Our students and researchers work alongside the Schools graphic designers, animators, and illustrators, and in interdisciplinary teams with other RCA programs as well as external scientists, companies, architects, and academics.
IED develops a mindset as well as a skillset. No specific technical skills are required; applicants come from diverse backgrounds in design, science, fine art, engineering, and technology, with a common critical interest in data, design, and making. Graduates may go on to work in visualization, data science, advanced design practice, cultural and educational institutions, research labs, or studio practice.
The three distinct pathways offered by the IED program of Sound Design, Moving Image Design, and Experimental Design, one of which students select as part of their application, are interrelated, focused around different ways of approaching IEDs core aim of transforming information into experiences.
IED offers:
- Specific training in working with data, programming and electronics, prototyping and making using a range of methods and materials, and tools for inquiry, investigation, and research.
- Tutors, visiting lecturers, and guests who are at the forefront of practice and thinking internationally.
- An Experimental Lab, Sound Lab, and Moving Image Lab for making and hacking, each stocked with a range of specialist hardware and software and set within the mixed studios of the School of Communication.
- Highly interdisciplinary projects with other RCA programs, as well as industry partners large and small, museums and universities in the UK and around the world.
- Close links between MA, MPhil, and Ph.D. students, funded research, and professional practitioners.
- Opportunities for exhibition, publication, intervention, online and offline dissemination, and commercialization of student work and research.
- International exchanges and trips, as well as real-world projects and research set in and around London.
