About the Degree Programme
In the Media Art and Design Bachelor's degree programme, students choose their specialisations from a broad selection spanning the diverse fields of media art and design. They gain practical experience, develop independent artistic projects, and reflect on these projects theoretically. How do I operate a camera? How do I tell a story through sound? What should smartphones be capable of in the future? When does a sound begin to become a composition? How does sound change the way we experience an environment? How do human and more-than-human systems interact? Throughout the programme, students work in groups and on individual projects, complete practical exercises, and test out experimental working methods. They learn technical methods and artistic approaches, as well as how to position themselves within contemporary discourses. They are supported in developing their own projects and in their work in the studios and workshops.
Film
Film
A specialisation in Film offers space for the development of independent and experimental film projects. Starting from the tradition of the auteur film, students engage with audiovisual language and its aesthetic, dramaturgical, and technical possibilities. At the centre are artistic innovation, the exploration of cinematic means and narrative forms, and a critical engagement with artificial intelligence, considered in the context of film's historical and political development.
Students develop their own cinematic concepts and implement them using analogue or digital techniques – individually or in teams, as single works or in serial forms and formats. The spectrum ranges from animation, documentary, and narrative film to hybrid narrative forms and experimental film.
A foundation in the crafts of screenwriting, directing, camera, editing, sound, and lighting supports students in implementing their own projects. The animation workshops, the film and television studio, and editing and post-production rooms are available for this purpose. External professionals from film and television add industry-specific expertise to the programme.
Interaction
Interaction
A specialisation in Interaction involves exploring the relationships between people, space, technology, and materials. Students investigate how physical and digital systems can be combined with one another through movement, light, sound, gestures, or data. The programme combines experimental artistic practice with design-focussed and socially relevant questions: How do spaces react to their users? When does technology itself become an active participant? How do interactions generate aesthetic or critical experiences?
The spectrum ranges from interactive installations, performative spaces, and light-based pieces to physical interfaces, prototyping, and experimental electronics. The focus of the programme is on artistic exploration of technology as a tool, a material, and a subject of critical reflection.
Students learn to implement their own concepts using digital and analogue methods, including sensors, microcontrollers, 3D printing, and light as an interactive medium. The programme encourages students to create new forms of communication, perception, and materiality. In addition to technical expertise and design precision, a critical engagement with technological systems, sustainability, and the social dimensions of media plays a central role.
Sound
A specialisation in Sound teaches students to develop their own artistic voices through contemporary approaches to listening, electroacoustic composition, radio art, and acoustic narration. During this process, they also explore analogue, digital, and mechanical instruments, as well as location-specific, performative, and sculptural methods. The programme combines artistic practice in professionally equipped studios with critical reflection, and its broad spectrum of approaches emphasises the multidisciplinary nature of sound.
The Sound programme is unique in Germany when it comes to its diversity and scope. Sound is explored from an interdisciplinary perspective alongside the teaching of technical skills. Examples include courses on recording techniques, acoustics, editing, mixing, playback, writing for radio, conducting interviews, sound synthesis, programming, and building acoustic sensors, instruments, and performance setups. Seminars on sound studies, radio theory, and contemporary music encourage critical engagement.
Real-Life Examples
The artistic and media practice of Media Art and Design becomes public in a wide range of formats: exhibitions, film events, TV, radio, and sound productions, concerts, interactive installations, talks, and performances.
Students and teaching staff use these forms and formats to present their work and to make artistic, technological, and social issues public. In doing so, media and performative forms themselves also become objects of artistic exploration – for instance, when a space responds to its audience, or when an intervention in public space opens up new perspectives.
Collaborations with practitioners from research, art, culture, and media, and their institutions, as well as participation in festivals, conferences, and congresses, carry the projects beyond the University and out into the world. Below are some of the events that take place on a regular basis:
Projects from the Media Art and Design programmes are regularly showcased at international events such as Ars Electronica, next_generation ZKM, the Hörspielsommer Leipzig, the Berlin Hörspielfestival, DOK Leipzig – International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, and Festival d'Animation Annecy.
Summer Reel is the Film specialisation's most important University-internal event: every year, students curate a film programme for the first weekend in July at the close of »summaery«, which is presented publicly in the city or in the Audimax.
TeleVisionale. Since relocating from Baden-Baden to Weimar, this German television festival has been a partner of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Since 2026, a regular course module has been offered in the context of the festival, called TeleVisionale – Film and Series Festival Weimar.
Regular workshops in the field of Interaction are conceived as open spaces for artistic and experimental thinking. New objects, artefacts, and installations emerge through experimentation, interaction, and collaborative making at the intersection between interplay people, material, and technology.
Regular artist talks in the field of Interaction make space for encounters, exchange, and new perspectives. International artists offer insights into their practice and invite us to explore the relationships between nature, technology, space, and perception together.
Sonic Talks: internationally renowned artists and researchers are regularly invited to Weimar to share insights into contemporary artistic practice.
Sonic Tuesdays: a recurring listening and performance series in the field of Sound. This series is open to students, staff, and guests.
Strömungen: a recurring sound festival held by all three Sound professorships at the end of each semester.
On Air: the student initiative and Experimental Radio programme bauhaus.fm broadcasts every Monday and at the end of each semester on 106.6 kHz/Radio Lotte in the Weimar area, and worldwide via stream.
Archive: Expa 2.0, a growing archive of sound and radio art comprising more than 9,000 works from over 100 years of sound art, available to students, teaching staff, and researchers at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the University of Music FRANZ LISZT.
First Semester: Determining Your Direction
The degree programme begins with an introductory semester. Specialist modules allow students to explore all fields of the Media Art and Design programme. This familiarises them with artistic and design approaches, technologies, and working methods while discovering their own initial interests.
Second to Seventh Semesters: Defining Your Identity
From this stage on, studies are primarily project-based. Students set their own areas of focus, develop artistic and design strategies, and connect these to technical and academic questions Specialist and scientific modules supplement the projects and expand students’ knowledge. Starting in the fourth semester, students can pursue their own ideas in supervised independent projects.
Fifth to Seventh Semester: Internship or Semester Abroad
In this phase, students can complete either an internship or a semester abroad. The Faculty of Art and Design has partnerships with around 75 universities worldwide. Students apply their knowledge in a professional or international environment and gain new perspectives for their work.
Eighth Semester: Bachelor's Thesis
In order to successfully complete the degree programme, students must develop and implement an independent artistic or design project. This project is accompanied by a colloquium and a specialist module. The Bachelor's thesis includes the presentation and documentation of results.
Application Process
All applications for Faculty of Art and Design degree programmes must be submitted online using the Bauhaus.CampusPortal. Registration for the aptitude test is open from 2 February to 31 March. The assignment will be announced in early April. Your application, including all required documents and the completed assignment, must be submitted by 30 April.
The Media Art and Design Bachelor’s degree programme begins in the winter semester.
Prerequisites for admission include a university entrance qualification or a comparable qualification, as well as passing the aptitude test. Details can be found in the Aptitude Test Regulations. Students with outstanding artistic talent may be exempted from the university entrance qualification requirement in exceptional cases.
The aptitude test consists of:
- Registration for the aptitude test. The assignment, along with information on deadlines and the testing process, is announced in early April.
- Submit your assignment together with your curriculum vitae (including details on your education and previous experience if applicable), your most recent high school transcript proving your university entrance qualification, your portfolio containing up to 20 examples of your own artistic and/or design work.
- Aptitude interview and presentation of your original artistic/design work (portfolio).
The programme’s Aptitude Test Commission makes their preliminary selections after reviewing the submitted assignments and work samples. Those who make it to the pre-selection stage will be invited to the next stage, which includes participating in an individual interview. Be sure to bring your original artistic/design work (portfolio) with you to the interview.
Additional details on the aptitude test can be found in the the Aptitude Test Regulations (currently only available in German). The English Reading Version can be found here (not legally binding).
After successfully passing the aptitude test, applicants have until 30 September of the current year to enrol online.
Enrolment Deadline: 30 September of the current year).
Language Requirements
Prerequisites for International Students
Please note that passing the aptitude test does not automatically grant you admission to the degree programme. Be sure to submit proof of your German proficiency with your application documents. You must meet the language requirements by the time of your enrolment at the latest.
Admission to the programme requires a C1 level of German (DSH 2 or TestDAF TDN 4). For questions regarding language proficiency, please contact the Office of Student and Academic Affairs: studium[at]uni-weimar.de.
After Graduation
The Media Art and Design programme prepares students for a career in a field where artistic practice, design, technology, and social responsibility are closely interconnected. Students are taught to confidently work with image, sound, space, time, and digital tools. They learn to think conceptually, master technology, work in groups, and conceptualise media developments.
AI tools are transforming media production, artistic processes, and digital spaces. This programme equips students not only to use these tools, but to critically evaluate and influence their results and to integrate them into their own artistic and design work.
Graduates of the Media Art and Design programme pursue careers in the following fields:
- Film production, directing, cinematography, lighting, editing, and post-production
- Animated film, documentary filmmaking, and experimental film
- Props, scenography, and production design
- Theatre and performative arts
- Sound design, sound art, radio drama, audio features, podcasts, and audio walks
- Media art, installation, and performance
- Immersive media, VR/XR, and interactive environments
- Interaction design, physical computing, and prototyping
- Creative technology and creative coding
- AI-based artistic and design practice
- Editorial work, journalism, and audiovisual media
- Festivals, exhibitions, and curatorial practice
- Cultural institutions and independent project work
- Research and teaching
- Self-employment and the creative industries
After graduation, students are qualified to pursue artistic, media, cultural, and academic career paths. Graduates work in institutions, production companies, editorial offices, studios, festivals, research positions, or as self-employed professionals. The degree programme provides the foundation for these career paths by combining artistic and design practice with technical expertise and a critical awareness of media developments.
Outstanding Facilities
The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s Media Art and Design programme provides students with access to an exceptionally diverse network of laboratories and studios. These spaces encourage exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental learning.
The Film programme offers access to the Stop-Motion Studio, the Digitale Zeichentrickstudio, and the Legetrickstudio. These are supplemented by the programme’s film production spaces and editing rooms. The Interaction programme features a comprehensive, professionally equipped laboratory which includes the Electronic Lab, Prototyping Lab, Digital Bauhaus Lab, and the 3D Print Lab. Work in the Sound programme is carried out in professionally equipped studios: the Radio Studio, the Radio Production Studio, the Sound Lab for experimental and installation-based sound projects, the Studio for Electro-Acoustic Music (SeaM) with its numerous studio spaces, and the Medienhaus television studio (Studio 1) for working in large groups with actors and choirs.
