Arts & Technology

Experimenting and innovating across the College arts community through courses, projects, workshops and public programming.

The Arts and Technology Initiative seeks to transform teaching and learning across the arts curriculum — music, theater, art, film, architecture, dance — and with other disciplines to prepare students for a rapidly changing, globally connected 21st-century world. In particular, the initiative seeks to elevate and sustain a powerful maker culture for interdisciplinary learning and innovation. As part of the initiative, foundation funding was awarded to the College to support improvement of several art-making facilities, the acquisition of new equipment, and microgrants to support student experimentation through independent projects.

Courses

The Arts and Technology Initiative supports the development of courses and programming that explores the intersection of creative practice and current / emerging technologies, with a focus on interdisciplinary project-based learning, connecting and integrating a range of fields and mediums.

Sample courses

  • ARCH-255. Intermediate Studies in Architecture, Naomi Darling
  • ARCH-311. Design-Build Studio, Naomi Daring
  • ARTST-142AT. Art and Technology, Marianna Williams
  • ARTST-226DH. Print/Digital Hybrid, Amanda Maciuba
  • ARTST-242DM. Digital Media Art, Marianna Williams
  • FMT-240VE. Video Editing, Flonia Telegrafi
  • FMT-240VP. Intro to Video Production, Flonia Telegrafi
  • FMT-340DT. Digital Cinematography, Elliot Montague
  • MUSIC-102. Music and Technology, Thomas Ciufo
  • MUSIC-202. Electronic and Computer Music, Thomas Ciufo
  • MUSIC-203. Acoustic Ecology and Sonic Art, Thomas Ciufo

Student projects

Students from a wide range of disciplines are experimenting with technology and art to gain new skills, test out concepts, and exercise their critical thinking, analysis and problem solving. Some projects grow out of a course or workshop; others were the result of a “microgrant” from the Arts & Technology Initiative — an effort that reflects the College’s commitment to elevate and sustain a powerful maker culture.

Below are a few of the projects that students have undertaken — on their own, with other students, or with a faculty member. Those projects which received a microgrant enabled students to realize their ideas as well as practice the skills of grant writing, project management, and reporting.

Arts & Technology in Action

Discover student projects

Brigid Mullen ’25

she/her

Cass Fernandez-Dieguez ’19

Happening at Mount Holyoke

Arts & Technology in the News

With the opening of the Media Lab in the Art Building, MHC students exploring filmmaking, architecture, studio art and other pursuits, have another cutting-edge facility — as well as state-of-the-art digital equipment and capabilities — at their disposal.

Mount Holyoke’s Arts and Technology Initiative, the film studies department, and the Fimbel Maker and Innovation Lab sponsored an artist talk and hands-on workshop by Boston independent filmmaker Gina Kamentsky.

A speaker series from the new Digital Arts Initiative brings world-class scholars and artists to campus to discuss how arts and technology interact.

Arts & Technology Faculty and Staff

Department head(s)

Thomas Ciufo

  • Associate Professor of Music
  • Director of the Media Lab
  • on leave fall 2024

Department and affiliated faculty

Ligia Bouton

  • Professor of Art Studio

Naomi Darling

  • Five College Associate Professor of Sustainable Architecture

Barbie Diewald

  • Assistant Professor of Dance

Hannah Goodwin

  • Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies
  • Nexus Track Chair for Journalism, Media, and Public Discourse

Amanda Maciuba

  • Assistant Professor of Art Studio

Elliot Montague

  • Assistant Professor of Film Media Theater Film Production

Tianhui Ng

  • Chair of Music
  • Orchestra Director
  • Professor of Music

Flonia Telegrafi

  • Visiting Assistant Professor in Film Media Theater

Marianna Dixon Williams

  • Assistant Professor of Art Studio

Staff

Luke Jaeger

  • Technical Project Administrator

Contact us

The Arts & Technology Initiative seeks to transform teaching and learning across the arts curriculum — music, theater, art, film, architecture, dance — and with other disciplines to prepare students for a globally connected 21st-century world.

Thomas Ciufo, Faculty
  • Associate Professor of Music
  • Director of the Media Lab
  • on leave fall 2024