Required Courses for SIM Majors Only
MPSM276 (soph), MPSM376 (jnr), MPSM476 (sen) Studio for Interrelated Media Major Studio
THUR 1:30 – 6:20 pm E. Buckholtz, M. Hernandez Motaghy, D. Moser, T. Yamamoto
This is a studio class in which individuals and groups present and discuss work in media of their choice such as audio, video, computer, performance, publishing, and production of events that interrelate media. Each week, student presentations of work are organized into performances, discussions, workshops, and exhibitions produced by students who select, schedule and technically support the presentation. This course repeats every semester and is required for all SIM Majors. It is not available to non SIM Majors.
SIM Majors are also required to take at least one SIM Elective each semester. SIM Electives are also open to any MassArt student from any department. See below for the current offerings.
SP26 Courses
MPSM-311 Electronic Project For Artists 2 – Programming
MON 1:30-6:20 pm D. Moser
This course introduces students to computer interfaces for connecting interactive sculpture, performance and installation with software. Course content includes micro-controllers, electrical sensors, custom-made circuits and programming. No previous programming experience is necessary. Pre-req: MPSM337 suggested, but none required.
MPSM-410 Immersive Experience Design
TUE 1:30-6:20 pm E. Freeman
MPSM-357 Experimental Ensembles
TUES 9:00 am – 12:50 pm E. Buckholtz
Experimental Ensembles is an opportunity for students to collaborate in significant ways on works that involve groupings of student ensembles engaging in collective actions. These actions can be both performance and non-performance based. The class explores the artistic practice of directing, conducting, composition, and collaboration along-side the experience of following the direction of others in order to create an artwork that may have a public impact. Students are encouraged to embrace the opportunity to use each other as actors, agents, units, and parts of their creative vision in varied environments and alternative spaces. Topics include the examination of historical works that have come out of Fluxus, happenings, performative installation, audio-visual and choral-based configurations, and in experiments with sound, light, motion, site, performance, or live cinema. An ensemble can be a Flash mob, a gathering of organized movements and sound scores, mobile sculptural elements, a series of instructions that a group or public is asked to follow, etc… Students are encouraged to work in a large ensemble format and also to experiment with smaller independent projects with in the group.
MPSM-211 Interrelated Media Practice
TUES 1:00 pm – 6:20 pm E. Buckholtz
This is an introductory critique studio course where students produce and present interrelated media artworks in progress and in final form in order to expand their artistic practice, interact with artists from other disciplines, and refine public speaking skills. Great option for non-SIM majors to explore interdisciplinary art practice.
MPSM-205 Stagecraft and Technical Production
WED 3:00 – 7:50pm Max Azanow
This course aims to demystify basic lighting, rigging, sound and staging practices. Technical workshops will be conducted during class time where students work in teams to complete assignments. Demonstrations and lectures also include site planning, power distribution, and safety in the workspace. For credit the students will prepare and present their own personal projects using the class as crew and SIM’s technology.
MPSM-207 Beat Research
WED 3:00-7:50 pm A. Flackett
This is a studio course about electronic music and culture. Students explore the techniques of sampling, sequencing and drum programming using current music making software including Ableton Live. Most assignments involve the creation of music/sound but we also address techniques of video production and performance.
MPSM-317 Event Planning and Production
THUR 9:00 am-12:50 pm T. Yamamoto
This is the spring segment of a year-long course designed for those that are actively involved in organizing and producing ambitious events and exhibitions throughout the year. Open to any student that is actively producing on or off campus events. Required for Eventworks producers and Godine Family Gallery Managers. Registration is by permission of instructor.
MPSM-365 Imagining Possible Futures: Socially Engaged Art + Activism
FRI 1:30 – 6:20 pm C. Bi
Socially engaged art nurtures the relationship between artist and audience, a relationship that itself becomes the artwork. By designing new ways of being together, we can practice inhabiting new worlds and invite others into possible futures. This is art as world building, as creative intervention, cultural creation, as role playing the collective future we want to see. Students will work with Design Studio for Social Intervention (ds4si) – a local organization which uses design and artistic research for the improvement of civil society and everyday life through a lens of social justice – to prototype their own ideas to rehearse new worlds.
First Year Drawing 2 Requirement – if there are seats available in this course after the First Year Students register, then SIM Majors are welcome to register for it.
MPSM226 Performative Drawing
WED 9:00 am-12:50 pm T. Yamamoto
The act of drawing has historically been linked with performance, and in some cases can be considered a performative action itself. Students are introduced to “drawing” practices that document the physical action and process, act as a visual score for performance, and extend the concept of the line into three and four dimensions into the space.
FA25 Courses
MPSM-272 Sound Performance and Ensemble
MON 9:00 am – 12:50 pm E. Buckholtz
This course is an intensive laboratory for live performance, collaboration, and sonic experimentation. Designed for musicians and sound artists, it challenges students to explore unorthodox relationships between performer and audience, experiment with new aspects of their personal practice, and expand their approach to live sound. Live performances ranging from improvisations and ensemble experiments to structured compositions and conceptual performance pieces are encouraged. The course incorporates songwriting, scoring, site-specific and installation-based works, and other exploratory formats that push the boundaries of traditional musical and performance practices.Through regular feedback, group exercises, and exposure to experimental performance methodologies, students develop a deeper understanding of their artistic voice while engaging with the dynamic intersection of sound, space, and audience perception.
MPSM-402 Art, Life and Money
MON 9:00 am – 12:50 pm Crystal Bi
This course is targeted towards soon-to-graduate art students who are thinking about the practicalities of continuing life as an independent artist after college. Throughout the semester students will meet MassArt Alum as well as others pursuing unconventional artistic paths. Through discussion, presentations and field trips, issues surrounding the realistic struggles of maintaining life as an independent artist alongside the celebration of such a choice will be explored. The course will attempt to demystify copyright law, basic finance skills, resilience strategies, and professional networking. Students will interview artists as well as explore methods for balancing art, life and money after school. Students will also practice writing their artist statement and resume, giving an artist talk, and creating a personal five year plan.
MPSM-369 Investigations in Light
MON 1:30 – 6:20 pm E. Buckholtz
This course explores light as a versatile and powerful medium in artistic practice. Students investigate light’s physical properties, its emotional and symbolic qualities, and its impact on perception and space. Emphasizing experimentation, this course encourages students to work across multiple mediums, integrating daylight, artificial light, projection, and interactive elements.Through hands-on projects, readings, and discussions, students engage with light as a sculptural, spatial, and performative medium, exploring how artists have used light in installation, performance, photography, film, and digital media. Students develop their own projects that push the boundaries of light-based experimentation.
MPSM-273 Intro to Sound Studio
TUE 1:30 – 6:20 pm E. Freeman
Students study principles of electroacoustic and digital sound processing, including audio recording, editing, mixing, and signal processing techniques. Students are required to present “live” or recorded sound pieces. Sound studio includes analog and digital synthesis, analog and digital recording and editing systems, signal processors. Weekly assignments. No prerequisite. (fall term only)
MPSM-216 Performance Art Fundamentals
TUE 1:30 – 6:20 pm T. Yamamoto
This course will explore, physically and intellectually, a wide range of performance practices. We will collectively practice strategies, forms, and methods of making and performing while developing awareness for performers’ bodies, audience, environment (site), and nature of time. Students will be introduced to various different types of performance practices including, but not limited to mundane actions, rituals, body art, social choreography, narrative, conceptual/experimental performance, dance, theatre, durational art, and so on. In addition, students will gain a greater understanding of the legacy of this ever-revolving art form by observing historical precedents and contemporary approaches to performance.
MPSM-211 Interrelated Media Practice
TUE 1:30 – 6:20 pm C. Bi
This course is centered around explorations of you as an interrelated media artist with a special focus on space/place and creative interventionism. This course aims to deepen our intentionality in considering place and viewers when creating artwork. How can we – as artists – deeply observe the current conditions of a place and intervene in spaces to produce new, more desirable outcomes and futures? We will explore these themes through a series of group/individual projects, observations, artist talks, and site visits. This is an introductory critique studio course where students produce and present interrelated media artworks in progress and in final form in order to expand their artistic practice, interact with artists from other disciplines, and refine public speaking skills. Great option for non-SIM majors to explore interdisciplinary art practice.
MPSM-337 Electronic Projects for Artists I
WED 9:00 am – 12:50 D. Svoronos
The purpose of this studio course is to provide skills and information that will be useful for artists who use electrical devices in their artworks. Examples will be shown to help students in incorporating/integrating electrical circuits and sensors in a variety of media including sculpture, installation and performance. This intro course covers AC/DC electrical current and how to work with it safely. We show how to use components like breadboards, resistors, capacitors and transistors, Integrated Circuits, read schematics and build electrical circuits. The ultimate goal is for artists to incorporate this knowledge in the production of projects of their own design.
MPSM-205 Stagecraft and Technical Production
WED 3:00 – 7:50pm Max Azanow
This course aims to demystify basic lighting, rigging, sound and staging practices. Technical workshops will be conducted during class time where students work in teams to complete assignments. Demonstrations and lectures also include site planning, power distribution, and safety in the workspace. For credit the students will prepare and present their own personal projects using the class as crew and SIM’s technology.
MPSM-221 Interdisciplinary Video
WED 3:00 – 7:50 pm A. Flackett
This is a studio course in which students learn the basics of video production – from shooting to editing to the use of effects and finally publishing/screening final works. The class explores the inclusion of video in installations, live performance, and other experimental applications. The contemporary practice of video production is presented within the historical context of the moving image from silent films up to the modern YouTube era. Additionally, introductory video mapping technologies and video sound techniques are presented. The course combines lectures, demonstrations, workshops and a variety of short assignments.
MPSM-336 Event Planning and Production
THUR 9:00 am – 12:50 pm N. Sturiale
This is the fall segment of a year-long course designed for those that are actively involved in organizing and producing ambitious events and exhibitions throughout the year. Open to any MassArt student that is actively producing on or off campus events. Required for Eventworks producers and Godine Family Gallery Managers. Registration is by permission of instructor.
MPSM413 Interrelated Media Independent Projects
ASYNC – MEETINGS TBD T. Yamamoto
This course is designed for advanced students that have an inter and/or omni-disciplinary and independent practice and would benefit from individualized instruction and guidance based on their specific needs. Students may be working with a combination of text, live events, movement, conceptual art, sound, objects and installation. These students may be developing a senior thesis, preparing for an ambitious review board, producing an installation or event outside of any formal curriculum, or working on a project that does not align with the academic schedule. The course includes a rigorous structure that includes expected deliverables and milestones (e.g. illustrated project proposal document, reading responses, artist statements and documentation.) Students are expected to present their in progress and final projects in a Pecha Kucha style presentation either in person or in video form. This course is slightly different from the SIM Independent Study (MPSM399) option as it provides more direct guidance alongside the peer review components of being part of a cohort, each pursuing independent projects during the same time period. This is also an excellent opportunity for students to study closely with visiting faculty that are not able to offer independent studies. By permission of instructor. Prerequisite: Interrelated Media Practice.
Questions? email dmoser@massart.edu
Studio for Interrelated Media 2026