This show, which will aggregate four collective pieces and more than a dozen individual projects of generative art, has as its main objective to show the final works produced by students of this Master's degree of the Department of Communication Sciences of the University of Minho. Daniel Brandão, course director, says that this is "an important moment of the course's journey because it takes the students' production to the city center, serving as a stimulus to their academic paths and is a reason of pride for us".

The exhibition, which will be open until June 23rd and has free admission, is an initiative of the University of Minho, with the collaboration of the Institute of Social Sciences, the School of Engineering and the School of Architecture, Art and Design, and with the support of Braga Media Arts and gnration.

Aware of the sociocultural and geographical context of the region and the country, the University of Minho launched this new master's degree in the academic year 2021/2022, aiming to strengthen the centrality of the University of Minho in the cultural and creative plan of the city of Braga, the only one in the country and in the Iberian Peninsula to integrate the network of UNESCO creative cities in the area of Media Arts. The 2nd phase of applications runs from July 3 to July 10. The 3rd phase will take place from September 5th to 8th.

The Master in Media Arts provides advanced training in the intersection between art, communication and digital technology, through a study plan with a strong laboratorial and project nature. The course seeks a compromise between theory, experimental practice and critical thinking, in a constant interaction between knowing-reflecting and knowing-doing.

The Master in Media Arts also benefits from a close relationship with the activity of Braga Media Arts and gnration, a space for creation, performance, and exhibition in the field of contemporary music and the relationship between art and technology. Throughout the last year, the master's students participated in different workshops, masterclasses and conversations promoted by Braga Media Arts and had contact with artists present in the cultural program of the gnration. This connection, protocoled between the municipal culture company Teatro Circo de Braga EM SA, Minho University, and Braga City Council, provides integration and interaction of excellence, creating dynamics with the cultural programming and artistic residency program of these entities, giving it unique characteristics at a national level.

In 2021, its debut year, and in 2022, the Master in Media Arts filled all the available places, exceeding the expectations predicted by the direction of the course at the University of Minho. "These results are a clear sign of the quality of the study plan and the distinctive character of the proposal that we present with this master's degree", Daniel Brandão. For the teacher, this result "is an enormous encouragement for us, reflective of the dynamics of this innovative partnership between the University of Minho, Braga Media Arts and gnration".

This cycle of studies is essentially aimed at graduates, with or without professional and/or artistic experience, in the areas of Visual Arts, Plastic Arts, Performing Arts, Music, Multimedia, Audiovisual, Design, and Communication Sciences, as well as in other areas who wish to deepen their knowledge. The Master in Media Arts results from a solid interdisciplinary articulation and collaboration between the Department of Communication Science of the Institute of Social Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the School of Architecture.

Media Arts result from the intersection between art, science, innovation, and technology, and its distinct manifestations include digital art, sound art, virtual and augmented reality, web art, video games, robotics, digital photography or cinema.

Since 2017, when the title of UNESCO Creative City for Media Arts was awarded, Braga is one of the member cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). Launched in 2004, the network aims to enhance cooperation with and among cities that recognize creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable economic, social, cultural, and environmental development.

With more than 300 member cities in the network, these cities have a mission to place creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level, while actively cooperating at the international level.