The College of Arts, Media and Design in 2024
Northeastern University
Innovations in technology and design shape our world every day, and creative thinkers, leaders, and artists at Northeastern’s College of Arts, Media and Design are finding new ways to explore design and use their skills to help others. They are changing the way we interact with art for enjoyment and lifestyle, in healthcare and scientific discovery, and to preserve and share history and culture.
Your support of the College of Arts, Media and Design makes these innovations, and the freedom to innovate, possible.
Innovation at Milan Design Week
"As the preeminent event of its kind, Milan Design Week is an extraordinary hub for introducing cutting edge creative products. CAMD is thrilled to sponsor a group of talented students to attend, explore their passions, and hone their skills as design experts, entrepreneurship pioneers, and communication leaders."
- Dean Hudson
This past April, Professor of Design Paolo Ciuccarelli led twelve CAMD students to Milan Design Week (MDW), one of the most significant events in the design industry. Students explored the latest innovations and trends in furniture, lighting, and textiles at the Salone del Mobile, and broadened their interpretations of design in connected industries like fashion and the arts at the city-wide festival, Fuorisalone.
Students engaged with artists, designers, and industry experts, analyzing exhibits through multiple lenses, including accessibility and flow, brand identity, sustainability, and content-space relationship. Adeline Park, a third-year undergraduate on the trip, reflected on the formative experience:
"I learned so much from MDW and felt very refreshed and inspired afterwards. It can be hard to get new inspiration when you're always in the same place surrounded by the same people. MDW allowed me and other students to break the confines of not only the classroom but the culture that we live in. I loved being able to see designs from all over the world and create meaningful connections with the work and people.”
Spotlight: Parrots Meet Tech
A true interdisciplinarian, Assistant Professor Rebecca Kleinberger employs her background in engineering, virtual reality and computer graphics, and media arts to research animal-computer interaction. Right now, she’s designing gaming apps for parrots.
“My goal is for these insights not only to benefit the pet tech industry but also to offer valuable guidance to the wider research community, technology developers, [and] pet owners,” Kleinberger says.
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Virtual Reality in Healthcare
"When you hear College of Arts, Media and Design, tech and health innovation might not immediately come to mind; but through close partnerships such as our collaboration with Mass General Hospital, CAMD students combine their creative studio practices with pioneering breakthroughs in the fields of health and emerging technologies."
- Dean Hudson
Nathan Miner came to Northeastern looking to expand his creative studio practice through the use of interactive media while also helping people. “My ambition was also to broaden the audience for my work by using my creativity to make experiences that would be useful to people in new ways.” As a PhD student in interdisciplinary design and media, Miner took his program’s focus on practice-based research and CAMD’s emphasis on interdisciplinary uses of creative arts for health in stride.
Miner connected with doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he has found clinical applications for immersive media, including using virtual reality for rehabilitation exercises and to gamify therapeutic and mindfulness trainings.
Alongside his research fellowship, Miner is now leading the development of interactive systems at MGH’s Orthopaedic Augmentation, Surgical Innovation, and Interactive Systems (OASIIS) Lab. Exemplifying creative research and applications of design and interactive media in clinical practice and patient care, this CAMD-MGH collaboration is inspiring innovative partnerships with medical centers and industry partners across the field.
Northeastern’s Reinventing Local TV News project
kicks off a year of experimentation in redefining digital news storytelling
Spotlight: Student-Documentarians Rediscover the Beatles
During their Dialogue of Civilizations in London, five Northeastern students applied their fresh perspective to a new documentary on the Beatles – the band that kickstarted the intense musical fandom we see today. Forging connections and researching Beatles history across London, the group made “The Beatles and Beyond-A Lasting Legacy” in just five weeks. Their documentary has already gone on to win prizes at several film festivals in the United States.
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Creative Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa
"The Immersive Media Lab is our hub for Extended Reality (XR), an umbrella for Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and 360-degree video creation. Using cutting edge technologies, our students can immerse themselves in the worlds of games, storytelling and journalism and more."
- Dean Hudson
CAMD’s Immersive Media Lab is pioneering the use of cutting-edge XR technologies and fostering collaboration and innovation across disciplines. With support from the Immersive Media Lab, Assistant Professor of Architecture Killion Mokwete is spearheading a project that combines cutting-edge XR tools with community engagement to revolutionize heritage preservation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mokwete and a group of students embarked on a Dialogue of Civilizations trip to Benin this summer to digitally preserve local urban heritage. With consumer-ready tools from the Immersive Medial Lab for advanced scanning, photogrammetry, and 3D video and audio documentation, they are not only capturing the physical structures but also recording the cultural narratives and social significance of these heritage sites.
This interdisciplinary endeavor goes beyond mere preservation. By involving local communities and employing state-of-the-art technology, the project is empowering stakeholders to seek UNESCO Heritage protections. Mokwete's work exemplifies how emerging technologies can be harnessed for cultural preservation, setting new standards for digital archiving and global knowledge sharing in the field of architectural heritage.
Spotlight: Immersive Theatre
Two Northeastern faculty members are designing a first-of-its-kind bachelor's program in performance and extended reality to train the next generation of immersive storytellers. Combining the arts, cutting-edge technology, and a human-centric approach to design, this interdisciplinary program will teach students to use extended reality tools to push the boundaries of what’s possible in immersive media, theatre, and art.
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Growth and Connection at CAMD
More and more students are joining the CAMD community and are addressing our greatest challenges
through interdisciplinary learning and innovation.
16.7% Increase in Enrollment since 2019
65 Undergraduate Combined Majors at CAMD
Thank you
Your support fosters the innovative spirit that thrives at the College of Arts, Media and Design. You empower our faculty and students to pursue bold, interdisciplinary ideas that are introducing CAMD to new spaces and changing the world around us. Your generosity drives CAMD forward and keeps us at the cutting-edge of education in art, media, and design, and we are deeply grateful for your partnership.
Contact Information
Ellen Fargason Mathis
Director of Development and Individual Giving
College of Arts, Media and Design
617.373.2520
e.mathis@northeastern.edu