The MA Programme in Art and Media is comprised of seven majors: Kuvataidekasvatus (Art Education), Game Design and Development, New Media, Photography, Sound in New Media, Visual Communication Design (VCD), and Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCCA). 

Graduates of the Art and Media MA program will be able to: 

1. apply advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in a balanced and critical manner within a specific area of their professional field in arts, media and culture, as well as across other fields.
2. carry out and facilitate idea and project development between arts and sciences in a manner that emphasizes societal impact and responsibility, sustainable thinking and development that may be applied to the complex challenges of global world economies and ecologies.
3. direct their professional career path through artistic-, research- and design-based thinking, as well as advanced sustainable, artrepreneurial skill sets, abilities and attitudes that are agile, resilient, active, responsible and inherently collaborative.
4. assess and critically evaluate - through a mindset of deep ongoing questioning - personal and shared methods, thinking patterns, habits and norms with the aim of professional life-wide learning and positive solution-seeking.
5. recognize and respect ethical, good policies and laws that guard and protect the work of other creative professionals, stakeholders, as well as the integrity of people and other species, and utilize professional communication for work in the field of arts, media and culture and within international operations and cooperation. 

Code: ARTS3028
Credits: 90 credits
Head of major: Miikka Junnila

Huvudämne på svenska: Speldesign och utveckling

Game Design and Development is a multidisciplinary major that offers a unique mix of technical and artistic aspects of game development. The major produces visionary, out-of-the-box thinkers who have the ambition to push the boundaries in the world of game design. Using a project-based, hands-on with minds-on approach, the major in Game Design and Development cultivates a strong community of students from highly diverse backgrounds. Students can apply for the major with any Bachelor’s degree, and accepted students include programmers, 3D artists, animators, creative writers, architects, and even psychologists.

Graduates of the programme will graduate with a Master of Arts (Art and Media) degree. Aalto University School of Science offers a “sibling major” of the same name that leads to a Master of Science (Technology) degree (diplomi-insinööri in Finnish). The M.Sc (Technology) path is recommended for students with a strong technical background, and students should apply according to the academic degree they wish to have. Content-wise the two programmes are similar and organised in close collaboration with one another. 

Major's intended learning outcomes: 

Graduates of the Game Design and Development major will be able to:  

1. Design, create, and analyse games from a player-centric perspective, building on latest research findings. Graduates know many scientific approaches to games and can utilize this knowledge in creating compelling experiences for their target audiences. Examples include a research-based understanding of psychological factors such as player needs, motivations, and emotion; mathematical and simulation tools for analyzing and designing game economies and emergent interactions;  understanding how aspects of human perception and motor control affect things like action game reaction time or the ease of use of game interfaces.
2. Understand games, the games industry, game culture, and their role in society. Graduates understand the fragmented and complex nature of various forms of digital media and technology, and their impact on the society.  
3. Utilize both a broad understanding across disciplines and in-depth skills in their specialisation areas. Throughout their studies, students can both develop their existing skills and acquire new broad understanding of other areas, which helps in developing as a team player.  
4. Apply their skills in creative collaboration, concept development, design, and realisation. Graduates have strong interpersonal skills developed through multiple games created in collaboration with others. Graduates are able to carry out creative work as part of culturally diverse and transdisciplinary teams. 
5. Extend and develop their professional competence throughout their career. Graduates embrace and understand the importance of lifelong learning and curiosity to learn new skills, as the field is ever-evolving and new technologies emerge constantly.

Advanced studies 60 ECTS

Master's thesis 30 ECTS

Huvudämne på svenska:  Bildkonstpedagogik

Major structure on the Finnish site

Code: ARTS3029
Credits: 90 ECTS credits
Head of major: Matti Niinimäki

Huvudämne på svenska: Nya media

Major description:

In a technology-saturated world, it is indispensable to understand and study the impacts that technology has on individuals, organisations and society. The New Media major brings together a multicultural group of students with very versatile skills and backgrounds. They all share the same passion of exploring the opportunities and challenges that new and emerging digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence and extended reality, open for communication, art, and design. By exploring the field of new media through various topics, including media art and culture, interaction design, creative computing, and interactive narratives, the graduates of the major have unique competences to take on new and emerging professions within the broad spectrum of the new media industry.

The major also aims to provide a supportive and constructive environment for artistic, technical, and professional development. An environment where learning from failures is just as important as learning from successes. The students are encouraged to step outside of their comfort zones and get familiar with a variety of tools and skills, to understand the characteristics of digital media. 

Major's intended learning outcomes:

Graduates of the New Media major will be able to:

1. Analyse and critically evaluate the complex dynamics of modern media technology and its societal impact. Graduates can examine how digital media and technology shape art, design, communication, and self-expression, and assess their broader societal implications.
2. Analyse and interpret media art and media culture within contemporary contexts. Graduates examine historical and current manifestations of media art, evaluate cultural practices in digital media, and assess how media art shapes cultural values.
3. Design and develop human-centered interactive systems through research, prototyping, and evaluation. Graduates can conduct user research, analyse findings to identify user needs, generate design solutions, build interactive prototypes, and evaluate designs using appropriate methods.
4. Apply their technical knowledge and skills in computational art and design to create new experiences, services, tools, and other creative productions. Graduates develop state-of-the-art tools for new media art and design, not just use existing ones.
5. Apply and evaluate interaction, generativity, and immersion in new media art and design. Graduates distinguish the possibilities and limitations of developing interactive and generative systems or experiences.
6. Evaluate sustainability, representation, and diversity in digital media. Graduates identify environmental, cultural, and societal impacts of digital media infrastructures.
7. Work effectively in transdisciplinary contexts integrating art, technology, and science. Graduates can collaborate across disciplinary boundaries, combining artistic, technological, and scientific approaches to create innovative methods, projects, and insights that advance new media practice.
8. Design personalized learning pathways combining broad new media knowledge with specialized expertise in areas of their choice to support their interests and career goals. Graduates utilise opportunities for lifewide learning and development in a constantly changing field.
9. Conduct independent practice-based research and apply advanced analytical skills. Graduates can formulate research questions, design creative investigation methods, analyze findings, and present original insights for professional practice in new media fields.

Major studies 90 ECTS

Master's thesis 30 ECTS

Code: ARTS3030
Credits: 90 ECTS 
Head of major: Antti Ikonen

Huvudämne på svenska: Ljuddesign i nya medier

Major description:

The aim of the Major in Sound in New Media is to explore, discover and comprehend the emerging digital technology and its aural impact in society; to find and exploit the possibilities it opens to acoustic communication, sonic interaction and new interfaces for musical expression and to evaluate, understand and deal with the challenges it poses to art, design, and creative production in the auditory domain. Furthermore, the major aims at developing artistic and design thinking, enriching the attractiveness and communicative and aesthetic qualities of applied sound and music.

In a technology-saturated world, it is indispensable to understand and study the impacts that technology has on individuals, organisations and society. The Sound in New Media major brings together a multicultural group of students with very versatile skills and backgrounds. By tailoring the degree according to their interests and choosing from a wide variety of areas, the graduates of the major have unique competences to take on new and emerging professions within the broad spectrum of the field. These areas include sound and music computing, sound art and auditory culture, sonic interaction design, artificial intelligence applied to sound design and music, game audio and acoustic branding. The pioneering work of our alumni is an undisputed manifestation of the impact of the major within the aforementioned areas.

The major also aims to provide a supportive and constructive environment for artistic, technical, and professional development. An environment where learning from failures is just as important as learning from successes. The students are encouraged to step outside of their comfort zones and get familiar with a variety of tools and skills, to understand the characteristics of auditory media. These tools and skills include creative coding, physical computing, digital fabrication, sonic interaction design, extended reality, generative composition methods and other emerging technologies., extended reality, generative composition methods and other emerging technologies.

Major's intended learning outcomes:

After completing the major in Sound in New Media the graduate will be able to: 

1. Understand the complex demands and dynamics of the contemporary auditory domain. Graduates understand the fragmented and complex nature of various forms of digital media and technology, and their aural impact on the society.
2. Describe and analyse how technology shapes sound art, design, acoustic communication, and self-expression.
3. Apply a human-centric approach to digital design. Graduates are skilled in anticipating user values, translating them into product and service offerings and keeping humans at the center of the design process.
4. Use broad understanding across disciplines and in-depth skills in specialisation areas of their choice. Graduates have the benefits of both breadth of knowledge and specialisation. Possible specialisation areas include sonic interaction design, physical computing, game audio, sound art, extended reality, as well as acoustic branding.
5. Apply their skills in creative collaboration, concept development, design, and realisation. Graduates have strong interpersonal skills and they are able to do creative work as part of culturally diverse and transdisciplinary teams.
6. Apply their technical knowledge and skills in sonic arts and sound design to create new experiences, services, and other creative productions. Graduates are skilled in not just using but also developing state-of-the-art tools for sound art and design.
7. Extend and develop their professional competence throughout their career. Graduates embrace lifelong learning and curiosity to learn new skills, as the field is ever-evolving and new technologies emerge constantly.
8. Understand and respect cultural diversity. Graduates understand that different cultures and traditions as well as social circumstances and conditions have a great impact on our auditory environment.
9. Apply an in-built sustainable approach to their profession. Graduates see planetary health, society and people as the starting point for successful design. 

Advanced studies 60 ECTS

Master's thesis 30 ECTS

Code: ARTS3044
Credits: 90 ECTS credits
Head of major: Donald Weber

Huvudämne på svenska: Fotografi

Major description:

In the Photography major, we understand photography as a dynamic, critically engaged practice that moves across artistic, documentary, and research contexts. The Photography major encourages you to experiment with image-making while developing a deeper understanding of photography’s roles in cultural, social, and technological systems. Central to the major is the idea of "un-disciplining" photography, expanding its possibilities beyond fixed categories or medium-specific approaches. You will explore and practice photography as a spatial, material, and conceptual practice that participates in wider processes of circulation, perception, and meaning-making. Through artistic research, collaborative projects, and independent inquiry, you are supported in developing your own methods, questions, and positions. The major fosters critical thinking, community, and a commitment to ongoing transformation, preparing you to contribute to contemporary photographic culture in diverse and evolving ways.

Major's intended learning outcomes:

Graduates of the Photography major will be able to:

1. Understand photography as a conceptual, material, and spatial practice that operates across contemporary visual culture, documentary, and artistic research
2. Are able to develop, reflect on, and present independent photographic work across diverse contexts including exhibition, publication, and digital platforms
3. Can critically engage with the histories, roles, and transformations of photography in social, political, and technological frameworks
4. Use photography to explore and communicate complex ideas, working with accessible and experimental tools across both analogue and digital environments
5. Apply research-informed methods in their practice, combining image-making with writing, editing, archiving, and collaborative inquiry
6. Contribute to artistic and academic conversations in photography and visual culture, and are prepared to pursue doctoral or advanced research-based studies
7. Operate with responsibility and care in professional, academic, and public contexts, and reflect on the cultural and ethical dimensions of photographic practice
8. Acknowledge the integrity of art and culture and value it as a foundational element of cultures and communities

Advanced studies 60 ECTS

Master's thesis 30 ECTS

Code: ARTS3035
Credits: 90 ECTS credits
Head of major: Rupesh Vyas

Huvudämne på svenska: Visuell kommunikation design

Major description:

Visual Communication Design studies invite you to consider your design practice within broader societal and environmental contexts. The curriculum offers courses in information design, visual narrative, and type & written language, encouraging you to orient your practice toward the public and toward sustainability, and to communicate across diverse fields of knowledge.

The VCD major offers you space to develop your individual design approach and critical thinking. You are supported by a culture of community-building, collaboration, and peer learning. Through an integrated combination of theory and practice, the programme helps you expand, refine, and situate your work in relation to the world around you. 

Major's intended learning outcomes:

Graduates of the Visual Communication Design major will be able to:

1. Recognise and describe the core elements of your own design practice
2. Articulate and critique the conventions, references, and motivations behind your design choices      
3. Plan, create and manage design projects using analogue and digital tools and elements       
4. Allocate computational elements to design projects         
5. Examine complexity when communicating through strategies of information design, visual narrative, and/or type and written language
6. Identify contexts of representation, diversity, and sustainability in visual communication.
7. Observe and explore alternative modes of professional design practice

Advanced studies 60 ECTS

Master's thesis 30 ECTS

Code: ARTS3040
Credits: 90 ECTS credits
Head of major: Lucy Davis

Huvudämne på svenska: Visuell kultur, kuratering och samtidskonst

Major description:

The ViCCA major welcomes artists, curators, culture-workers and the culturally-curious into a two year programme that is dedicated to transdisciplinary, experimental combinations of practice and research. At ViCCA we provide a generous context for you to develop individual practise pathways that are grounded in a combination of art practice, curating and theory, but which extend outside of conventional settings and into an array of social, political, economic, ecological and technological environments.

The ViCCA major process is enabled by a supportive community of international students and faculty who view research, practice and teaching in a holistic manner. Central to our aim is to co-craft spaces for learning inquiries that merge, for example: artistic thinking and critical entrepreneurship; material-led practices and theoretical exploration; embodied research and experimental writing.

As part of this process, ViCCA faculty will offer you dedicated guidance on ways to augment your existing skills via working with what may be unfamiliar fields of study and experimental methods of inquiry. Indeed, we actively encourage you to jump into unknown disciplinary waters in order to devise innovative approaches to future artistic research and curatorial work.

When you graduate with a ViCCA major, you may not be immediately able to change the world, but our community will do our best to offer you the collective competences in critical thinking, curating and research necessary for the reinventions of work and life that we need in order to respond to the immediate social and planetary challenges we all face. The evidence that a ViCCA Major experience does indeed achieve what it says on the package can be found in the ubiquitous and prolific presence of ViCCA graduates in prestigious, award-winning leadership positions in ever-expanding fields of art and culture and society, in Finland, Europe and across the globe. 

Major's intended learning outcomes:

A graduate of the Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art-major:

1. Will have a broad understanding of contemporary and emerging practices, artistic research, relevant theory and debates in the international and expanded field of visual culture as well as contemporary art and curatorial practice.
2. Will be able to contextualize their work in relation to different professional fields, sociocultural phenomena and research frameworks. They have gained seriously-playful, creatively disruptive, agile and social-entrepreneurial attitudes needed for active navigation of creative economies of the 21st century.
3. Will be able to engage in open research processes in multidisciplinary fields with a scope of basic theory, philosophy, aesthetics to practice-based cutting-edge experimental engagements with art and curatorial practice. They have gained versatile competencies and perspectives that might fill in gaps between diverse fields and societal sectors, address new demands or counteract infrastructural constraints in our current landscape.
4. Have a good understanding of the groundings for artistic approaches conversing with the societal, ecological, technological, aesthetic, sustainable and intersectional approaches for rethinking, diversifying and enriching contemporary artworld roles, infrastructures and economies. The ViCCA ‘tool-kit’ enables the graduates to devise, initiate, impact and lead cutting-edge, cultural, sustainable and socially responsive initiatives.
5. Have obtained rigorous, research-based navigation tools which support a reflection of one’s knowledge and practice and enables one to go further on one’s individual path. They have also learned to appreciate and respect the perspectives and practice of fellow students.

Advanced studies 60 ECTS

Master's thesis 30 ECTS

Students choose 30 ECTS of elective studies. As elective studies, students can complete minor studies and/or take individual courses from other programmes at Aalto University or other Finnish universities, participate in an international student exchange programme, do an internship in Finland or abroad, or take elective courses offered by student’s own programme.

Students can complete a minor as part of their elective studies. Please see all the minors under Minor studies.

Department of Art and Media offers several minors:
3D Animation
Building Virtual Worlds
Contemporary Art Practices and Theories
Digital Fabrication minor
Game Design and Development minor
Information Design minor
New Media minor
Sound in New Media minor
Aalto Math and Arts minor 
Photography minor
Art and Media minor
Interdisciplinary Arts Pedagogy minor