MFA Film and Digital Media Arts 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'generative art' in digital media practice?
- Art that is created collaboratively by multiple artists
- Art produced fully or in part through an autonomous system — such as an algorithm, AI, or rule-based process — that makes decisions independently (Correct answer)
- A style of digital illustration inspired by organic growth patterns
- Art that generates revenue through digital sales platforms
Correct answer: Art produced fully or in part through an autonomous system — such as an algorithm, AI, or rule-based process — that makes decisions independently
Generative art uses a system — algorithm, computer program, or rule set — that operates with some autonomy to produce or contribute to a final artwork.
Question 2: What is the 'auteur theory' in film criticism?
- The theory that films are collaboratively authored and no single person is responsible for their vision
- The view that a film's director is its primary creative author, expressing a consistent personal vision across their body of work (Correct answer)
- A theory that the screenwriter is the most important contributor to a film
- A French legal framework protecting film copyright
Correct answer: The view that a film's director is its primary creative author, expressing a consistent personal vision across their body of work
Auteur theory, popularized by French critics in Cahiers du Cinéma, identifies the director as the film's primary author whose personal style and themes recur across different projects.
Question 3: In animation, what is the 'twelve principles of animation' most associated with?
- The twelve color values used in digital animation software
- Fundamental techniques developed by Disney animators to create convincing, expressive character movement (Correct answer)
- The twelve frame-per-second standard for hand-drawn animation
- A copyright framework for animated intellectual property
Correct answer: Fundamental techniques developed by Disney animators to create convincing, expressive character movement
The Twelve Principles, codified by Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, describe techniques like squash-and-stretch, anticipation, and follow-through that create believable movement.
Question 4: What is 'color grading' in post-production?
- The process of color-correcting photographs before printing
- The process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, adjusting exposure, contrast, and color balance to achieve a specific look or mood (Correct answer)
- Ranking color palettes used in production design
- A method of digitally removing color from black-and-white footage
Correct answer: The process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, adjusting exposure, contrast, and color balance to achieve a specific look or mood
Color grading is a post-production process where colorists manipulate hue, saturation, contrast, and exposure across a film to create a unified visual tone and emotional mood.
Question 5: What is 'net art' (or internet art) as an artistic practice?
- Art sold exclusively through online marketplaces
- Art created for and native to the internet, using the browser, network, or online communities as medium and context (Correct answer)
- Digital paintings of fishing nets and nautical themes
- Art documented and distributed online but created in physical media
Correct answer: Art created for and native to the internet, using the browser, network, or online communities as medium and context
Net art is artwork that exists online, is experienced through web browsers, and often engages with the internet's specific properties — hyperlinks, participation, data flows, or network culture.
Question 6: What is 'projection mapping' as a contemporary digital art technique?
- Using GPS coordinates to create site-specific digital artworks
- Projecting video or imagery precisely aligned onto three-dimensional surfaces or architecture to create illusions of movement or transformation (Correct answer)
- Mapping the emotional arc of a film during the editing process
- A technique for aligning multiple projectors in a cinema
Correct answer: Projecting video or imagery precisely aligned onto three-dimensional surfaces or architecture to create illusions of movement or transformation
Projection mapping (video mapping) uses software to warp and align projected imagery onto irregular three-dimensional surfaces, making buildings or objects appear to move, transform, or come alive.
MFA Film and Digital Media Arts 2
What is 'generative art' in digital media practice?