MA in Artificial Intelligence & Digital Art

The Artificial Intelligence & Digital Art (AiDA) MAMFA is a new programme, with its first intake in September 2027. The programme develops your artistic and technical agency to shape how AI is imagined, made and experienced. Through contemporary art, creative coding and computational practice, you explore how AI is shaped by culture, histories, data, labour, infrastructures and material resources. You work across photography, installation, performance, robotics, software, data, moving image and networked media, bringing computational systems into dialogue with social, political, material and cultural contexts. The programme supports you to develop critical and creative approaches to AI through experimental studio practice, research and making, while questioning the relationships that computational systems establish, reproduce and transform. While the intensive one-year MA route focuses on developing critical and technical agency through an Independent Research Project, the extended two-year MFA route builds on this foundation to cultivate sustained creative practice and professional leadership. Programme structure: Term 1 In Term 1, you establish your studio practice within one of several Conditions, experimental studio and research environments through which you explore Capture. You develop artistic methodologies for observing, recording and interpreting how computational systems encounter the world, working in small research groups to translate situated questions into material, spatial and experimental forms. Alongside this, Creative Coding develops the computational fluency needed to understand and intervene in the systems encountered through your work. Term 2 In Term 2, you work within a new Condition, providing a different context through which you explore Stimulus–Response. You investigate what happens when computational systems act within the world, exploring how they respond, interact, classify, decide and produce consequences across technical systems, bodies, environments and publics. The Systems units support you in developing these investigations into ambitious artistic propositions while preparing for your Independent Research Project. Also in Term 2, a choice of elective units allows you to shape your own learning journey. You can work alongside students from other programmes, bringing your practice into dialogue with different creative approaches. Term 3 In Term 3, the MA culminates in the Independent Research Project, bringing together the artistic methodologies developed through Conditions, the computational fluency established through Creative Coding and the approaches to realisation explored through Systems. Projects are presented publicly as part of the RCA Show, followed by a focus on professional practice, documentation, preservation and the continued life of your work beyond the programme.

We are looking for artists who are curious about how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping contemporary culture. Applicants should demonstrate an independent artistic practice, intellectual curiosity and a willingness to experiment with unfamiliar methods. Previous coding experience is welcomed but not essential. We recognise that access to technical education, equipment and technologies is uneven, and applicants are assessed on the quality, criticality and potential of their artistic practice rather than their existing level of technical expertise.

Portfolio requirements

Your portfolio should demonstrate an established artistic practice together with evidence of potential to develop new forms of work in response to emerging technologies and contemporary culture. We are particularly interested in applicants who demonstrate curiosity, originality and the willingness to engage critically with unfamiliar technologies and ideas.

We welcome applications from artists working across all media, including photography, moving image, installation, performance, sculpture, sound, digital media, design, architecture and interdisciplinary practice. Previous experience with Artificial Intelligence or coding is welcomed but is not required.

• You can upload up to five artworks, one in each of the spaces provided.
• The work should be made by you (if collaborative, please indicate and state your contribution), and focus on recent work where possible.
• For each work, submit either image, PDF, video, audio as appropriate, along with a short text with title, date, size, medium and brief description, outlining its context, methods and intentions.
• If you would like to include multiple files for a single artwork please combine them into a PDF as images and/or URLs (add URLs into the description box).

Personal statement

AiDA is an experimental programme. We value applicants who demonstrate openness to collaboration, curiosity about unfamiliar methods and a willingness to develop their practice through dialogue with others. Your personal statement should explain:

• Your current artistic practice and research interests.
• Why you wish to study Artificial Intelligence & Digital Art at the RCA.
• How your work engages, or might engage, with the cultural, political or artistic questions surrounding AI.
• What you hope to develop through the programme.

Video requirements

Please submit a short video (up to two minutes) introducing yourself and your practice.

Rather than presenting a polished pitch, use this opportunity to discuss:

• Your current artistic practice.
• A project or idea that is particularly important to you.
• Why you are interested in studying Artificial Intelligence & Digital Art.
• A question or challenge relating to AI, technology or contemporary culture that you would like to explore during the programme.