Communication and Multimedia Design (CMD) in Amsterdam offers you the chance to improve your skills as a designer, whilst enjoying one of the most vibrant cities in the world! Become a better designer by opting for one of our six international one-semester minors.
Immersive Environments, User Experience Design, Makers Lab and Cross-cultural data visualization are the international minors of our CMD Bachelor program. These minors are open to both CMD students, students from our international partners and so called ‘free movers’. You can find more information on these minors on this page. CMD is part of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. We also have more information (practical matters, tuition fees) on the general CMD university page.
In a world where technology is changing at a fast pace, designers need to keep up with the times. The physical world offers opportunities to create new immersive experiences, past the borders of interactive mobile or desktop interaction. In creating smart physical spaces, we can tell stories encompassing all senses using all kinds of technologies. These could be interactive spaces in musea, shops, festivals, events, trade shows, conferences or outdoor locations.
The program User Experience Design aims to help you design web and mobile interfaces: interfaces that provide a good user experience and make a positive contribution to the user’s experience of the organization that provides their products / services through the interface.
Exploring Sustainable High and Low-Tech Materials through Critical Crafts. In this program we go back to the fundamentals of materials and how things are made. We rethink the wealth of traditional material knowledge and craftsmanship in order to meet the demands of the 21st century. We re-envision them in the context of contemporary high-tech crafts and sustainable digital fabrication to rediscover the potential of local materials and traditions. With this minor we aim to redefine the position of the maker and her role in relation to the commons (the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of society), by taking a DIY and open-source approach to materials that are largely compostable, locally sourced, documented with cultural/historical awareness, and accessible for anyone to use and build upon.
The minor cross-cultural Data Visualization is about data visualisation, data-ethics and data-humanism. Students will learn how to craft data stories that reflect people’s lives and cultures. Doing so, students will become aware of what data is and ask ethical questions about data and their social impact.
Students from different countries and with different cultural and multidisciplinary backgrounds work together, exchange and discuss their culturally sensitive data, with a focus on environmental degradation and climate change. Using cultural variety as a lens to learn from differences and varied interpretations and what that means for the ethical responsibility of the data-designer.
In the workshop part of the minor (10 EC’s) students will be equipped with the skills, tools, techniques required to make engaging data visualizations and data stories from a human and cross-cultural perspective. Given the international context in which the design practice is carried out we also address more meta-topics, such as SDG’s and sustainability, cultural sensitivity, dialogue and collaboration.
In the data visualization project (20 EC’s) students will apply theory, methods, techniques of the cursory part in a cross-cultural project. During the runtime of the project they will be part of a diverse international student team. In collaboration with students with different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds, students will collect, exchange, interpret and visualize data on how climate change is affecting daily life. This can be open data from (local) governments and self-collected data that relate to the life and social environment of the students and teachers. Students are free in the way they visualise the data sets (interactive websites, animations, print posters etc.).
Through the duration of the project students will receive intensive personal and team coaching and/or e-coaching. This minor offers a hybrid / blended programme: a combination between online and face-to-face sessions and workshops. You can also attend the minor 100% online. As an exception from our other minors, exchange students can also take parts (e.g. 10 or 15 EC’s) from this Cross-cultural data visualization minor. You can find more detailed information, studentwork, inspirational resources and theoretical background on the website: http://crossculturaldatavisualization.org/
CMD is part of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). We are based in The Netherlands, in the city of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a cosmopolitan city where 175 different nationalities live and work together and where the English language is largely spoken. The city is a hotbed of education and research in all conceivable areas: culture and society, trade, logistics, aviation, shipping, ICT, sport, healthcare, education and much more. And Amsterdam is a great place to live!