module specification

The module offers a sequence of three intensive programmes or ‘mini-blocks’, tailored to the interests of specific groups of students.  The module engages the student in thinking about their subject area, how it is defined and practiced, the richness of its resources, and how it opens up questions of context.  In particular the module investigates how context might be framed, for example culturally, historically, economically, socially, theoretically or through practice.  Students are encouraged to see connections and reflect on what they see in ways that build skills of communication and help articulate ideas.  The module also helps the student, through learning how to identify, access and use knowledge profitably, to become knowledgeable about their subject area, its extent, its language and conventions, its history and practice.

The three mini-blocks have equally weighted single assessments.  The assessments include a range of different modes of written assignments, for example, Patchwork, Case Study, or Essay.

The module aims to orient and critically engage the student in their subject area, its histories and theories, and its broader context in culture and contemporary practice. Students are encouraged, whilst beginning to develop a sound knowledge base rooted in their subject field, to see, read and articulate connections between different aspects. The module introduces students to the range of academic skills they need to produce graduate-level dissertation, while encouraging them to articulate and take responsibility for the development of their own learning.

The syllabus is organised into three mini-blocks of learning. 

1. Theory, Practice and Learning Reflection:  This block introduces students to the skills and knowledge needed to produce academic work appropriate to degree level study. In particular, the block will develop skills and confidence in writing, using style, sources and conventions appropriate to academic work. Regular writing exercises will be used to engage with some of the key aspects of the media and contemporary issues around it. This will allow students to reflect on these aspects and establish connections between media theory and media practices.

2. Research in Action: Based around a series of discipline specific case studies, this block will build on skills and knowledge developed in the first block, paying particular attention to research skills and methods of analysis. Students will learn how to use the internet for research, how to evaluate sources and how to incorporate research materials in an academic piece of writing.

3. Critical Contexts:  The aim of this block is to deepen understanding of the contexts which help to determine how media institutions and media products come into being, what they mean to us and where they are heading. Particular emphasis is placed on the determining factors of history, technology and economics. National and cultural contexts will also be considered. A critical perspective on the assumption that new means better will also be debated. The films of Alfred Hitchcock, from their beginnings in British silent cinema to their present globalised re-inventions across a variety of media in different countries will form a case study for this block.

Design including Graphics, Illustration, Interiors, Textiles, Jewellery and Silversmithing, Furniture and Product design, Restoration and Conservation:
1. Grammars of Design: Object and Process
2. The Meaning of Style: Design and Communication
3. Contemporary Design Practice

Media &, including Film and Broadcast, Animation, Lens Craft:
1. Theory and Practice
2. Research in Action
3. Critical Contexts

Music Technology & Musical Instruments:
1. Theory and Practice
2. Research in Action
3. Critical Contexts
Indicative Syllabus
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Architecture and Interior Architecture:
1. Context and Practice: This block introduces students to the subject and practice of architecture and interior architecture and the professional context within which they sit in society and the constructed environment.  Lectures, seminars, workshops and visits will enable students to explore issues of professionalism and to study current and past forms of architectural and design practice.  Working in groups and individually students investigate a range of study and management skills and methods used to communicate within the industry and to its range of users and intended audiences.
1. Histories and Texts:  This survey course introduces the history of western architecture, interior design and urban form from Ancient Greece to the 18th century. Lectures take a broad view, concentrating on canonical examples, comparing them with works of art of the same period and setting them broadly in their social and political context. In the seminars, students discuss texts written during the period in question as well as texts written by historians. They also write short critical texts of their own, based on what they have learnt in lectures and experienced in the streets and museums of London. The aim of the course is to familiarise students with the common stock of examples drawn upon in theoretical and critical writings, and to encourage critical thinking and the coherent expression of ideas.

2. Histories and Theories:  The course continues the historical survey of architecture, interior design and urban form begun in ‘Histories and Texts’, bringing the story up to the present day and introducing non-western traditions. Canonical examples are compared with works of art of the same period and set in their social and political context. Seminars constitute a thematic course in basic architectural theory, introducing important ideas such as representation, language, form and the organic metaphor, in plain English. Students write short theoretical texts of their own and are encouraged to express their ideas clearly and simply. The theory course forms a foundation for more advanced studies in ‘Architecture and Modernity: by Design’.

Fine Art including Printmaking, Sculpture, Photography, Painting, Mixed Media:
1. What does an Artist Do: Principles:  This block introduces students to ideas about what a contemporary artist does, using the skills and knowledge needed to produce academic work appropriate to degree level study. In particular, the block will develop skills and confidence in writing, using style, sources and conventions appropriate to academic work. Regular writing exercises will be used to engage with some of the key aspects of the media and contemporary issues around it. This will allow students to reflect on what an artist does and establish connections between art theory and art practice.

2. What Does an Artist Do: Provocations: Based around a series of case studies, this block will build on skills and knowledge developed in the first block, paying particular attention to research skills and methods of analysis. Students will learn how to use the internet for research, how to evaluate sources and how to incorporate research materials and methodology in an written academic case study.

3. Histories:  Based on an art history survey of the last 100 years since Duchamp's 'Large Glass', this block examines the principal art movements that have determined how art institutions and artworks come into being today, their critical and cultural contexts, what they mean to us and where they are heading tin contemporary terms. Particular emphasis is placed on the determining factors of history, politics and economics. Research will be presented in the form of an academic essay.

Design including Graphics, Illustration, Interiors, Textiles, Jewellery and Silversmithing, Furniture and Product design, Restoration and Conservation:
1. Grammars of Design: Objects & Process: This introduces students to the skills and knowledge that will enable them confidently discuss, read and write about design and design practice. Topics of study will draw on late 19th and early 20th century global examples of graphic design, illustration, interior design, jewellery and silversmithing, textiles, furniture and product design and restoration and conservation. Discipline specific workshops will help students to identify appropriate sources of research and understand and use appropriate conventions of design writing. Regular writing practice will enable students to explore design as it relates to creative practice, production, consumption and use. This will help students make connections between design history and their design practice, between design contexts and their design practice.

2. The Meaning of Style: Design and Communication: Students will enhance their research skills to develop a good understanding and confident use of primary and secondary sources and further develop their abilities in the critical analysis of designed objects, images and spaces. Topics of study will draw on mid-late 20th century global examples of graphic design, illustration, interior design, jewellery and silversmithing, textiles, furniture and product design and restoration and conservation, as relevant to students’ disciplines. In particular, research such as case studies will help students to explore and write about the ways in which design objects, images and spaces form and communicate identities.

3. Contemporary Design Practice:  Study here aims to enhance students’ critical thinking and writing about design practice in the 21st century. The focus will be on contemporary contexts for design and applied arts: designers’ places in the creative industries, new economies, urban policies, global dispersion of making and marketing design, and the rise of social and environmental concerns. Contemporary examples of designers and their practice in the fields of graphic design, illustration, interior design, jewellery and silversmithing, textiles, furniture and product design and restoration and conservation, will form study opportunities for this block.
Media including Film and Broadcast, Animation, Lens Craft:
1. Theory and Practice:  This block introduces students to the skills and knowledge needed to produce academic work appropriate to degree level study. In particular, the block will develop skills and confidence in writing, using style, sources and conventions appropriate to academic work. Regular writing exercises will be used to engage with some of the key aspects of the media and contemporary issues around it. This will allow students to reflect on these aspects and establish connections between media theory and media practices.

2. Research in Action: Based around a series of discipline specific case studies, this block will build on skills and knowledge developed in the first block, paying particular attention to research skills and methods of analysis. Students will learn how to use the internet for research, how to evaluate sources and how to incorporate research materials in an academic piece of writing.

3. Critical Contexts:  The aim of this block is to deepen understanding of the contexts which help to determine how media institutions and media products come into being, what they mean to us and where they are heading. Particular emphasis is placed on the determining factors of history, technology and economics. National and cultural contexts will also be considered. A critical perspective on the assumption that new means better will also be debated. The films of Alfred Hitchcock, from their beginnings in British silent cinema to their present globalised re-inventions across a variety of media in different countries will form a case study for this block.

Music Technology & Musical Instruments
1. This block introduces students in music technology and musical instruments courses to the principles of music theory and aural skills, which constitute the main area of contextualisation for the common field of specialism. The block consists of the learning of different aspects of music theory and sound, its impact in culture and material technologies. It allows students to reflect on these aspects and establish connections between theory and aural skills practices.

2. This block introduces students to the basic technologies in music (including those involved in instrument making) across time, in a historical perspective. It focuses on the research of different types of technologies related to music and sound across history. Students establish the relationship between the theoretical research and the aural recognition of those technologies, such as, e.g. the sound of instruments and their acoustical properties.

3. The block focuses on the different historical periods and on those musical genres and types of musical instruments belonging to each period, in order to establish a contextual and cultural approach between music theory, music technologies and music history in their own field of expertise.

The module is organised into three core teaching and learning blocks, each of which include preparation and reading, completing assessments, and receiving formative feedback, equivalent in total to 90 hours of contact time and 180 hours of self-directed study.  The module supports a freestanding PDP component, equivalent to 30 hours of self-directed study, linked to on-line and personal development tutor support systems.

The three mini-blocks are organised around a series of lectures, seminars and workshops, supported by online or blended learning, visits and skills workshops.  The blocks are designed to deliver subject knowledge at a range of scales, through the practice of specific skills and development of modes of understanding.

The mini-blocks include,where suitable, an emphasis on small-group active learning classes and weekly practical exercises appropriate to the subject area.  These are aimed at developing confidence in identifying and appraising relevant subject matter; ability in relevant reading and interpretation skills (situations, relationships, places, objects, images, sounds, texts); and writing ability (forms of writing, different media, protocols, forms of presentation).  There is also an emphasis on active learning, including workshops on investigation, information retrieval, study skills, and group presentations.  Students are introduced to formal lectures and seminars that focus on the scope and depth of knowledge, and how to interpret and structure it. 

Each teaching and learning block provides a multifaceted programme that feeds one writing-based assignment. This assignment may include or be on visual work, technical or scientific data, professional context, work in practice, or academic histories.  The aim is to encourage active, engaged and consistent learning.

The teaching and learning includes formative feedback on each of the writing-based assessments, indicating how the student can improve their performance.

For the PDP component students evaluate and develop their learning skills in an online submission. The submission will be approved by a tutor.

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. Use information retrieval systems effectively and develop appropriate methods for collecting, organising and deploying knowledge;
2. Read, analyse and interpret different kinds of written texts and other key sources of documented knowledge;
3. Demonstrate familiarity with the scope of their subject area and its and broader ethical, historical, social, cultural, economic and practice-based contexts;
4. Articulate a critical understanding of material, spatial, aural or media-based objects of study, using a range of written forms of presentation, noting specific terms, languages, references, genres and audience.
5. Reflect on their progress and engage with feedback.

The strategy is to provide an iterative and developmental model of assessment. 
The main assessment items comprise different types of written texts that enable students to use different modes of presentation, for example:

Coursework 1 [LO1, LO4, LO5]: Individual - Learning Reflection (1000 words)
Coursework 2 [LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4]: Individual - Research Case Study (1500 words)
Coursework 3 [LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5]: Individual Video Essay (3-5 min video plus 200 word abstract)

Module assessment criteria:
1. Application and engagement;
2. Quality of content (research, accuracy, relevance, scope);
3. Quality of presentation (English, references, terminology, literacy, protocols);
4. Effective structure (clarity, links, synthesis);
5. Deployment of critical and analytical skills (argument, interpretation, discussion).

ARCHITECTURE:
1  Context and Practice 
Forty A. (2002) Objects of Desire; design and society since 1750
Hertzberger H. (1991) Lessons for Students in Architecture
Koolhaas R. and Mau, B (1997) S.M.L.XL.
Kostof S. (1983) The Architect: chapters in the history of the profession.
2  Histories and Texts
Kostof, S; History of architecture: settings and rituals Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford: 1995.
Pevsner, N; An outline of European architecture, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1963.
Millon, H. A. Key monuments of the history of architecture, Prentice-Hall, New York, 1964.
Harbison, R; Travels in the history of architecture, Reaktion, 2006
3  Histories and Theories
Frampton, K; Modern Architecture: A Critical History. New York: Oxford UP, 1980.
Curtis, W; Modern Architecture Since 1900. London: Phaidon, 1996.
Davies, C; Thinking about architecture, Laurence King, 2011
Nesbitt, K, editor; Theorizing a new agenda for architecture: an anthology of architectural theory 1965-1995, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.

FINE ART:
1  What does an Artist Do: Principles?
Harrison, Charles (2010), An Introduction to Art, New Haven: YUP
Krauss, Rosalind (2000), A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition, London: Thames & Hudson
Fraser, Andrea (2005), The Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique, Artforum, New York: Sep 2005. Vol. 44, Iss.1; pg. 278.
Gonzalez-Torres, Felix (1995), Etre un espion/Being a Spy, interview with Robert Storr, Art Press 198, (January 1995), pp. 24-32
What Work does Art do? (Case Studies/Provocations)
2  What Does an Artist Do: Provocations?
Stallabrass, Julian (2006), High Art Lite, London: Verso.
Bishop, Claire (2004) Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics. OCTOBER 110, Fall 2004, pp. 51–79
Bourriaud, Nicolas (1998), Relational Aesthetics, Dijon: Les Presses Du Reel
Gillick, Liam (2006), Contingent Factors: A Response to Claire Bishop's 'Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, October 118, Winter 2006, pp. 95-107
3  Histories
Preziosi, Donald  (ed.) The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1998)
Harrison Charles and Paul Woods (eds.) Art in Theory 1900 – 2000. London: Blackwell (2003)
Contextual/ Critical Thinking 
Harvey, David (1995), ‘The Condition of Postmodernity’. Oxford: Blackwell
Berger, John (1972), ‘Ways of Seeing’. BBC Publications

DESIGN:
1  Grammars of Design: Objects & Process
Adamson, Glenn, Giorgio Riello, Sarah Teasley, eds., (2011) Global Design Histories, London: Routledge
Lees-Maffei, Grace, and Rebecca Houze, eds., (2010), The Design History Reader, New York, Oxford: Berg
Raizman, David, (2011), The History of Design, 2nd ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall
Sparke, Penny, (2010), The Genius of Design, New York: Overlook Press
Wilk, Christopher, ed., (2006), Modernism: Designing a New World, London: V&A Journal of Design History: electronic source
2  The Meaning of Style: Design and Communication
Adamson, Glenn, and Jane Pavitt, eds., Postmodernism; Style and Subversion, 1970-1990,  London: V&A
Highmore, Ben, ed., (2009), The Design Culture Reader, London: Routledge
Julier, Guy, (2008), 2nd ed., The Culture of Design, London: Sage
Lees-Maffei, Grace, and Rebecca Houze, eds., (2010), The Design History Reader, New York, Oxford: Berg
Sparke, Penny, (2010), The Genius of Design, New York: Overlook Press
Journal of Design History: electronic source
3  Contemporary Design Practice
Fuad-Luke, Alastair, (2009) Design activism: beautiful strangeness for a sustainable world, London: Earthscan, 2009
Julier, Guy and Liz Moor, eds.,  (2009), Design and creativity : policy, management and practice, Imprint Oxford : Berg
Heller, Steven and Véronique Vienne, eds., (2003), Citizen designer: perspectives on design responsibility, New York : Allworth Press
Chapman, Jonathan and Nick Gant, eds., (2007), Designers, visionaries and other stories : a collection of sustainable design essays, London: Earthscan
Visits from/ to design practice professionals where relevant.

MEDIA & MUSIC TECHNOLOGY
1  Theory and Practice
Corrigan, T. (2011), A  Short Guide to Writing About Film London: Longman
Barnwell, J. (2008), The Fundamentals of Film Making, chapter on film theory, London: AVA Books
Lacey, N. (2002) Media Institutions and Audiences London: Palgrave, Macmillan
Abercrombie, N. (2007) Penguin Media Studies Dictionary Harmondsworth: Penguin
Long, P. (2009) Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context London: Longman
2  Research in Action
Corrigan, T. (2011) A Short Guide to Writing About Film, London: Longman
Rose, G. (2011) Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials London: Sage
Street, S. (2000) British Cinema in Documents London: Routledge
Bertrand, I. (2004) Media Research Methods: Audiences, Institutions and Texts London: Palgrave, Macmillan
Bignell, J. (2002) Media Semiotics Manchester: Manchester University Press
3 Critical Contexts
Bordwell, D. (1998) On the History of Film Style Harvard: Harvard University Press
Klinger, B. (2006) Beyond the Multiplex: Film, New Technologies and the Home California: University of California Press
Haeffner, N. (2005) Alfred Hitchcock Essex: Pearson
Silbergeld, J. (2004) Hitchcock with a Chinese Face University of Washington Press
Kapsis, R. (1992) Hitchcock: the Making of a Reputation Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Jenkins, H. (2008) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide New York: New York University Press

1 2 3 Music Technology & Musical Instruments:
Clayton, Martin, Trevor Herbert and Richard Middleton (eds.), 2003: The Cultural Study of Music: A critical introduction (London: Routledge).
Day, Timothy, 2000: A Century of Recorded Music: Listening to Musical History (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Richer, Margaret, 2002: Music Theory (London, Hodder headline)
Weiss, Piero and Taruskin, Richard, 1984: Music in the Western World; a History in Documents (New York: Schirmer).