Transnational Workshop: Digital Creation 'Beyond the Screen' (Faculty-Led Program)

This innovative, interdisciplinary, transnational workshop-laboratory focuses on the latest stage in a long history of creative experimentation with computers and computer technologies in their capacity to generate literary, artistic, and interactive experiences that link human participants, computers, and immersive environments, both physical and virtual, in new ways.

The application deadline for the spring/summer 2023 program has been reached. To inquire about next year's program, email the faculty director, Laura Shackelford (lxsgla@rit.edu)

Highlights

• Collaborate with Master's students in Paris on an interdisciplinary creative digital arts project of your own design - no prior technical skills necessary.
• Travel to Paris for 10 days in early May for an intensive workshop experience in which you will finalize and present your digital arts project in Paris - a great addition to your portfolio or resume.
• Immerse yourself in Paris, a world-renowned site of cultural heritage and arts, and expand your knowledge of multi-media experimentation and international artistic collaborations, past and present.
• Visit museums including the Louvre, the Picasso Museum, and cultural sites such as the Seine River, and the Eiffel Tower. 
• Financial aid may apply and scholarships are available.

Program Details 

• Course Term: Spring 2023, course, travel to Paris in early May
• Travel Dates: Mid-May to Late May
• Location: Paris, France
• Credits: 3

The Transnational Workshop: Digital Creation is a semester-long course that offers RIT advanced undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to collaborate with Master's students in Paris on a digital arts project of their own design. Enrolling in ENGL 510/610: Transnational Digital Creation in the spring semester, you will participate in a series of faculty-led videoconferences and activities in English. Classes will be led by faculty leader Laura Shackelford, Associate Professor of English, Director of the Center for Engaged Storycraft, and advisor for the Digital Literature and Comparative Media minor at RIT and French faculty leader Professor Phillippe Bootz at Université Paris 8, who has pioneered the use of computers to generate literary, poetic, and sonic experiences on screen.

You will develop project proposals and design a digital arts project with your transnational team of four before traveling to Paris in early May for an intensive, week-long workshop to finalize and present your creative digital project on-site. 

If you are interested in storytelling, digital literature, interactive narrative, game design, digital installation, new media design and technology, human-computer interaction, sensing technologies, site-specific locative media, film, photography, French literature, arts and culture, or global digital cultures, this is a unique opportunity to put your creative digital technology and humanities skills into practice in an experimental, exploratory way, to work with an interdisciplinary team, and to collaborate with French peers.

RIT students meet their Paris counterparts via videoconference meetings during the spring semester to develop project ideas and proposals. Expect spring semester to involve approximately 16 contact hours in total, however additional time may be spent communicating with your group members. In mid-May, you will travel to Paris for 10 days to meet your teammates and finalize your projects. During the travel component of this program, you will get to explore some highlights of the city of lights and experience French language, culture and cuisine. 

Course Details:

• ENGL 510/610: Transnational Digital Creation

You’ll be enrolled in a spring course in Rochester and will travel to Paris in May to complete your coursework. 

No pre-requisites. Open to all undergraduate majors (3rd year and above) and grad students. No pre-requisites, no French language required, no prior technical skills needed.

To Apply

This program is not currently accepting applications. Contact the faculty director to enquire about next year's program.

COVID-19 & Study Abroad

The RIT Education Abroad office is constantly monitoring how COVID-19 is affecting international travel, with student safety as our top priority. While RIT no longer requires students to be vaccinated, we highly encourage study abroad participants to stay up-to-date with immunizations, boosters and social distancing polices. In fact, study abroad partners and vendors, travel providers and foreign governments may have different requirements and it is the students responsibility to understand and adhere to all requirements and guidelines.  For the most up to date information and FAQs, please visit COVID-19 & Study Abroad