Digital Arts
At Bennington, students work closely with faculty to design the content, structure, and sequence of their study and practice—their Plan—taking advantage of resources inside and outside the classroom to pursue their work.
The digital arts curriculum emphasizes the computer and code as fine art mediums—not just tools—and how they provide unique opportunities for creatives to explore and make artwork. Students create online and screened-based work with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, along with interactive objects and installations that have arduino microcontrollers and sensors as central components.
Inherently cross-disciplinary, work within the digital arts draws upon many areas of study including animation, computer science, design, media studies, sculpture, the social sciences, video and film, electronic music and more. Classes take place in the Pod, a macintosh computer lab in VAPA, and in the adjacent digital arts studio, which houses a laser cutter, 3D printers, tools for building circuits and student work spaces.
Digital arts invites guests to campus as speakers in the Visual Arts Lecture Series and visiting critics in classes. Guests have included:
- Alex Galloway
- Lindsay Howard
- Steve Lambert
- Zach Lieberman
- Michael Mandiberg
- Mary Mattingly
- Nancy Nowacek
- Lorraine O’Grady
- Roddy Schrock
- Lorna Simpson
- Brooke Singer
- The Yes Men
- Fred Wilson
- Lebbeus Woods
- Caroline Woolard
- Marina Zurkow
Faculty
Visiting Faculty & Technicians
Gus Ramirez is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist that focuses on exploring queer identities and representation in an overwhelming binary world. Through the utilization of interdisciplinary arts that combine to create a historical reference and explorations, they unite to make a queer adjacent history.
