Submitted by Charlie Wallace
The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) announces the July 22 opening of applications for one of the most innovative programs in the world, its graduate degree in Emerging Media and Interactive Design.
AFTRS Lecturer in Interactive Media Mark Pesce said the program was casting its sights beyond traditional film and TV professionals to people who had produced games, Flash movies, and toys.
"We are looking for people who view the whole world as an opportunity for play. We're inviting them to come and play with us."
"We"re exploring every aspect of interactivity at AFTRS: games, mobile applications, podcasting, blogs, wikis, current and next-generation DVDs, interaction design, information architecture, toys and interfaces."
"It's a broad brief, but it's a huge field. We run the program in Interactive Media with a very simple goal: to skill students up. Once that's done, we let them run wild. Students are expected to do groundbreaking work at AFTRS."
"In the Graduate Diploma year, students learn an incredible breadth of interactive techniques, tightly integrated with a real-world production environment. In the MA program, the very best of these students will spend a year translating those skills into innovative new works in games, toys, mobile apps, interactive television, interfaces and interactivity.
"We're showcasing these works on our new website, at interactive.edu.au"
As an example, Pesce highlighted the work of AFTRS student Angus Fraser, who created the game Triple Threat for the upcoming FreePlay conference. The conference caters for independent and DIY game developers. AFTRS is a proud supporter of Free Play.
Pesce said the rules of Triple Threat were simple, and designed to encourage social interaction between FreePlay attendees.
"You need to meet a lot of people and look at their Triple Threat cards to win the game," he said.
"We hope it'll be a conversation starter - and a lot of fun."
The winner of Triple Threat will receive an AFTRS Digital Media short course.
The closing date for applications to the MA in Emerging Media and Interactive Design is September 5, 2005.
For more information visit www.aftrs.edu.au or email infonsw@aftrs.edu.au or call the Student Centre on (02) 9805 6444.