New digital media research center makes MAGIC

RIT is creating a new university research center devoted to the burgeoning field of digital media. The Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity (MAGIC) will provide a broad range of research, development, education and entrepreneurial activities in support of the exploration of media, arts, games, social interaction and digital creativity.

The MAGIC Center will be composed of two parts: 1) A university-wide research and development laboratory; and 2) MAGIC Studios, a production studio that will assist in efforts to bring digital media creations up to marketplace standards and commercialize them.

“Digital media is changing the way we communicate, the way we learn, and even the way we think,” says RIT President Bill Destler. “Through a wide variety of mechanisms, including traditional and non-traditional research programs, artistic production and experimentation, entrepreneurial activities and corporate and governmental partnerships, the MAGIC Center will act as a collaborative home for the exploration and production of digital media by the RIT academic community.”

Digital media is content in the form of text, graphics, video and audio that can be transmitted over the Internet or computer networks.

An area for the new center to address, for example, would be the development of mobile apps.

Destler appointed Professor Andrew Phelps to be the founding director of the new initiative.

Phelps previously founded and led RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. He also is the originator of the game design and development programs at the university.

“Our vision is for the MAGIC Center to lead higher education in the exploration, experimentation, artistic practice and deployment of interactive and social media,” Phelps says.

For details, go to magic.rit.edu.