Computational Media Portfolio Instructions

Please submit a link to a sample of work that represents both the breadth and depth of your abilities in the three core areas of computational media: technical, creative, and interpretive.

If you are submitting links to a public site (rather than a site or shared directory created specifically for application purposes) please direct reviewers to the key elements of your work that you wish to have considered.

Please focus your submission in the area(s) of focus proposed in your statement of purpose (e.g., if you plan to work in generative methods, game design, or human-computer interaction, please do your best to submit a portfolio that showcases your related strengths). Some guidelines follow:

• Technical: If technical work is a focus, please describe 2-3 technical systems you have built (with preference for computational media systems) in your portfolio.

  • Where possible and appropriate, please include images, videos, live opportunities for interaction, and/or links to download. If you have written papers (or posters, or other presentations) of the work, please include links to them.

  • If technical work is not a focus, but you have technical experience, please provide a brief sample of work illustrating this.

• Creative: If creative work is a focus, please describe 2-3 creative projects you have developed (with preference for computational media projects) in your portfolio. (These may be the same as the technical systems in your portfolio, if appropriate.)

  • If the work is visual, please include still images and/or video. If the work is language-oriented, please include script excerpts, interaction transcripts, or other textual material.

  • If the work is auditory, please include sound files. If the work is interactive, please provide opportunities for interaction (if possible) and documentation of interactions.

  • If creative work is not a focus, but you have creative experience, please provide a brief sample of work illustrating this.

• Interpretive: If interpretive work is a focus, please describe 2-3 interpretive projects you have developed (with preference for computational media projects) in your portfolio. (These may be the same as the technical and/or creative works in your portfolio, if appropriate.)

  • For work that is interpretive in a primarily humanistic and/or social scientific vein (e.g., software studies, user research) please provide 2-3 writing samples, illustrating the intellectual and writing approach(es) upon which you plan to build in the graduate program.

  • If the work has an important technical component (e.g., datamining playtraces) please also provide materials as you would for a technical system.

  • If the work has an important creative component (e.g., genre analysis in service of an interactive narrative) please also provide materials as you would for a creative project.

  • If interpretive work is not a focus, but you have interpretation experience, please provide a brief sample of work illustrating this.

If work included in your portfolio is collaborative, please describe your contributions to each collaboration. 

If you wish to provide different links for different aspects of your portfolio, please use this space to provide a link to a “table of contents” document, which provides links to the other elements.