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title: Motivational Letter

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# Motivational Letter

In the following personal statement I would like to portray how I came to apply to Creative Computing, what my motivations and interests are and why I think that this degree would be an ideal next step in furthering my academic career.
I am applying for this programme while finishing my Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Media at the Stuttgart Media University. I went into my first degree with some prior programming experience, as we had some introductory programming courses in high school, through which I acquired a general sense of interest for the field. The study itself turned out to be quite a rewarding experience, during which I succeeded to expand my knowledge of Computer Science immensely. The degree featured a well-balanced mix of basic theoretical courses and project-based work that gave me lots of opportunities for self-directed learning. Over the course of my studies I realized a number of projects ranging from chat bots to smartphone apps to physical installations, became more familiar with using various technologies and gained a lot of confidence in my ability to realize my ideas.
Among some of my favorite projects were for example a cooperation between our university and a local school that allowed students to teach pupils the basics of programming in Processing, and an installation we built exploring ideas of physical computing called "Paper Programs", which we were subsequently invited to present at the Mozilla Festival 2018 in London.
Outside of regular coursework I also became personally interested in many of the fascinating theoretical and historical foundations of computer science. Consequently, I tried to expand my theoretical knowledge of the field outside of the degree as much as possible, e.g. through reading papers or listening to conference talks. 
In general, my current degree was rather practical and focused a lot on the application of technologies, and I did find this practical approach to be a great way at learning to utilize said technologies. But at times I did wish that the degree provided more opportunities to step back from a lot of these practical implementations and to think more critically about the technologies on a meta level, about their theoretical foundations, or their impact on our thinking and society in general.
What I would hope to find in this Masters Degree is a space to explore ideas related to technology that have occupied me recently, such as

- generative art, and the relationship between and applications of computing in beauty, art and creativity
- the use of technology as a medium and the way it may impact human thinking and society, either positively or negatively. Among those, I found the Center for Humane Technology's critique of "human downgrading", and the work of Bret Victor to be particularly fascinating

The mixture of project based work and and critical studies, and the general focus on computation both in a technical and in a cultural sense that your programme entails would provide the ideal kind of environment that I am looking for in my Masters Degree.
I am confident that through my above-mentioned skills and interests I would be able to make a meaningful contribution as a participant of this programme.
I would be thrilled and grateful to get a chance to learn more about the opportunities you provide in a personal interview and I am very much looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Mark Kvetny
