Fine Art MA

Core modules

• Fine Art: Critical Practice

  Your knowledge and understanding on this module will be established through a sustained body of self-directed Fine Art research. This will be supported by supervisory tutorials, peer group learning and a seminar series exploring critical and theoretical aspects of practice. The specific content and mode of work within the module will be contingent upon the research direction of your individual project, which will be analysed within a critical and cultural context. You will be encouraged to articulate your ideas about your own research through and considered use of process, media and context. Aims, methodologies and achievements will be recorded and reflected upon through the Personal Development Plan (PDP). Your practice will be evaluated through supervisory tutorials, self-assessment and peer group presentations. Summative assessment of the research project will take place through a portfolio presentation and PDP on conclusion of the module.

• Making Methods

  How do we overcome institutionalised and tired paradigms of valid and purposeful enquiry? How can we examine our modes of seeing as constitutive of the world they allegedly mirror objectively? If approach determines outcome, can we identify and unlearn our silent ideologies of vision? What if originality has nothing to do with origins? How do we overcome learned ‘correct’ ways of achievement? Making Methods provides a space to consider the ways in which we have been taught how to ask questions; a space for seeking ruptures of the ‘successful’ way to ask creative questions. Our sessions will probe methods of making through slow and divergent rhythms of querying/queering the creative process. We will visit (and try to break) key contemporary debates on methods and methodologies as constitutive, ubiquitous and transversal components of creative practice. Concrete examples of creative practices from painting, music, interactive media, installation, activism, tactical interventions, book arts, wreading, etc., will ground discussions and explorations in empirical matter. These will be conducted with reference to contemporary and cutting-edge debates on the ‘world-making nature’ of enquiry, and the theory/practice divide as an untenable construction. Making Methods aims to provide you with tools and approaches to question existing frameworks of creative engagement with the world, and provide strategies to see creativity as disruptive, as it is by definition. You will be asked to write a 3000 word piece on a creative methodological approach (this could be your own, or not), its underpinnings, process and consequences.

• Acts and Discourses

  You will develop a body of self-directed Fine Art research that reflects a clear awareness and engagement with curatorial issues. A seminar series within the module will introduce you to various areas in curatorial and exhibition practices on both a theoretical and practical level, with a strong emphasis on the contemporary scene in relation to developments that have taken place over the last three decades. Themes will include: 1) Exhibiting Practices, an introduction; 2) Frames; 3) Neutrality: the "white cube" and its legacy; 4) "Alternative" spaces; 5) Environmental approaches; and 6) The politics of cultural representation. You will record and reflect on your aims, methodologies and achievements through the Personal Development Plan (PDP), which will give you a transparent mechanism by which to map the progress of your individual research. You will critically and theoretically analyse your studio research, supported through supervisory tutorials, peer presentations and seminars.

• Master's Dissertation Art and Design

  This module forms the major written element of the MA programme. On it, you will be invited to choose a topic related to your area of study, as the basis for a research essay of up to 6,000 words. The essay should demonstrate an awareness of current critical debate in the subject, through appropriate reference to relevant examples both from visual practice and critical writing. Your subjects may be thematic and issue-based, or may focus upon the critical analysis of a particular body of work. It is expected that you will use the module to investigate the use of critical writing as an aspect of your own creative development, by investigating issues and preoccupations for which you feel a particular affinity or concern, and that you will use the dissertation as an instrument of enquiry into the debates, conventions and values which define your own field of practice. In group tutorials you will explore the use of different modes of critical method and conventions of art and design research, and the production of critical writing as an aspect of an individual's creative and professional practice.

• Master's Project: Art and Design

  The Masters Project represents the culmination of your learning on the programme, giving you the opportunity to develop and resolve a major area of enquiry. This is a self-directed visual project negotiated with the staff team and peers. You'll need to negotiate, manage, co-ordinate and bring to successful conclusion a complex, practice-based project within your field of art, media or design. You'll start by formally presenting your research proposal to staff and peers, and will be expected to build on your previous modules to identify a complex area for investigation and enquiry, as well as research methods appropriate to the project. Following negotiation with staff, peers and, where appropriate, outside agencies, you'll then submit a written research proposal. Your project may involve external engagement alongside a personal exploration of themes and concepts in your specialist field. You'll need to show your ability to innovate, think strategically and be sensitive to changing cultural and social climates. You'll be assessed by portfolio (a body of work comprising a written project proposal, and developmental and final visual work) and a 1200-word reflective commentary. This commentary will specifically outline the methodological and ethical considerations relevant to your portfolio work, and evaluate your final visual work.

• Visual Research Practises

  This module is designed to provide the foundation for the further development of your practice in your Masters Project, and to inform your Masters Project Proposal, which you will submit upon completion of this module. During the course of the module you will explore and document the ways in which practice informs the development of method, and the manner in which experimentation within your practice is used to test propositions, verify findings, and demonstrate these through your outcomes. These ideas form the main precepts of practice-based research, and will be explored through a preliminary project designed to test the basis of your Masters Project proposal. The module provides a context within which to explore the ways in which the processes associated with your practice serve as tools of investigation and analysis. In the course of the module you will identify the key research questions implicit your Masters Project proposal, develop strategies and experimental methods for addressing these questions, and contextualise these methods in relation to precedent within your discipline. This will also enable you to locate your method within the wider context of research methodology addressed in the companion module Making Methods. During the development of your project you will investigate and critique your method to ensure that it is appropriate to the investigation of your question and to the expression of your findings. You will review the ways in which practice shapes and refines experimental method, and the analysis of experimental findings informs successive phases of the practical outcome. According to the context of the projects and the nature of your practice, this may involve different considerations of audience, purpose and impact, as well as reference to a variety of sources and precedents. You will be assessed through the body of visual coursework, a research logbook kept during the development process, and an evaluative commentary of 500 words reflecting on the work after completion. You will also submit a finalised proposal for the Masters Project.