Creative Technology MA/MSc

Imaginative, original and full of ideas, Creative Technology combines technical and creative skills to create the technologies of the future. At Middlesex, you'll have the opportunity to learn about and experiment with different types of technology and use them to design and build your own inventions.

Why study MA/MSc Creative Technology at Middlesex University?

Technology has become fundamentally important to art, design and culture and the skills associated with the once-separate creative and technical worlds increasingly overlap. This is a highly practical course with an emphasis on collaboration and experimentation. You will benefit from your lecturers creative, academic and technical expertise, and you'll be encouraged to step out of your comfort zone and tackle something new.

You'll work with your peers on group projects and in the past students have made an interactive cushion, immersive VR and AR environments, Hololens environments, 360 videos, projection mapping projects, locative mobileapps, novel gaming environments and, wearable tech,  that showed the news.

You'll benefit from the cutting-edge facilities in our £80 million Art, Design and Media building, which is equipped with TV, radio and sound studios, workshops for digital image processing and a digital publishing suite.

We welcome students from any background onto this course, in the past, for example, we have had journalists, artists, designers, programmers, marketing and TV executives, engineers biologists and teachers. It's an unusual opportunity for students with diverse skills to work together, and it's this variety that gives it so much character.

Course highlights

• Our staff are active in research and industry, and their combined areas of expertise include music and sound technology, social media, interactive technologies, visual and digital imagery, gaming, creative software and managing creative projects.
• You'll have the opportunity to work on real industry briefs. In the past, students have worked with Games companies, Sony and designer and engineer Moritz Waldemeyer
• As a student of this course you'll receive a free electronic textbook for every module.

What will you study on the MA/MSc Creative Technology?

The focus of the programme is making projects. You will be, building, testing, entering hackathons, interacting, brainstorming, prototyping, working with clients on live projects, entering competitions – and having fun. We are always looking for ways of getting students involved in exciting, current projects, including, if possible placements.

What will you gain?

In addition to an in-depth knowledge of this subject, you will also be competent in computer programming, the various methods of completing research, and organising and planning projects. You will also have an understanding of business models, users and audiences, ethics, copyright, intellectual property, and licensing. Students have graduated from the programme to become Creative Technologists, UX consultants, VR entrepreneurs, audio specialists, Lecturers and researchers – and movers and shakers in the Creative Industries.

How is the MA/MSc Creative Technology taught?

As well as working on your projects and attending practical workshops, you'll also be taught through lectures, seminars and presentations by visiting speakers. This is a very collaborative course and you'll be in constant discussion with staff and other students about your work, whether in class or through social media.

We encourage innovative ways of submitting work, including group blogs, content management systems and online environments, and your written assignments can include videos, animations, images, sketchbooks, spreadsheets, diagrams and flowcharts.

You may also have the opportunity to visit practising creative technologists and artists. As well as placement opportunities, when you are not at the University, you'll be expected to do your own independent study, reading and online learning.

Assessment

Although there are no exams you will be assessed via coursework. This will include practical projects, both individual and group, written analyses of real-life projects or products, business plans, project proposals, presentations and pitches. Some of this assessed work will be done in groups.

As well as receiving regular feedback and support from your tutors, students will assess and give feedback on each other's work. You'll also keep a record of your own progress, aims and areas for development, which will form part of your overall assessment.

For your final creative technology project, you'll develop and conduct a piece of original research, with reference to existing research, either individually or in groups of up to four. You will also have the option to complete the project with an external company - you will receive support to help find a placement if you wish to do this You will be assessed through written report. If you do your final project in a group, each student will write an individual report, and you'll be assessed both individually and as a group.

How can the MA/MSc Creative Technology support your career?

This course has such a wide scope that the variety of careers which will be open to you is almost endless. Music producer, games developer, application designer or developer, website producer, digital platforms engineer or social and locative media engineer are just some of the many, many roles you could do. You could work for a wide range of employers in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, or even start your own business.

As well as in-depth knowledge of your subject, our course will provide you with many transferable skills. It will improve your research, data collection and interpretation and presentation skills, as well as your confidence and your ability to work under your own initiative and manage your own time. The strong focus on principles and concepts will help you develop the capacity for lifelong independent study.