Scenographic Design and Communication (M.A.)

• How to design museum and exhibition rooms across different media?
• How to create narrative qualities in film, theater and stage spaces?
• What potential does the scenographic design of public spaces offer with regard to shaping social developments?
• What scenographic communication strategies are relevant for the future?

Scenographic design is communication design

The project-based study program Scenographic Design and Communication focuses its commitment on theater and stage spaces, museum and exhibition spaces media and hypermedia spaces, on public spaces of commercial and institutional communication, on temporary spaces and design areas of brand staging and corporate communication. The graduates of the Master’s program know how to combine subject-specific and interdisciplinary interests, theoretical knowledge and artistic intuition, performative and moderating competence with management and organization skills. They are aware of their artistic and creative as well as of their social responsibility and thus ensure the effectiveness of planning and im-plementation. The Master’s program Scenographic Design and Communication has an international focus. Practical project work during studies is designed to promote international exchange and to contribute to the establishment of a worldwide network for Scenographic Design.

Bilingual study program in German and English

Applicants opt for a prevailing program language as early as when they enroll and have to provide proof of the required language skills according to their favored program language. Changing between program languages is possible on request and if the corresponding requirements are met. To ensure that international students who did not obtain their university entrance qualification or their graduate degree at a German-speaking institution acquire a sufficient proficiency of German during the course of their studies with English as the prevailing program language, they will have to provide proof of these skills by the time they register for the Master’s thesis.

Content and structure

The duration of the Master’s program Scenographic Design and Communication is three semesters. At least 90 credit points according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) must be obtained. The degree program is offered in two prevailing program languages, German and English. Even if a prevailing program language is chosen, both languages may be used in courses. The contents of the respective courses are identical, regardless of the prevailing program language. Examinations are offered both in German and in English for both prevailing program languages. In consultation with the examiner, the candidate will decide for each examination in which language it will be taken.

The Master’s program Scenographic Design and Communication is offered as a project-based program, in particular in its design components. The required technical and academic contents of the program in lectures, seminars, and courses (tutorials) will be allocated to projects. The project-based organization of the program is designed to introduce students to the professional activities of scenographic designers through concrete, practice-oriented tasks and practical involvement in real-time projects. Students also learn to apply skills and abilities obtained in their studies under the conditions of a specific task and to test and reflect them in a real professional environment while still studying.

The entire program is organized in modules. Modules are subdivided into several courses coordinated with regard to contents and times and defining the context of the module and the skills to be acquired. The course offerings per module comprise a total of six to a maximum of ten weekly hours per semester and usually span one semester, in exceptional cases two semesters. The modules of the Master’s program Scenographic Design and Communication teach the required skills of future scenographic designers as part of a continuous project-based program.

During the program, students learn:

• research and survey techniques and methods
• experimental investigation and design of scenographic fields of work
• scenographic concept development for the design of rooms, environment and public spaces and for staging – with dramaturgy and narrative structures
• presentation and moderation techniques/skills – with a view to the master plan
• project implementation of a scenographic design project, including management, organization, communication, marketing
• the academic module, related to theater, literature and text, art, architecture and environments, forms of expression and media, public spaces, culture, economy and society in theory and practice, history and present
• project communication – in all relevant media, design and contents
• to complete a Master’s project with a thesis, presentation and a colloqium

The final module related to the Master’s thesis comprises a range of courses mainly dedicated to the first part of the Master’s degree examination, i.e. dealing with the Master’s project and the associated thesis. These courses address aspects of production, directing, design, organization, moderating. The module includes the discussion of concept-related, dramaturgic, production-oriented and technical questions arising from the students’ Master’s projects and focuses on different issues as required: theoretical and conceptual questions, structural narrative or dramaturgic problems, issues relating to the aesthetics and the design of spaces, individual methods, technologies and techniques.

A Master of Arts degree, enables you to work in the fields of media-related interior design and spatial media design

After successfully completing the program, you will be awarded the degree Master of Arts (M.A.)

there is freedom to experiment with individual projects, as well as interdisciplinary teamwork on specific implementations of budgeted third-party funded projects in collaboration with external partners. Academic modules accompany and reflect the program up to the Master's project stage.

• exhibition
• museum
• art for public spaces
• stage

Please note:
The module handbook and the faculty site are only available in German at the moment. Please visit the German website for more details.

A person...

• who enjoys experimenting and interdisciplinarity
• who is interested in numerous tasks and likes exploring artistic design regardless of the chosen media
• who wants to improve their understanding of design, planning, and implementation processes, individually and in teams

Graduates work employed or self-employed as consultant or (project) manager, e.g. in that area

• art direction and communication design
• direction, dramaturgy, management and moderation task
• the economy, in cultural and scientific institutions and with public clients
• exhibition design as an exhibition organizer, manager or curator
• museum, trade fair and expo design as an event or expo designer, producer as well as museum director
• film and media industry, theater and stage design as dramaturge, equipment or set designer
• virtual interior design
• New Media as project manager
• art in public space
• interior and shop design
• scenographer the field of education

The Master's degree is the basis for a doctorate. Graduates who wish to acquire further academic qualifications have the opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree at a university through a cooperative doctorate in which Fachhochschule Dortmund – University of Applied Sciences and Arts cooperates with a university.

1. The work samples of the portfolio or the documented academic research or the academic results meeting the requirements for the program are rated by an elected committee in accordance with the following aspects:
   • conceptual skills,
   • artistic and design creativity,
   • competence in providing creative design solutions, and
   • organizational and moderating skills or academic consistency.
2. Based on the aspects stated in section 1, the committee writes an assessment of the first stage of the procedure and decides on the admission to the second stage of the procedure. The applicants not admitted to the second stage of the procedure will be informed promptly of their rejection for the further procedure.
   Aptitude assessment stage 2 (colloquium, by invitation)

1. In the second stage of the procedure, the committee will invite the applicant for a colloquium taking place within four weeks after admission to the second stage of the procedure to verify and explore the impressions gained until then. In the colloquium, applicants will be expected to provide a description of a scenographic Master's project of no longer than five minutes.
2. The aptitude assessment in accordance with the requirements stated above will be awarded with an overall average grade of 4.0 or better.
3. Any material submitted will be available for collection from the Faculty of Design for one month after completion of the aptitude assessment procedure. After the end of the period, this material will be destroyed in compliance with data privacy regulations.