Computing and the Arts

The major, also known as ICAM (short for Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts Major) is jointly offered by the Music and Visual Arts departments at UCSD. Students choose which concentration they wish to pursue based on their liking because, regardless of department, the requirements and offered courses are the same, providing versatility.

For the core curriculum, students are formally introduced to object oriented programming, music and visual arts. ICAM students must be ready to learn not only the computer science and theory but also the physical aspects that are involved in working with digital audio and visuals.

Major Description

The Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts program in the Music and Visual Arts Departments draws upon, and aims to bring together, ideas and paradigms from computer science, art and cultural theory. It takes for granted that the computer has become a meta-medium and that artists and musicians working with computers are expected to combine different media forms in their works. This makes the program unique among other currently existing computer art or design programs.

The program also recognizes that creating sophisticated artistic works with computers requires a new model of the creative process, one that combines traditional artistic procedures with the experimental research characteristic of the sciences.

The goals of the program are:

* to prepare the next generation of artists who will be functioning in a computer-mediated culture
* to give students necessary technical, theoretical and historical backgrounds so they can contribute to the development of new aesthetics for computer media
* to prepare students to mediate between the worlds of computer science and technology, the arts, and the culture at large by being equally proficient with computing and cultural concepts
* to give students sufficient understanding of the trajectories of development in computing so they can anticipate and work with the emerging trends, rather than being locked in particular software currently available on the market.

History

The major was first introduced as an undergraduate major in the Fall of 1998 at the University of California, San Diego. After the initial introduction of the major, too many students wanted to declare ICAM as their major and therefore had to enforce a pre-major requirement of at least a 3.0 GPA in order to enroll in its advanced classes. As of Fall 2007, the pre-major requirement was removed and it is no longer an impacted major.

Faculty

Music Department
* [http://music.ucsd.edu/people/people.php?cmd=fm_music_directory_detail&query_Full_Name=%20Peter%20Otto&query_Active_Status=Faculty Peter Otto] Visual Arts Department
* [http://visarts.ucsd.edu/node/view/491/22 Sheldon Brown]

Notable Alumni

External links

* [http://visarts.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/major/icam/about What is the ICAM major?]
* [http://music.ucsd.edu/ugrad/icam.php Music requirements]
* [http://visarts.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/major/icam Visual Arts requirements]