module specification

The FA5P01 Project Work 2 studio practice module encourages and facilitates development of practical and conceptual knowledge and understanding of contemporary practice in art or photography in the realisation of group project briefs and of an individual project, presented to peers at its outset and finished by submission deadline for a summative assessment. The module builds on the skills, key concepts and principles of art or photography introduced in Level 4 and now applied with relevance to the world of work.

The FA5P01 Project Work 2 is delivered holistically in Level 5 with the FA5006 Methods and Enquiry 1 module. FA5P01 Project Work 2 is shared by, serves and sustains the awards in the BA Fine Art, BA Fashion Photography, BA Painting and BA Photography courses and is delivered in a seamless and integral relationship with the work of other core modules in the level. Students are expected to reflect upon and represent the complexity of critical and creative relationships between and across the body of work undertaken at this diploma level.

This module aims are to enable art or photography students to develop key skills and knowledge in working with others successfully, experiencing how others work in different contexts, as well as understanding different audiences for art or photography and how contemporary practitioners address those audiences. The module aims to provide a vehicle for study trips to places where art or photography practice is put to work. In enabling students to experience and understand how groups work, the module aims to provide learning in how to agree, apply and police common codes and ethics around art or photography studio practice. A key objective of this module is to help art or photography students learn the requirement for planning and managing time in their practice, both in project and in life/work balance.

Completion and pass (120 credits) of previous level.

At the beginning of the module, its aims, key concepts and milestones will be outlined to all students. There will then be a session in which students address the common ethics of collective responsibility in art or photographic studio practice before formulating and then agreeing a common code of studio practice for their local group, which the group then agrees to regulate by itself (LO1).

Further sessions will be dedicated to the application of art or photographic concepts and principles to a project in the context of the world of work (LO2).

In a series of tutorials and guided independent study tasks, students will negotiate a plan in which they set out for themselves the timings, stages and targets of their project development, taking account of their life/work/study balance (LO5).

The plan is to include an extensive scheduled itinerary of research visits to art or photography galleries, archives and workplaces to be undertaken in independent study time (LO3).

Sessions will be spent on at least one group project in which student interact and collaborate to work on common objectives and in team roles within a group (LO4).

Scheduled teaching ensures that independent study is effective and addresses the learning outcomes and assessment tasks. Students are expected to (and to 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.

On completing the module, students should be able to:

1. agree and establish in a team a set of studio practice ethics, publish them to peers and work to them, self-regulating;
2. apply art or photographic concepts and principles to a project in the context of the world of work;
3. consider the needs of new audiences in other localities in different contexts, to appraise how contemporary practitioners address those needs;
4. interact effectively with others, taking responsibility and using team work skills on a brief set for a group project in art or photography;
5. set out study, leisure and work time in an unprompted time-management plan to manage studio practice and critical and contextual learning successfully.

This module's assessment will firstly be of a timeplan for all project work and also of a studio code of ethics, formulated and agreed by all a studio's students at the outset of the module. There will be an oral presentation of project work, illustrated by slides at the end of the autumn term, to a group project brief around studio theme. There will also be a second oral presentation of new project work (negotiated with student or to brief), illustrated by slides after Easter. The student submits both presentations, time plan and studio ethics code in digital files on Weblearn by summative assessment deadline.

The assessment strategy includes formative assessments throughout the Level, with tutorial feedback designed to encourage and help students to develop and improve their work. These inform the student of their progress over the course. An interim review offers a specific opportunity to reflect on the work in relation to the module’s learning outcomes and this together with finished project work and supporting material will inform the assessment panel at the summative assessment at the end of the Level.

Students will evaluate their own learning on the module using the criteria published below and write a short critical evaluation (summary statement) of their work. This will provide the basis for discussion at the assessment feedback session after the formal coursework assessment has taken place.

Summative assessment takes place at the end of the module. Written feedback addresses the strengths and weaknesses of individual presentations in relation to the grading criteria.

Work will be assessed against the learning outcomes in relation to the following criteria:

• Appropriate use of research methods and enquiry
• Quality of analysis and interpretation
• Knowledge of and relevance to Photography or Fine Art
• Quality of communication and presentation
• Appropriate use of problem solving, testing and experimentation
• Management of own learning and personal professional development

Core Textbooks:
Hoffmann, J., (ed.) (2012) The Studio, London: Whitechapel Books 
Holly, M. A., Smith, M. (eds) (2008) What is Research in the Visual Arts: Obsession, Archive, Encounter, Massachusetts: Sterling and Francine Clark Institute
Metropolitan Museum of Art (2017) The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art, London: Phaidon

Additional Textbooks:
Haladyn, J. J. (2010) Marcel Duchamp: Etant Donnes, London: Afterall
Noack, R., Iveković, S. (2013) Triangle, London: Afterall

Journals:
Third Text, Abingdon: Taylor and Francis Group

Websites:
ArtSTOR digital library http://www.artstor.org/

Electronic Databases:
a-n, The Artists Information Company