Digital Media Arts PhD

Why choose this course
Our PhD in Digital Media Arts is an innovative programme that cuts across art, technology, and science, bringing together new forms of interactive storytelling and immersive experiences with contemporary film-making and game design, as well as film, media, and games history and criticism. The fast changing world of digital media means this study is more relevant than ever, with the video game and interactive entertainment industries expected to be larger than the film and television industries combined before the year 2020. 

Our Guildford home is one of the largest creative communities in Europe, with the Guardian referring to Guildford as the ‘Hollywood of video games’. The area is home to video game developers such as EA/Criterion, Epic, Supermassive, Media Molecule, nDreams and Hello Games, as well as Pinewood’s Shepperton film studios. We’re also less than an hour from video effects houses in London, and home to many music, audio and video production studios. As a digital media arts researcher you’ll have the opportunity to meet and work with local companies like these through the local G3 Futures Symposia and our 5G Digital Gaming Initiative. 

We have close links with the University’s electrical engineering, life sciences and performance studies teams, as well as with industry organisations such as the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH). 

You could be supervised by former video game studio directors, technical directors, film and television directors, screen writers, composers, visual effects compositors and supervisors, technical artists, software developers, film and media theoreticians and historians of digital media. 

We’re part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council TECHNE PhD funding and training consortium, and could support your PhD with studentships and funding.

What you will study
Our PhD in Digital Media Arts draws together the study of contemporary film-making and game design, as well as film history and games studies into the broader study of culture and mass media. We also consider a wider context of contemporary screen and digital media related activity, including digital culture and multimedia production. 

As a student of our PhD in Digital Media Arts you will develop the ability to conceive, design, implement and adapt a substantial process of research with scholarly integrity. You will develop a substantial body of work through original research, which could potentially be published, exhibited, and/or performed nationally and internationally. You will engage with major developments in current and emerging media and technologies and demonstrate an awareness of the significance of work in digital media arts. 

As a student studying for a PhD in Digital Media Arts you will have two supervisors, who will guide you through your PhD. Your supervisors will be experienced with creative visual media and at least one will be a researcher in digital media arts. As a cross-disciplinary programme, the PhD in Digital Media Arts allows you to have a mixed supervisory team, with one supervisor from outside the Department of Music and Media. Your second supervisor could come from engineering, computer science, life sciences, or another part of the University. Your supervisor will help you refine your research, assist with your methodology, and be able to read your work. 

You will be required to present your research to your peers and our staff at least twice during your studies, normally once around your confirmation and again around the time of your viva. 

You’ll be able to join a wide-ranging programme of research and doctoral student training events throughout each year of your course, including conferences, visiting speaker sessions, research meetings, and training workshops. We’ll also provide you with training in research skills, including training provided by the TECHNE research consortium. You’ll also benefit from University-wide training offered by the Researcher Development Programme, which can benefit your personal effectiveness, research management and engagement with stakeholders.

Research support
The professional development of postgraduate researchers is supported by the Doctoral College, which provides training in essential skills through its Researcher Development Programme of workshops, mentoring and coaching. A dedicated postgraduate Careers and Employability team will help you prepare for a successful career after the completion of your PhD.

Research themes

• Emerging media
• Practice research
• Creative production
• Art, science and technology interactions
• Virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality
• New immersive experiences
• Visualisation and serious games
• Interactive storytelling
• Virtual cinematography
• Spectatorship, participation and play
• Interactive cinema
• Digital poetry
• Narrative and character portrayal in video games and interactive media
• Acting and performance for animation, games and film
• Embodied media
• Digital aesthetics
• Post-narrative theory
• Media psychology
• Generativity.