Led by expert staff and creative practitioners with pioneering experience in immersive media and digital world building, students on this course learn to develop original digital content for public spaces, including for a 360-degree dome optimised for audience engagement.

Working within this state-of-the-art dome facility, student projects are created for 8k visual projection and a 19.1 audio speaker array. In addition to developing media for fully contained immersion, students are introduced to a wide range of related technologies and approaches to frameless media, including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), experienced through passive and interactive formats such as animation, game environments, spatial audio, 360 recorded and real-time video content, among other forms.

Combining academic excellence with teaching from highly experienced industry specialists, MA Immersive Media will enable students to make engaging immersive content and media experiences for diverse audiences in the rapidly growing creative and digital sector in Plymouth and the South West. Through a sequence of three 60-credit units over the year (or over two years part-time), students will develop an individual or collaborative research project, realised through the taught use of immersive technologies, to production standards that will fully prepare them for employment in any of the many sectors now embracing this emerging cultural form.

Arts University Plymouth has primary expertise and research focus in immersive genres that have emerged from fine art, games, film and animation, and which conceptually intersect around practices such as installation art, 360 degree filmmaking, critical digital culture, social gaming and worldbuilding. The university’s background and historical commitment to social justice infuse our teaching of these creative practices with a focus on the shared, public contexts of immersive media, allowing students to develop their ideas beyond mere technical know-how, to develop media which meaningfully impacts human relationships and our relationship to the environment. With this focused expertise and opportunity to develop immersive media within a social context through our partnership with Real Ideas as a social enterprise, MA Immersive Media is a crucible for aesthetic innovation that is uniquely attuned to the human aspects of immersive experiences that will give graduates a unique advantage within this industry.

Applications explored and possible outcomes for immersive media include those in: games and entertainment industries; museums and heritage sectors; marketing, advertising, and tourism; art and architecture; product development; data/information design; science education and visualisation; medicine and and healthcare.

We are committed to developing ethical, sustainable design practices as outlined in our Strategic Vision and this ethos is embedded in all MA courses.

Why choose MA Immersive Media at Arts University Plymouth?

We place you at the forefront of digital culture. Immersive media is an expanding area of practice that encompasses both industry standards and an exciting exploration of new forms of art which is blurring the lines between real life and digital experience. Our MA Immersive Media course places you at the forefront of the emerging creative and societal forces that are shaping how and why we engage with virtual worlds, reimagining what it means to live in the 21st century.

A pro-active, Interdisciplinary community. Creative ideas and design practices do not develop in isolation. You come to university to be challenged, supported and to take risks in a context that will inspire you to innovate and understand design as an active process of inquiry into market demands, new technologies, transforming supply chains and challenges to our environment. The course encourages conceptual exploration and hands-on iteration through multiple disciplines and cultures of making.

Accelerated personal development through guided, practice-led research. We believe design is a research-led enquiry into human relationships with each other and our planetary ecosystem. This enquiry is pursued through an iterative, material-led examination of the links between human need, human behaviour and human community, leading to new insights and solutions. Your personal learning is accelerated through common units navigated via your individual discipline and professional objectives.

World-class workshops and facilities: During your time on the course, you will have access to one of the most diverse and spacious ecosystems of workshops, studios and labs known in a contemporary art and design school. Our FabLab is the first of its kind in the UK and gives you access to state-of-the-art resources for developing 21st century skills that will prepare you for leading new design methods and creative practices, making you adept at navigating media’s complex interfaces.

Sustainable ethos and specialist knowledge: Built into our Postgraduate programme is an emphasis on the sustainable, non-extractive and regenerative approaches to working with materials, which not only provides a meaningful link between the past and the future of design, but puts you at the forefront of contemporary design thinking aimed at developing new, more sustainable industries. We provide an opportunity to develop specialist practices that give you the tools and knowledge to contribute to a growing design sector focused on building a circular economy.

For full course information, including Course & Units, Staff, Fees & Funding visit the Arts University Plymouth website.