ARTS4001: Creative Attention

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Must have studied art practice at A'level equivalent, and submit portfolio of 20 images of their own practical art works to be admitted

ARTS4003: Art Histories and Contexts

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

ARTS5001: Creative Transformations

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Must have studied art practice at level 4, and submit portfolio of 20 images of their own practical art works to be admitted

ARTS5002: Expanded Art Practices

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas or Full Year
• US Credits: Full Year: 15 Michaelmas: 7.5
• ECTS Credits: Full Year: 30 Michaelmas: 15
• Pre-requisites: Must submit portfolio of 20 images of their own practical art works to be admitted

ARTS5003: Art Theories and Contexts

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Must have prior study in art or art history

FASS4001: The Arts and Identity (Discovery module)

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas  
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10  
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Build a sense of community for Level 4 students within the School of Arts.
• Create safe spaces to learn how to be a student, while experimenting with discipline-appropriate skill-development.
• Foster a variety of learning styles, including independent study and collaborative endeavour.
• Enable students to make links between distinctive art forms and disciplines (Creative Writing; English Literature; Design; Fine Art; Media and Film; Theatre Studies) and to address the ways in which the arts contribute to shared and individual practices of identity.
• Encourage students to develop their own voice and critical perspectives whilst learning and listening to others.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate self-awareness around and sensitivity to how their skills and experiences exist in the context of disciplinary, cultural, and professional diversity
2. Describe and identify a variety of art forms and address how these forms relate to different communities and ideologies.
3. Articulate their own perspective on the relationship between identity-formation and the arts and how your own perspective differs from that of others.
4. Collate their own informed perspectives on the relationship between art, individual expression and community.
5. Use academic scholarship appropriately, including accurate citations and bibliographies.

Outline Syllabus

What are the arts and how do they connect with identity? This module will bring together the discrete disciplines that constitute the School of Arts to address this and other related questions. Is the concept of ‘the arts’ elitist and does it perpetuate colonial ideas? By contrast, why are artists so often associated with forms of dissent and challenges to convention? Students will encounter different examples of individual art forms (including, for example, painting, theatre, fiction, design and film) to explore the ways in which art can be used to both include and exclude, to liberate and to limit. The textual focus will emphasise twentieth and twenty-first century works of art in relation to key concepts associated with identity and belonging, giving focus to the development of an understanding of voice as integral to the arts Concepts might include memory, decolonisation, intersectional identities and voice. Two examples might be as follows: a week focusing on Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000) would consider the relationship between memory, narration and identity; on another week students might be asked to consider questions of decolonisation via extracts from Akala’s hybrid memoir-political critique, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (2019). The module will encourage students both to develop their own voices and to collaborate with their peers (via assessed projects).

Assessment Proportions

The module will be taught via weekly lectures which will introduce key concepts. These lectures will be followed by two-hour workshops in which students will discuss these concepts and texts through group exercises. These teaching sessions will guide students through a range of perspectives, enabling them to develop their own ideas and voice.

The module will include two assessments. The first is a critical reflection on one of the core concepts or core texts. This assessment involves reflection on different art forms and ideologies and helps students to articulate the difference between their own perspective and that of others. It will encourage students to reflect on their own voice. This piece of critical writing must use academic sources, citations and bibliography. Formative feedback on this assessment can be applied to the second assessment.

The second assessment is a collaborative piece that discusses one of the other core texts. This assessment aims to develop students’ skills including teamwork, presentation, project development and creativity. Students will work in teams to produce one of the following pieces:

• Podcast
• Video essay
• Photo essay
• Lookbook
• Zines
• Recorded presentation
• Flyer
• Poster

Students will work in teams of 3-4 which will be determined early in the module. These autonomous learning groups will work together throughout the module (for example, in preparing non-assessed tasks or exercises for each workshop). The exact format must be agreed with the workshop leader.

Formative feedback is provided through peer review, workshop tasks, and tutor input. Rubrics are introduced early to promote clarity and facilitate achievement. The module lays the foundation for academic progression and helps students develop their own voice within wider discussions.

FASS6006: Artistic Fusions (Discovery module)

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to

• Introduce students to the ways in which different art forms (e.g. novel, film, painting, manifesto) fuse, or mix, with each other.
• Develop students’ knowledge and understanding of both the historical and cultural contexts that surround works of artistic fusion and the various insights that can be brought to bear on works of artistic fusion by different disciplines.
• Develop students’ skills of critical analysis, background research, and oral and written expression.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to...

1. Critically appraise how diverse individual and collaborative learning experiences have shaped your personal development and could be relevant for diverse audiences
2. Critically reflect on some of the ways in which different artistic forms fuse or mix with each other
3. Understand and interrogate the historical and cultural contexts that surround works of artistic fusion
4. Identify, compare, and critically appraise the insights of different disciplines in the engagement with works of artistic fusion.
5. Engage with a plurality of diverse voices and sources of knowledge.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores a series of works of art drawn from different periods and continents which fuse radically different forms of art and thinking. We will explore works of art where, for example, film meets poetry, history meets philosophy, song meets narrative, fine art meets sociology, religion meets novel, theatre meets politics.

Indicative works:

• de Camoes, The Lusiads (poetry and history)
• Holbein, The Ambassadors (fine art and theology)
• Nightingale, Cassandra (essay and memoir)
• Orwell, Journey to Wigan Pier (novel and sociology)
• Weil, Gravity and Grace (philosophy and theology)
• Achebe, Things Fall Apart (novel and history)
• Dylan, Blonde on Blonde (song and narrative)
• King, Why we can't wait (politics and letter)
• Kushner, Angels in America (play and politics)
• Coogler, Sinners (film and history)

We will be asking: what happens when radically different forms of art meet? In particular, we will be asking: What happens to form? What happens to an audience? What happens to thought? What happens politically? And what happens to our understanding of our place in the world?

Assessment Proportions

This module will be taught via 2-hour weekly workshops. Each workshop will, typically, focus on one work of art. It will provide historical, cultural and critical contexts to the work in question, explore key related concepts and issues, and cue up key questions that will be then explored through guided discussion and/or workshop activity.

Students will be encouraged to articulate their own responses to the work of art under investigation, to draw on their ‘home’ discipline, engage with perspectives from other disciplines, and to respond constructively to their peers.

In terms of assessment, students will be required to engage with two or more of the works of art being studied and will be free to do so critically, creatively, visually, philosophically, performatively, historically, sociologically, theologically, or politically.

Assessment will take the form of a Reflective Portfolio, incorporating two parts, one formative and one summative. The formative piece will take the form of a proposal or pitch for the summative work. This formative piece will provide an opportunity for formative feedback.

All assessment on this module will be individual. Students will, however, be required to work with each other, and learn from each other, through seminar discussion and/or workshop activity.