September 14, 2017

Fall 2017 junior portfolio reviews will be held October 23 and 24. DMA juniors should fill out this web survey by October 6 and you will be contacted with scheduling information.

All DMA majors are required to undergo a portfolio review at the beginning of their third year and again prior to completing their senior project. Portfolio reviews are a normal part of any arts-based education program. The purpose of a portfolio review is to help you improve your work and realize your creative and professional goals through feedback from your professors.

Your portfolio review will:

• Help you learn how to discuss your work and understand how it fits into the historical and contemporary media arts landscape
• Allow you to receive direct feedback from your professors
• Help you make stronger work and grow as an artist
• Help guide you towards your creative & professional goals

How It Works
Reviews will last 15 minutes. You will present your work during the first 10 minutes, which will be followed by 5 minutes of questions and discussion. Your presentation must not exceed 10 minutes. After the review you will receive feedback from faculty outlining improvement areas and suggestions for resources, further research, future directions, etc.

You will need to arrive 10 minutes prior to your scheduled time-slot.

What You Will Do
You will assemble what you consider to be your best work (no more than 10 pieces). The work you choose should represent your skills, growth, and areas of interest as an artist. Then you will prepare a ten-minute presentation in which you discuss your work. Your presentation should address the following points:

• Give a brief background on your creative interests and practice
• Describe the kind of work you’re doing
• Explain the themes, issues, and ideas your work explores and why
• Explain what and/or who influences or inspires your work
• What are your greatest strengths and how will you apply them?
• What are your greatest weaknesses and how will you improve?
• What do you plan to work on in the future and how you plan to reach new goals?

Displaying Your Work
The work you choose should be displayed at the highest possible quality. For example, if you are displaying digital prints they should be high resolution (not compressed) and, if printed, they should be printed on quality paper. Same goes for video and audio files; video should be displayed in HD and audio files should be presented in a lossless format. You should try to show your work digitally if possible (i.e. via web portfolio, PowerPoint, etc.) but you can bring physical media if that’s what you have.

The reviews will be held in DRH 10. A computer, video projector, and stereo speakers will be provided. There will also be space to display prints and other physical objects. If you need special technology to display your work let DMA faculty know in advance. Multimedia installations and performances should be presented as video documentation.