Fine Art and Design (Study Abroad)

This module explores how an understanding of materials and technology informs and influences the development of design artefacts. It considers how construction methods and associated technologies constrain and support the development artefacts, both physical and digital in nature.

This themed design studio module is taught though a series of design exercises in which you will have the opportunity to develop and apply practical design skills in design interactions.

It aims to supplement theoretical courses in design interactions and design thinking by considering how a specific design problem may be explored through a particular lens and/or given constraints. The module develops practical making skills with a range of different materials through experimentation and the development of design responses to particular problems.

This module focuses on people as both the recipients and potential creators of design interactions. It applies methods and tools to gain insight, meaning and understanding of the diversity of user groups (the individual, community, young, old, etc.) that may be both designed for and with. This themed design studio module is taught though a series of design exercises in which students will develop and apply practical design skills in design interactions. It develops practical skills in design interactions and enables students to explore user experience and artefact meaning through the development of design responses

This module develops your knowledge and skills in fine art thinking and making. The module prepares and encourages you to direct your own research and to develop a self-reliant and independent approach to studio practice. You will work in your own dedicated studio space with 24/7 access. You will be supported by specialist tutors who are practicing artists. You will belong to a tutor group led by dedicated tutors with expertise in your area of practice. To support your creative development you will engage in one-to-one tutorials, group tutorials, technical workshops, and peer-feedback. You will also be encouraged to visit exhibitions and attend our visiting artist programme of talks.

This practical fine art focused module will introduce the skills and sensitivities needed to work outside the studio through interactions with people, places, and technologies. The module introduces you to the way that current fine art practitioners employ a wide range of strategies for such interaction. You will work through practical projects and critical reflection. The course will begin with an art historical grounding for this area of practice. You will then experiment and test out new ways of working in a variety of locations and situations such as: in the rural or urban landscape, in the virtual online world, or in a social space such as a cafe. We will explore a range of processes such as conversation, performance, video, movement and digital interaction.

Throughout the module you will build a range of skills and knowledge of technologies, for example: practical considerations in working ‘off-site’ (responding to and researching a place, collaborating with the public, gaining permission to work in specific sites); digital tools for working with networks and strategies and sensitivities for working with people (ethics, interviews, collaborations etc).

This module provides a theoretical foundation for design interactions. In particular this module introduces a general framework for designing interactions between people, products and places. It explores design interaction by posing three questions: How do you do? How do you feel? How do you know? The module gives you the opportunity to gain a broad historical and theoretical understanding of design interactions.

This module aims to provide students with an overview of the knowledge and expertise design management brings to organisations and prepare them to work successfully with designers on strategic design issues. Through the lectures and seminars you have the opportunity to l develop an appreciation of the contribution of design management for strategy, product development, customer relationships and internal problem-solving.

This module gives you the opportunity to explore the ways in which designers use visualisation and visual thinking in design projects to develop ideas, explore possible interventions and communicate possible futures. The module introduces students to a range of tools for creating visualisations, challenging participants to put these tools to work in exploring a range of contemporary design issues.

This module will enable you to develop a range of graphic skills with the opportunity to approach and represent ideas, issues and experiences in a documentary manner. The module is designed to be relevant to creative practice in Fine Art, Theatre, Film and Design. You will have the opportunity to expand your knowledge and experience of observational and on-site drawing, and develop their learning and experience by engaging in further technical training and by introduction to drawing beyond the studio and 'in the field'. On completion of this module our aim is for you to have significantly developed their knowledge and awareness of drawing and the ability to engage in independent study and develop a substantial personal project for assessment.

The module provides training and experience in visual communication through painting in the broadest sense. Our aim is to provide students with an understanding of painting as an ‘expanded’ and interdisciplinary art form. Weekly workshops will introduce you to the scope of contemporary painting and some of its methods and approaches. You will develop skills through experimentation with a range of traditional and contemporary painting methods, approaches, ideas and equipment. Building on the teaching, you will develop an independent project that extends the language of painting beyond conventional bounds.

This module aims to give students a grounding in “the contemporary” as a key critical concept used in artistic discourses, and provide a number of ways that students can explore and articulate their own contemporaneity. In conversation with cutting edge ideas from art, science, technology and popular culture, the module will enable participants to discuss and identify what they are contemporaries of, how they relate to their own time as artists, citizens and critical writers and what this necessitates in their own practices.

Students will engage in critical discussion of key terms used to define the current moment, such as Anthropocene, Singularity, Post-Truth, and Globalisation, as well as understanding how particular technologies and phenomena, such as distributed and decentralised networks, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering are reshaping the contexts in which the arts are made. These topics are explored through lectures and seminar discussions in which students are encouraged to produce and define their own position and modes for articulating what makes them contemporary.

The module is designed for creative students who wish to use writing and material practice to explore their own relationship to the ecologies, politics, trends, technologies, and aesthetics that typify our experience of the world today.

In your third year you will study at one of our international partner universities. This will help you to develop your global outlook, expand your professional network, and gain cultural and personal skills. You will choose specialist modules relating to your degree as well as other modules from across the host university.

This module supports you to develop your own distinctive voice as an artist. Our aim is for you to take increasing responsibility for the creative and conceptual direction of your artwork. You will work in your own dedicated studio space with 24/7 access and be supported by specialist tutors who are practicing artists. You will belong to a tutor group led by dedicated tutors with expertise in your area of practice. Teaching is delivered through one-to-one tutorials, group work and peer feedback. You will also be encouraged to visit exhibitions and attend our visiting artist programme of talks. The module culminates in a final end of year public exhibition.

This module considers contemporary issues (ecological sustainability, health and wellbeing) or ‘wicked problems’ though the exploration of a specific context (space, place or practice). It aims to provide a critical understanding of the problem context that enables appropriate design responses to be developed.

This themed design studio module is taught though a series of design exercises in which you will develop and apply practical design skills in design interactions.

This themed studio aims to extend and supplement the previous studios and the theoretical courses in Design by considering the potential futures of a chosen emerging technology (e.g. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Robots, Diamond Batteries, Biomimetic Materials, etc.). Students create artefacts that concretise future worlds in which they might exist by imagining a point of domestication. These studios will help to establish students’ ability to critically evaluate the full implications of particular futures based on current weak signals in the present – and how to practically represent such futures to an external audience in a manner that is both plausible and engaging.

This core module is directed towards completion of an independent research project on a topic of your choice, presented in the form of a dissertation. The course is taught through lectures focused on research skills and one-to-one supervision. Students of Film can choose to make a short film as part of their project, and students of Design are encouraged to do a practical design project.

This module provides advanced, theoretical perspectives for design interactions. It aims to build upon the general framework for designing interactive products and systems, introduced in the second year Design Interactions module. It extends the knowledge and understanding of the theory, research and practice of design interactions into specialised areas, including human-computer, human-human, human-place and human-system interactions.

The module has two aims. Firstly, it aims to explore methods of improvising or choreographing movement from the practice and study of drawing, and, reciprocally, approaches to drawing that emerge from the experience of movement and the analysis of motion. This is assessed through either a staff-supervised, student-led group choreographic project with documentation or, alternatively, a portfolio of drawings presented at the end of the module. Secondly, the module examines twentieth and twenty-first century works in which choreographers have collaborated with visual artists. This part of the module is assessed through an essay. Teaching is through lecture, seminar and practical compositional exercises in movement and drawing.

This module provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of the ways in which creative practitioners produce and deliver their work. It will provide an overview of the challenges faced by freelance practitioners, producers and small cultural companies within the creative industries. You will also develop a working understanding of the key management and enterprise skills involved in delivering creative projects. Working in groups you will put your learning into practice through the delivery of your own live creative arts project. This will enable you to understand the skills, knowledge, attributes and behaviours relevant for employment in the arts and creative industries.

This provides you with the opportunity to conduct a live, practical design research consultancy exercise requiring project management and execution. It enables you to develop the specific skills of problem definition, data collection, analysis, presentation and report writing. You will develop your ability to manage the realities and complexities of design research problems and develop their skills in working independently in small groups.