Programme Specifications

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• Art and Design

• History of Art, Architecture and Design

September 2023

The programme aims to:

• Offer sound training in the subject of Fine Art.

• Provide opportunities for students to develop knowledge, understanding, and proficiency in a broad range of media and processes, starting with drawing as a prerequisite skill, and the fundamental concepts and key skills of artistic practice.

• Provide opportunities for students to develop specialised proficiency in the offered discipline(s) of their choice.

• Offer a flexible curriculum with a variety of pathways.

• Encourage students to develop their aesthetic sensibility, creativity, curiosity, and artistic identity.

• Provide opportunities for students to develop a broad range of subject-specific and transferrable skills that will equip them for further study and/or their future career (in particular as fine artists, art educators, professionals in the heritage sector, and cultural industries

The new joint honours BA Photography offers a study of the practice and language of photography combined with a cognate subject. It considers photography both as art form and as document. The scheme provides for imaginative, creative endeavor in a wide range of photographic practices, offers contextual and historical study, and fosters independent research as well as the analysis and interpretation of photographic images.

Students will engage in a critical and creative dialogue with the work of their peers and gain an understanding of historic and contemporary visual cultures. They will study the artistic, intellectual, social and professional contexts that shape creative practice in photography (within the contexts of the visual arts more generally) and learn how to best communicate this knowledge in a range of written, oral, visual and practical forms.

Vocation-oriented modules prepare students for careers involving photographic practices – whether commercial, gallery or editorially focussed.

The BA Photography half of the joint honours scheme aims to:

• 1. encourage creativity;

• 2. support a variety of individual creative, contemporary practices;

• 3. explore the interdisciplinarity of contemporary artistic practices;

• 4. encourage a range of visual research methodologies;

• 5. ensure students are alert to the photo-historical and contemporary practices/contexts within which they work;

• 6. provide a supportive studio environment;

• 7. involve students in the dialectical nature of artistic production;

• 8. draw on staff research interests and expertise, ensuring that teaching is relevant and up to date;

• 9. introduce the fundamentals of research, analysis and argumentation.

The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes in the following areas:

The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes in the following areas.

Knowledge and understanding of:

• A1 A broad range of traditional and contemporary media and processes: their nature and techniques, history and development, and the relationship between materials, media and process, and ideas and contexts.

• A2 One or more disciplines in depth, informed by staff practice and research, and/or study of the School of Art’s museum collection.

• A3 The ​fundamental issues, contexts, concepts, theories, and debates (historical, contemporary, cultural settings) in art and visual culture.

• A4 The foundations of art history as a critical and historical way of interpreting works of art and visual culture, and knowledge of the art and visual culture of specific periods, movements, mediums, genres, and places from the medieval to the present day​.

• A5 The contemporary art world and cultural industries, including the variety of opportunities for graduate employment; the significance of the work of other practitioners; major developments in current and emerging media and technologies; the role and impact of intellectual property; and the issues which arise from the creative practitioner’s relationships with audiences, clients, markets, environments, users, consumers, and/or participants.

  Learning and teaching methods used to enable outcomes to be achieved:

• 1:1 tutorials

• Small group tutorials and crits

• Group studio sessions

• Seminars

• Lectures (synchronous and asynchronous)

• Workshops

• Guided independent practice

• Guided independent research

  Assessment methods used to enable outcomes to be demonstrated:

• Portfolio

• Exhibition

• Professional projects

• Essays

• Dissertation

• Seen and unseen examinations

• Visual analysis

• Object study

• Reflective writing

• Slide test

• Presentation (live and recorded)

• Exhibition project

• Critical journal

• Book review

• Literature review

• Annotated bibliography

• Essay plan

• A1 Knowledge of a clear and defined relationship between personal practice and contemporary cultural production.

• A2 Detailed appreciation of contemporary and historic photographic practices.

• A3 Recognition of the transdisciplinarity of contemporary photographic practices and the ability to go beyond common medium boundaries.

• A4 Awareness of the international context of contemporary visual production.

• A5 Focussed use of materials/medium/strategies in relation to individual practice.

• A6 Apply critical visual analyses to key examples of historical and contemporary photographic practices.

• A7 Employ critical thinking with regard to the presentation and installation of individual practice.

• A8 Critical, self-reflective awareness of the appropriate use of methods/materials/strategies within personal photographic practice.

Learning and Teaching:

Seminars, workshops, practicals, demonstrations, lectures, tutorials and group crits, field trips and creative and written projects.

Assessment Strategies and Methods:

Portfolio presentations, essays, presentations, exhibitions, photographic projects, notebooks, and critical portfolio evaluations.

10.2.1 Intellectual skills

• B1 Creative skills: creatively and imaginatively conceive, produce, promote, and disseminate artefacts​.

• B2 ​Visual skills: close and systematic visual examination, informed by appropriate knowledge of materials, techniques, and cultural contexts; clear and precise description, using ordinary and specialist terminology as appropriate and demonstrating awareness of the inherently translative relationship between the visual and the verbal; technical evaluation of artefacts considering materiality, production, methodology, and cultural context.

• B3 Interpretive skills : discern and explain the meaning and significance of works of art created by oneself and others, drawing on close observation, personal response, knowledge of techniques, relevant theoretical and methodological debates, historical context, and contemporary relevance; produce logical and structured narratives and arguments, supported by relevant evidence.

• B4 Cognitive skills: find creative solutions to aesthetic, practical, and theoretical and problems; generate ideas independently and in response to set briefs; make connections between intention, process, outcome, context, and methods of dissemination; evaluate and apply a variety of theoretical perspectives; analyse arguments, tasks, and bodies of evidence, breaking them down into, and effectively dealing with, their component parts.

• B5 Open-mindedness: be open and receptive to new things and ideas; identify the merits of unfamiliar arguments or cultural artefacts and the merits or shortcomings of familiar ones; appreciate and evaluate divergent points of view and to communicate their qualities.

10.2.2 Practical skills

• C1 Making skills: develop a body of ambitious studio work through experimentation, technical innovation, and independent reflection on making in the creative translation of ideas into practice, drawing on research on historical and contemporary contexts, technical skill and knowledge in traditional and contemporary processes, and selecting and using materials, processes, and environments.

• C2 Presentation skills: present bodies of work professionally and effectively, demonstrating awareness of audience and contexts; present and promote oneself as a creative professional; write text for a variety of purposes to support one’s artistic practice.

• C3 Communication skills: communicate information, arguments, and ideas cogently and effectively within a range of discourses as appropriate to particular audiences, and in written, spoken, or other form using appropriate visual aids and information technology resources; particular abilities in the deployment of visual material in conjunction with written, oral, and other forms of communication; the ability to listen effectively, and to participate constructively in discussion and debate.

• C4 Research skills: capacity for critical, effective, and testable information retrieval and organisation; ability to design and carry out a research project with limited tutorial guidanc

10.2.1 Intellectual skills

• B1 Significant responsibility to provide a critical basis for meaningful and enduring praxis.

• B2 Resourcefulness and creativity in working processes from conception to execution.

• B3 A developed personal practice viewed in relation to their national culture and with an understanding of international culture.

• B4 A sophisticated understanding of creative photographic practices from an aesthetic, institutional, and social standpoint.

• B5 A critical engagement with creative photographic practices from a range of art historical perspectives.

10.2.2 Practical skills

• C1 An ability to critically evaluate working processes from idea through to execution.

• C2 A capacity to present and contextualise work to an informed audience.

• C3 The facility to identify and develop appropriate methods for presenting personal practice.

• C4 An appropriate and coherent dossier of research.

• C5 Significant engagement in photographic portfolio production and art historical critical analysis.

• D1 Autonomy: generate ideas, concepts, proposals, solutions, or arguments independently; develop an independent practice that is informed by, but not dependent on, the work of others.

• D2 Diligence: undertake and complete set tasks, whether routine and familiar or requiring the acquisition and application of new skills.

• D3 Time management and personal initiative: work to briefs and deadlines, including managing concurrent projects; take responsibility for one’s own work; reflect on one’s own learning and make constructive use of feedback; take shared responsibility for one’s own course of studies.

• D4 Teamwork: the ability to work constructively and productively in teams.

• D5 Critical engagement: formulate and articulate reasoned, independent judgements and arguments, supported by analysis of evidence and experiences, and informed by, but not dependent on, the ideas and arguments of others.

• D6 Problem solving: identify, analyse, and creatively solve problems individually or as part of a team.

• D1 An ability to organise and manage workload according to deadlines, both individually and as part of a team.

• D2 Highly developed problem-solving skills related to both concept and practice.

• D3 An ability to structure and communicate ideas effectively using a variety of means.

• D4 Ability to quantify materials and costings for professional projects.

• D5 Power to utilise the most appropriate technologies that effectively communicate working methods and ideas at an advanced level.