Art + Technology

Artists in California have been combining art and technology for many decades. 

These artistic forms of investigation are more relevant and compelling than ever before, particularly in the Bay Area with its culture of technological innovation, emphasis on social media, and DIY ethos. Students in the Art and Technology major at SFAI learn the technical, conceptual, historical, and theoretical skills needed to produce contemporary art using technological forms such as time-based and networked media, digital media, audio, programming, and electronics.

Inherently interdisciplinary, this major offers students the opportunity to explore the ways that technology has infused traditional approaches to art-making, as well as creating possibilities for the invention of new media practices.

VIew Sample Course Descriptions >>

Past Courses

  • Structural Drawing/Design Visualization
  • Internet Tools and Concepts
  • Smarter Art Design for Smart Devices
  • Active Wearable Objects
  • Typography: Context and Practice
  • Sonic City Sound Lab: Sound, Bodies, and the City
  • Rethinking the “Artist”: The Case for Collaborative Practice

Facilities

Students have access to extensive Digital Technology Resources configured to meet the needs of projects using sound, photography, film, video, design, plasma cutter, laser cutter (Spring 2015), web, programming, and print.

Virtual Tour of SFAI

Curriculum

See a sample four-year academic plan in the BFA in Art + Technology program to help you decide what courses to take when.

Summary of Required Credits

TitleUnits
Liberal Arts Requirements (Examples: Global Social Movements, Un/Natural Ideologies, Concepts of Creativity, Mathematics: A Visual History, Extinction)33
Studio & General Elective Requirements 72
Art History Requirements15

A+T Studio Requirements

TitleUnits
Introduction to Art + Technology I3
Introduction to Art + Technology II3
Interactivity + Social Media Distribution3
Digital Media Distribution3
Electronic Distribution3
A+T Electives (Ex: Games Artists Play, Physical Computing for Artists, Das Berlin-Projekt) 15
Contemporary Practice3
Senior Review Seminar 3
Portfolio: Strategic Self3
Electives in any Studio (Ex: Surfaces: Illusion/Abstraction, Soundscape 5.1, Three-Dimensional Collage) 24
General Electives (Ex: Performance/Sound/Language, Personal Cinema)9
BFA Graduate Exhibition0

Art History Requirements

TitleUnits
Topics and Foundations in Global Visual Culture3
Topics and Foundations in Contemporary Art3
History of the Major3
Art History Elective3
Art History Elective3

Faculty

Cristóbal Martínez (Art & Technology Department Chair)

Meredith Tromble

See the full list of current faculty.

Program Learning Outcomes

  • Students gain historical and contemporary knowledge of the ways that artists use and have used technologies within their artistic practice, and familiarity with the theoretical frameworks brought to bear on the discourse surrounding such practices.
  • Students acquire knowledge of concepts, skills, and techniques needed to produce art works that utilize digital, interactive, networked, and/or electronic media.
  • Students gain an understanding of the characteristics and capabilities of various technologies (hardware and software); their appropriateness for particular expressive, functional, and strategic applications; their positions within larger contexts and systems; and their influences on individuals and society.
  • Students acquire an understanding of concepts central to art works that utilize technologies, including narrative, duration, networked information, kinetics, and interactivity.
  • Students demonstrate the ability to collaborate with others, both from artistic and other disciplines.
  • Students demonstrate the ability to develop an advanced body of artwork utilizing technology that sustains an original concept.