2015年，因应艺术教育的趋势，中国美术学院(CAA)下的跨媒体艺术学院（SIMA）重组为三个系五个研究所，朝跨领域與跨学科迈出。三个系以教學为基础，兼具新艺术（实验艺术系），跨艺术（媒介展览系）与后艺术（开放媒体系），五个研究所则以教授专业连动国内外学术研究创新思潮。网络社会研究乃由此新生，由国际教学队伍组成，目的是以“互联网＋”时代的社会变革、社会互动和社会控制为思考背景，推动互联网环境、虚拟现实、网络生态、数字人文和数码客体，游戏科幻，未来媒体/艺术等方面的研究与创作。
强调网络（network）而非网路（internet），是因为我们更關注與资讯技术連動之社会文化变革，通过掌握流动空间（space of flows）和实质空间的互饋生产，探究因之重组的新社会关系，产业技术，情感认同与媒介表现。研究所采用项目驱动（project-based）學習方式，通过国际会议与工作坊，理论实验室弹性联合进行教学讨论，关注技术哲学，媒体理论，数位研究，网络社会学，社会创新等领域的理论与技术发展，逐步形成「由未来想像推定今日实践」的关键议题，推进中国未来十年在信息文化与当代艺术、社会思潮、全球行动的研究高峰。以四个方向推动发展：
流动空间基础化
设「教学研究中心」，负责统合教学课程和主办黑客松（hackathon），国际讲座与研讨会工作，导入全球创新社群/成果，结合当地艺术家、黑客、创客、文化行动者、实验室、写作社群，以及中国当地科技公司知识社群，是在地化的国际连结。建立创新氛围（milieu of innovation），让虚拟空间与实体空间的交遇，全球网络文化与自我（在地）冲撞，激发合能效果（synergistic）。藉此推动中国资讯文化与科技叙事的研究与创作能力，培养资讯媒体与当代艺术策展创作人才，介入网络文化生产。
连结流动空间
邀请国际教授与艺术家主持「理论实验室」，建立全球资讯文化研究网络聯盟，与国外研究中心，实验室进行研究方案合作与交换计画，带领学生发展研究，策展与创作能力，成为研发主体。透过每年举办之网络社会年会，积极整合当代数位文化和社会关系之研究。
再媒体化艺术教育
艺术教育依靠经验与身体感，容易成为网络与信息社会的脱落环节（switched-off），与媒体化过程中弱势与断裂（discontinuous）。我们需重新创造艺术教育过程，开艺术线上教育之先，以中国美院全体学院为目标，建设分为经典课程（艺术导论课），经典讲座（美院著名课程或展覽），先锋讲座（国际知名学者访问）等之线上课程，推广至全球磨课（MOOCS）联盟上，同时建立本地端的艺术教育网络，将中国美院名师名课推广至全球。并协助推动国美前沿计画的国际影响力，吸引来自世界各地对中国当代艺术热爱人士，皆能从双语，丰富的录像与资料中学习。
知识本身的知识行动
将知识生产过程与累积作为知识再生产的核心。除了跨媒體學院師生作品，策划展览与出版外，也包含亚际书院计画、诸众之貌，理学研究，新美术學術期刊，美院相關学报的资料库与推广，並组织线上出版，累积研究能量，以wiki和共筆的方式建立開放資料庫，其能成為中國藝術的入口（Art domain of China）。亦即，這是關於知識本身的知識行動。
In the year 2015, School of Inter- Media Art (SIMA) of China Academy of Art (CAA) reformed into three departments and five institutes. These three departments, based on teaching, include New Art (Experimental Art Department), Inter Art (Media Scenography Department) as well as Post Art (Open Media Department) . The Institute of Network Society (INS) comes into being and is comprised of an international team, aiming at pushing forward the research and practice in the virtual reality, network ecology, digital humanities, sci-fi games as well as future media/art under “Internet + ” milieu.
The word “network” rather than “Internet” is being stress is that INS focuses more on the socio-cultural reformation triggered by information technology. INS employs a project-based learning, which combines international conferences, workshops with theory labs in a flexible way to participate in the teaching. In this way, a key issue of “Practices Today through Envisioning the Future” will form progressively base which will drive China on a research peak into network culture, contemporary art, social thoughts and global actions in the next ten years.
Grassrooting of space of flows
“Centre on Research and Teaching” will be established in order to help local artists, hackers, makers, cultural activists, laboratories, writing communities and scientific and technological companies in China connect to international trends. INS is able to establish “milieu of innovation”, making it possible for the virtual space to meet physical space, international networks to meet local identities, and finally get a synergistic effect.
Connect Space of flows
International professors and artists will be invited to host the “Theory Labs” in order to establish a network union of global information culture research. It can collaborate with foreign research centers and exchange programs so that students can develop their abilities of researching, curating, creating and finally become the main forces in the future. INS will held conferences yearly to better look into the contemporary digital culture as well as social changes.
Switch-on Art Education
rt education relies mainly on experience and personal somatosenses, which is why it can be easily switched-off from the networked society and be discontinuous of mediaization. Being the pioneer of online art education and with a target of all disciplines in CAA, we need to recreate the art education procedures, or more specifically, set up the frame of online courses, and put it on internationally famous MOOCS platforms so that courses can be reached all over the world. It can also help increasing the appeal of the program “Frontier of China Academy of Art” overseas since whoever is interested in Chinese traditional and contemporary art can learn from these curriculum in both Chinese and English.
Action of knowledge upon knowledge
We consider the core of the knowledge reproduction to be the process of creation and accumulation. Apart from the art works, exhibitions and publications around CAA, a wiki-like database included “Inter-Asia School” , “Multitude.asia” and open online publications will be accomplish to the Art Domain of China. This is the action of knowledge upon knowledge.