About Medici University

MU is Student-driven

Medici University is a student-driven, non-accredited, graduate arts university. There are no fees of any kind. We empower you to write your own curriculum, take charge of your own learning, and achieve advanced qualifications debt-free.

Guiding Principles

• No Requirements – At Medici University your program never comes down from above like tablets off a mountain. At MU the student is the ultimate judge of what their graduate program will and will not include. It’s not about our vision, it’s about helping you realize your vision.
• No Hoops – Some people prefer the technical term “bullshit.” Whatever you call it, bureaucratic organizations tend to spend a lot of time telling you what to go do with your graduate experience. At Medici University we’re here to get out of the way. We’re here to empower you to create an alternative, deeply personalized program that gives your real and valuable experience on the way to the life you want to live.
• No Debt – Brick & mortar Universities saddle you with about USD 30,000 of debt / year of grad school. Sprawling campuses are expensive. Security. Landscaping. Faculty. Staff. At Medici University we eliminate almost all of it. We don’t charge fees because we don’t provide a behemoth infrastructure that you don’t need. Our job is to get out of your way, and keep you out of debt.

MU Initiatives

• College of Avatar Architecture & Virtual Urban Planning (CAA-VUP)
• Practice Based Research in the Arts

MU Publications

• MOOC Magazine
• MU Creativity

MU Institutional Units

• Cafe Sophistry
• Gallery Xue

Practice Based Research in the Arts

Practice Based.Re/search in the Arts (“PBR” for short) originated in October 2013 as a group of colleagues in 2 MOOCs:

• Creating Site-Specific Dance and Performance Works
• Practice Based Research in the Arts

The 1st 7 members, aka Team Blueberry Blintz: Christa Forster, Katrina Schaag, Michael Masucci, Misha Penton, Molly Ross, Rebecca Longworth and Vanessa Blaylock, were quickly joined by other teammates from both MOOCs.

After the completion of these 2 inspiring MOOCs’ 5 and 10 week sessions, we expanded the conversation here to include other artists interested in engaging in discussions of their artistic practice. The 1st year was led by Vanessa Blaylock. The 2nd year was led by Christa Forster.

You can find all PBR Posts here:

• department/pbr

For posts within individual PBR Programs, scroll to the bottom of this page for a complete listing of links for all MU Departments & Programs.

MOOC Magazine

Editors: Edie Sedgwick & Isabella Medici

Destroyed my people are
Destroyed for lack of knowledge

— Gordon Gano

Isabella was born in Florence in 1542; Edie was born in Santa Barbara 401 years later in 1943. We were both born rich. Privileged. Even so, as for so many others across time and place, life was not always kind to us.

We’ve come to believe that the most empowering thing is knowledge. Knowledge feeds people. Knowledge brings better lives. Knowledge brings equality. What you might call evil, we call ignorance.

We’ve teamed up to create the MU Publication MOOC Magazine. MOOC Magazine is a place to share ideas and projects. A place to share the text, video, performance and other works created in MOOC experiences.

You can find the content of our Warhol MOOC issue here:

• department/warhol

Creatively Yours,

Isabella Medici, Baroncelli Villa, Florence
Edie Sedgwick, Corral de Quati, Santa Barbara
Editors

MU Creativity

MU/Creativity is the journal of people and activities at Medici University.

Staff

• Editor: Art Uloja
• Contributors: Isabella Medici, Myra Wildmist, Neeva Torok, Ryan Medici, Veyot

For the complete content of MU Creativity, use this link:

• department/mu-creativity

For specific topics, scroll to the bottom of this page for a complete listing of links for all MU content.

Terms of Use

Medici University’s goal is to be an open courseware university. We intend for our course materials to be your materials. For anyone to be able to use, adapt, and share any MU course materials.

However, as the number of authors here has grown, and as the range of materials has grown to include not only courseware, but also individual creative works such as narrative stories, photographic and video works, and so on, we’ve settled on a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license as a nice compromise affording both flexibility for visitors interested in our work, and also preserving some rights for the individual authors. Each author retains, manages, and controls the copyright to their own work. Any author may choose a different license for their work simply by stating it with their post. When possible, it’s always best to contact the specific author whose work you are interested in working with. If that’s not possible, consult Medici University Faculty Senate President, Vanessa Blaylock: vanessa@blaylock.nl.

Medici University by

Adelia Ong, Alan Mansfield, Amber Grantham, Americo Neves, Art Uloja, Astrid Rimbaud, Bryn Michaels, Carla Toledo Dauden, Carron Riach, Christa Forster, Christopher Longoria, Ciara Finnegan, Danica Karaicic, Dennis Jones, Edie Sedgwick, Fanny Vermont, Feels Empty, Gary Needham, Hanna Lee, Hugh McElveen, Ian Hazard, Isabella Medici, Jacque Donaldson, Jade Ravenheart, Jennifer Walk, Kate Johnson, Katrina Schaag, Keli Kyrie, Linda Shuttleworth, Meg O’Ryan, Megan Steinman, Michael Masucci, Mirae Rosner, Muse, Myra Wildmist, Neeva Torok, Niall McCormack, NSANE Darkfold, Nuriya Sagiyeva, Oona Nostra, Oscar Devent, Paul Beaudoin, Paulina Lara, Paypabak Writer, Pearl Grey, Rafaela Lima, Rebecca Longworth, Rebecca Louise Collins, Rebecca Narum, rmarie Beedit, Ryan Medici, Sarah Elgart, Sarah Campbell, Sweta Lai, Tamiko Thiel, Vanessa Blaylock, Veyot, Xue Faith, Zsophia Innovia, et al

is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://blaylock.nl/.

Non Profit

Medici University & its various units are non-profit and no-fee organizations. We have not, do not, and will not, receive any sort of financial gain from the work of any contributing author. Medici University’s policy is to never charge anybody for anything.

Privacy

If you leave a comment, we will not publish your email address. If you subscribe your email will never be sold or traded or used for marketing in any way, it will only be used to send you occasional updates.

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