length:
- 1 year full time
- Course start:
- Induction from October 2012; EU and International student orientation from September 2012
- Course leader:
- Andy Goffey
- Course Location:
- Hendon
- Overview & facilities
- Location & map
- Content & modules
- Entry & applying
- Fees & funding
- Careers & placements
- Open days
- Facilities
- Tutors
Overview & facilities
Treating the creative skills of the artist separately from the technical skills of the programmer is a thing of the past. The future of the creative industries depends on the technological expertise and the imaginative, exciting, original ideas of the convergence generation.
The MA/MSc in Creative Technology provides a unique set of opportunities for students with a background in arts, media or software design and engineering to work together to explore, experiment with, and create the technologies of the future. You can Explore 7 key technology strands:
- Film and Video
- Music, Radio, Design
- Mobile Apps
- Haptics and Interactive Design
- Locative and Media
- Games
- Social Media
The course emphasises practice based, collaborative project work that underscores the opportunities for exploiting the creative possibilities of technological convergence. Whether that is composing music on a laptop or a mobile device, creating new possibilities for human interaction through social media, developing immersive environments or inventing new toolboxes for data visualisation.
Key benefits
- Developed in consultation with a Creative Industries Advisory Groupto ensure the curriculum addresses the current needs of industry as well as emergent/potential practices.
- Industry masterclasses and guest lectures.
- Covers project management techniques
- Leads to either an MA or an MSc depending on the nature of the choices that you make about your final project.
- Taught at Hendon campus in comprehensively equipped computer laboratories and brand new digital media facilities
Location & map
This course is based at our Hendon campus in north-west London.
Address: Middlesex University, Hendon campus, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT UK
To find out how to get to the campus see Travel Directions to Hendon campus. The nearest tube station is Hendon Central on the Northern line.
Nearest halls of residence
There are four halls of residence either on or near to Hendon campus. Usher Hall is on campus, opposite the College Building.
Platt and Writtle Halls are at the same location in Colindale, a 20 minute walk from campus.
Ivy Hall is also a short distance away by public transport in Cricklewood.
Content & modules
The philosophy behind the Creative Technology programme is one that understands fully the unpredictable nature of technological change. The programme embraces the experimental possibilities that convergence and the imaginative cross-breeding of creative technical thinking produces. You will be encouraged to think outside the box whilst studying with us, to play with the opportunities that a no holds barred approach to creative technology and digital media provides. It’s not quite anything goes though – we will be working in a number of areas of special expertise and interest as a starting point.
Interactive, Social and Locative Media
The Creative Technology programme offers a number of routes into the exploration of interactive, social and locative media. Core staff or faculty associated with the programme have a range of expertises for tackling questions of interactivity, the spatial and geographical possibilities of new technologies, and the creative exploration and exploitation of social media. From Nic Sandiland’s installations drawing together technologies and the creative possibilities generated by choreography to Rui Loureiro’s ground-breaking work with haptic technologies, the research of Stephen Boyd-Davis with colleagues at the Lansdown Centre on locativity and film.
Image and Visual Processing
Middlesex has a long history of working with visual imagery and numerous members of staff – particularly those working in Media Arts as part of the Lansdown Centre – have a well-established expertise in the exploration of the creative, aesthetic possibilities of digital image-making. Combine that creative knowledge with the enormous power of our dedicated graphics and games programming laboratory and Middlesex’s research expertise in the field of visual analytics and you have a potent combination for the development of cutting edge projects in the field of image and visual processing technology.
Gaming
The use of gaming technologies today extends far beyond the familiar console-based, mobile or online multi-layer gaming environments. With our dedicated facilities for games programming and staff expertise in the extension of gaming technologies to other, you will gain the opportunity to explore some of the creative possibilities that gaming offers as a research tool and computational device.
Music/ Sound
Staff from both of the Schools involved in the Creative Technology programme have interests and expertise in working with music and sound technologies.
The full-time study option is 12 months long, comprising the following two semesters:
Semester 1
Consists of two team-taught modules: Directions in Creative Technology and Digital Media and Collaborative Projects and Creative Technical Practice
During the first semester you will have the opportunity to be experimental. Whether your knowledge lies in IT, art or design, you will learn about and discover new and innovative areas of Creative Technology and ways of employing your individual skills and specialities.
You will be involved in hands-on, project-based work throughout the semester and join theory with practice in creative experiments and imagineering projects
Semester 2
Consists of Working with the Creative Industries and continues the Collaborative Projects and Creative Technical Practice module.
This semester offers you further opportunities to collaborate with other students, on group projects, but this time you’ll play a different role, one that you may not have played before. As a result, you will gain an insight into everyone’s role in a project – and an in-depth understanding of possible technical, business and economic issues, as well as the development and evolvement of the creative process.
You’ll also get a chance to try out ideas for your final project.
In the summer, the final project will be a piece of work of your own choice, which will give you the chance to demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills acquired over 12 months.
Entry & applying
Standard entry requirements
To be accepted to study on the MA/MSc Creative Technology, we normally require a good honours degree, or equivalent qualification, in an appropriate subject. We also consider candidates with other relevant qualifications and individuals with a minimum of three years' work experience. Those without formal qualifications need to demonstrate relevant work experience and the ability to study at postgraduate level.
International entry requirements
We accept the equivalent of the above from a recognised overseas university, to find out more about the requirements from your country, see further information under support in your country.
English language requirements
You must have competence in English language and we normally require Grade C GCSE or an equivalent qualification. The most common English Language requirements for international students are IELTS 6.5 (with minimum 6.0 in all four components) or TOEFL paper based 575 (no less than 4.5 in test of written English) or TOEFL internet based 90 (with no less than 19 in each component) Middlesex also offers an Intensive Academic English course (Pre-Sessional) that ranges from 5-17 weeks, depending on your level of English. Successful completion of this course would meet English language entry requirements. For more information on applying for the pre-sessional please email english@mdx.ac.uk. For details of other equivalent English language requirements that Middlesex accepts see international entry requirements.
How to Apply
Applications for postgraduate study should be made directly to the university. The quickest way to apply is by making an online application, once you have created your account and completed your application, you will be able to track the progress of your application online. Alternatively, you can fill in an application form and return it to the appropriate admissions office. UK and EU students should apply directly to the London office. Non-EU international students can apply to our international admissions office in London, or use our network of regional offices across the world to assist you with your application.
Fees & funding
The tuition fee for MA Creative Technology for the academic year 2012/13 is as follows:
UK/EU Students
Full-time students: £7,500
Find out about our flexible payment plans for UK/EU students, and how they can help you spread the cost of your course.
International Students
Full-time students: £10,600
AHRC Masters studentships
We will be awarding Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Masters studentships to MA Creative Technology students wishing to start their course in October 2012. Successful applicants can expect to receive funding towards tuition fees and maintenance costs.
Find out more and how to apply
Careers & placements
Upon the completion of the course you will have a wide range of career possibilities including:
- Website producer
- Application designer/developer
- Games developer
- Music producer
- Digital platforms engineer
- Participatory/social and locative media engineer
Open days
University Open Evenings
Open evenings are a great opportunity to learn more about your chosen subject, meet academic and admissions staff, find out more about Middlesex and what life is like on campus. Open evenings for this course are held at our Hendon campus in London, for information on how to get here see our locations page.
Book Your Place Now
Book your open evening place now – make sure you select postgraduate, Hendon campus open days. The dates for open evenings are included in the booking form.
See the programme for the day and find out more about open evenings at Hendon.
If you can't make our open day, there are more opportunities available for you to come and visit us. Campus tours are available throughout the year if you would like to have a look around. Led by Student Ambassadors, they take place most Wednesday afternoons at 1pm. You will get a feel of the campus atmosphere, plus the opportunity to ask any questions about being a student at Middlesex University. Click here to book your campus tour.
Facilities
State of the art facilities in The Art, Design and Media building.
Teaching, studying and doing research on the Masters Programme will involve full use of the broad range of facilities available at our Hendon Campus. Core elements of the course will be delivered in the state of the art facilities in our new £80 million Art, Design and Media Building. Having access to the full range of facilities in Phase 3 increases the scope for what you can do on the programme – we have fully equipped television, radio and sound studios, state of the art workshops for digital image processing, a comprehensive digital publishing suite.
The digital media workshops, like the digital publishing studio, have their own dedicated servers that are designed to cope with high bandwidth data traffic, to ensure that resource-intensive projects don’t suffer from contention issues.
Specialist technologies
We also have a range of specialist facilities, including some start 
of the art haptic robotics technologies, for example, and a dedicated, twenty seat specialist graphics and games programming laboratory, which we currently use for work using Microsoft’s XNA games studio and will be using to develop Unity games.
Facilitating online collaboration
The programme is designed to help you explore the creative possibilities of online collaboration in the development of your project work. Creative technical work in the future is likely to involve more and more co-operation in online, virtual spaces, so we will be encouraging you to think in an informed and organised way about the best ways of developing your practical projects.
You will use a range of technologies in developing, documenting and disseminating your work – from the humble blog to more sophisticated content management systems and fully-fledged online environments such as Second Life.
We take the position that the students of today will define the creative technologies of the future. Our academic, creative and technical expertise on this programme is applied to helping you find the best ways of engaging with the technologies of today to produce the experiences of tomorrow.
Tutors
Dr Rui Loureiro
Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering and Information Sciences.
Prior to joining Middlesex he enjoyed senior research appointments at the University of Reading, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and engineering consultancies at Synectic Design LTD. Rui specialises in human interactive systems, as typified by haptic technology for education and training, and for medical and rehabilitation engineering where he has pioneered work in robot-aided stroke neurorehabilitation and movement disorders. He is associated with a number of professional organisations, was PI and co-I in a number of high-profile EU funded projects, holds five patents, and has published widely in the areas of human-machine interaction, rehabilitation, orthotics, robotics and control.
A description of the facilities relevant to your specialism.
Dr Loureiro directs the Human Interactive Systems Laboratory (HumanIS Lab) at Middlesex University [website will be live in May/June 2011]. The HumanIS Lab is a research facility focusing on the design of the next generation interactive (haptic) technologies for education, training, and medical applications.
Dr Peter Passmore
Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Information Sciences (EIS).
Has a background in psychology (BSc), and computer science (MSc, PhD). This has been reflected in the range of areas he has researched that range from visual perception to visualization and image processing. On the more cognitive side Passmore has worked on the psychophysical investigation of perception of three dimensional shape; and visual aspects of virtual reality surgical simulation. He has also worked on cognitive task analysis of keyhole surgery. On the more computational side he has worked on models of cell assembly decay; application of neural algorithms and adaptable class specific representation to segmentation in medical imaging; and application of Self Organising Maps to classification in Geographical Information Systems. More recently he has been researching segmentation and visualisation of 5D brain Electrical Impedance Tomography images and has begun work in the area of visual analytics. Dr Passmore is a co-investigator in the € 3.5mil FP7 CRISIS project, lead by Middlesex, which is applying games technology in the training of crisis managers. He teaches in the area of computer graphics and games and set up the first European Net Yaroze Games programming laboratory sponsored by Sony.
Dr Andrew Goffey
Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture and Communication in the Department of Media.
He is also the Programme Leader for the Masters programme in Creative Technology. Dr Goffey has a background in media, philosophy and artificial intelligence and worked for a number of years in the software industry.
The author of numerous academic papers, focusing particularly on the links between philosophy, science and culture, he is also - with Matthew Fuller - the author of Evil Media (MIT), and the editor - with Eric Alliez - of The Guattari Effect (Continuum). He is currently writing a monograph on the relations between software and culture, is on the editorial board of the journal Computational Culture, and is a freelance translator. His current research is concerned with formal ontology and large-scale IT projects.
Debbie Jedwab
Senior Associate Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Information Sciences
In addition she runs her own successful Product Design consultancy in 3D design specialising in design-led giftware for international clients and also works as a freelance journalist for Xymara.com, an online design magazine owned by BASF. Her research interests and specialisms are creativity, innovation and trends.
Debbie previously worked as a Set Designer for the BBC and a number of film companies, for Imagination in event design and for Madame Tussauds Design Group (working on the design of Alton Towers).
She runs live design projects within the University and is responsible for bringing in practicing designers, so that students gain an insight into realistic working practices and can work on exciting live projects whilst still studying. She organises guest lecturers to come in and explain their motivations and special skills to students.
Nic Sandiland
Lecturer & module leader
Nic Sandiland is a multi-media artist working with installation, performance and film. He originally trained as an electronics engineer before moving on to studying dance and performance in the late 80s. He has made work in London, Europe and South Asia and has presented at theatres, art galleries, and unusual venues. Much of his work has been site specific. His film work has been shown worldwide and has been regularly broadcast on UK TV (Channel 4).As well as teaching performance, installation and electronics on the BA Sonic Arts at Middlesex he also lectures in video production on the MA in dance film at London Contemporary Dance School.
Nye Parry
Senior Lecturer, Programme Leader MA Sonic Arts
Nye Parry is a composer and sound artist working in installation, multimedia and contemporary dance. He has made work for numerous museums including the British Museum, the Science Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the Heineken Experience and Kew Bridge Steam Museum. His multichannel work Boomtown (Oldham Art Gallery 1998), commissioned for Oldham borough's 150th anniversary celebrations, spawned an interest in the use of Oral history in composition, which led to The Memory Machine, a collaboration with Cathy Lane (CRiSAP). Originally developed for Cybersonica 2002, this interactive installation collects reminiscences of members of the public and was used by over 8000 gallery visitors during a six month exhibition at the British Museum in 2003.
