module specification

This final project module enables illustration and animation students to prepare for independent practice in the workplace or to progress onto higher studies. In this module, students will utilise skills and ideas conceived and developed in the parallel 'Project Design and Development' module, fully realising a self-directed final project brief in appropriate form by the end of the module.

Students will exercise and display their abilities in selecting, analysing and applying knowledge, skills and understanding to a negotiated and fully researched project in order to properly understand their strengths, interests and position in their field, and the potential for their future professional development.

Students will show that they understand the complex and changing nature of problems in the professional disciplines of illustration and animation and can devise and apply realistic strategies for constructing, applying and managing a process designed to offer solutions.

A professional standard of realisation, contextualisation and presentation will be expected, providing the elements for a portfolio of practice with which students may enter the field of employment, self-employment or further studies.

This module seeks to enable students to:

• devise a fully holistic process to realise the outcomes of a design research and development project;

• achieve outcomes of a professional standard of realisation and presentation;

• contextualise and present your outcomes to a professional standard, showing that you have understood and managed complex and ambitious tasks;

• Develop the capacity to learn from experimentation;

• work independently, self-reflectively and with concern for the ethical issues and principles attached to your project showing your understanding of your particular strengths, interests and position in your field, and your potential for further development.

Pass & Completion (120 credits) of Prior Level

Through a negotiated and agreed individual project, students will gain experience of:

• planning, recording, managing and conducting a process for the production and completion of a researched proposal;  LO 1

• aligning skills and knowledge in various areas of expertise and endeavour – technical, intellectual, creative, organisational, critical and interpersonal – to the successful conclusion of an integrated project;  LO 2

• liaison with industry figures in the pursuit of the project;  LO 3

• professional expectations of styles and quality of presentation;  LO 4

• critically assessing their own work against standards expected in their field.  LO 4

Scheduled teaching ensures that independent study is effective and addresses the learning outcomes and assessment tasks. Students are expected to, and have the opportunity to, continue with their studies outside of scheduled classes. There will be a range of learning strategies deployed and individual learning styles will be accommodated. The module’s learning outcomes, its contents and delivery, have been scrutinised and will be regularly reviewed to ensure an inclusive approach to pedagogic practice.

The module and course utilise the University’s blended learning platform to support and reinforce learning, to foster peer-to-peer communication and to facilitate tutorial support for students. Reflective learning is promoted through assessment items and interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, seek help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes, and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including reflections on progress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-related learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding
LO1 transform and realise the outcomes of a design research and development project into a holistic plan for the production of the practice intended;

Cognitive Intellectual Skills
LO2 work independently, managing complex problems and tasks, critically analysing their own work and defending it including in the context of ethical issues arising;

Transferable Skills
LO3 show their work in a fully contextualized way and to a professional standard, explaining or illustrating their position in their field, their strengths and interests and how they can continue to develop their professional capacity;

Subject Specific Practical Skills
LO4 carry out such a plan, achieving professional standards of project management and realisation  or visualisation as appropriate and expected in the related, evolving and emerging sectors.

At regular critiques or tutorials students are expected to produce a coherent account of their project progress, together with critical evaluation of successes and failures to date. Formative feedback will be given in response to the project plan. The final mark is given at the end of the module, following assessment of a comprehensive portfolio of all relevant developmental and presentation work and the final outcome itself. Satisfactory completion of relevant technical/ workshop activities and continuing independent practice will also be monitored.

All students are required to undertake formal interim presentations with evidence of continuous reflective journals responding to studio critique and tutorial guidance. Work presented will be subject to formal studio feedback from a panel of disciplinary specialists. This will inform final assessment marks and must be considered and acted upon by the student.

Work must be carefully organised and presented to a professional standard to indicate the development of work and the content clearly labeled. Students are required to attend timetabled studio and workshop sessions.

Core Text:
Barthes, R. (1987) Image  Music Text : Harper Collins
Begleiter, M. (2001) From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process, Michael Wiese Productions
Eisner, W. (2008) Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist: W.W. Norton
Kress, G. and Van Leeuwen, T. (2015) Reading images, The Grammar of Visual Design: Routledge
Murch, W. (2001) In the blink of an eye a perspective on film editing, Silman-James Press
Thompson, K. (2001) Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique, Harvard University Press.

Other Texts:
Benjamin W. (2008) Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Penguin Books.
Berger J. (2009) Why Look At Animals, Penguin Books
Berger, J. Savage, J. (2008) Berger On Drawing, Occasional Press
Booker, C. (2016) The Seven Basic Plots - Why We Tell Stories, Bloomsbury
Busch, A. (2005) The Uncommon Life of Common Objects, Metropolis
Caputo,T.  (2002) Visual Storytelling: The Art and Technique, Watson-Guptill
Chapman, J. (2005) Emotionally Durable Design, Earthscan
Collington, M. (2016) Animation in Context: A Practical Guide to Theory and Making, Bloomsbury
Dexter E., Jana R. (2016) Vitamin D: new perspectives in drawing, Phaidon.
Eisner, W. (2008) Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist, W.W. Norton
McClean, S. (2007) Digital Storytelling: The Narrative Power of Visual Effects in Film, MIT Press
McCloud, S. (1994) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, William Morrow
Rothman, J. (2011) Drawn in: a peek into the inspiring sketchbooks of 44 fine artists, illustrators, graphic designers, and cartoonists, Quarry Books
Wigan, M. (2007) Thinking Visually, Worthing : AVA Publishing
Zeegen, L. and Roberts, C. (2014) Fifty Years of Illustration, Laurence King

Journals:
Laura Mulvey Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) - Laura Mulvey Originally Published - Screen 16.3 Autumn 1975 pp. 6-18
Eye Magazine
Dot to Dot
The Journal of Illustration http://www.illustrationresearch.co.uk/
https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=233/

Websites:
E-Flux Journal  http://www.e-flux.com/journal/
The Serving Library http://www.servinglibrary.org/
The House of Illustration https://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/
The Association of Illustrators https://theaoi.com/

Other:
Boyle, G. (2003) Design Project Management, Ashgate Publishing
Cooper, R. and Press, M. (1994) The Design Agenda, Wiley
McLuhan, M. and Fiore, Q. (2008) [1964] The Medium is the Massage; An Inventory of Effects, Penguin Classics

Additional texts and other reference materials will be identified by studio tutors annually