module specification

This module asks you to look beyond your work as a designer and focus on how objects are consumed and how they acquire emotional values that extend beyond their usefulness or any aesthetic qualities. As such, Charismatic Objects asks you to consider the consumer or end user and in doing so aims to make you a better designer, by helping you make decisions that are evidence-based.

Almost as far back as the human creation of objects can be traced, it is possible to find evidence that made objects have been prized for properties other than their usefulness, whether that evidence is found in ornament and decoration or the care and reverence with which they were made and looked after or buried with the deceased. This reveals that humans do have relationships with objects and if that is the case, it necessarily follows that those objects must have an impact of some sort on their owners and users. This module asks you to investigate the nature of these artefactual properties and the relationships they have with people.

You will be asked to make a study of an artefact, collection or scheme that has such properties and discover how they were deliberately imbued in the object or have subsequently become associated with it. You will describe the nature of the relationship between the object and its makers, owners or users in order better to understand how you as a designer may effect such properties and relationships through your designs.

This will require contextual study of the individuals and societies that produced and consumed the chosen objects or schemes. Examples from a range of relevant historical or global contexts will be deployed in order that their purpose and embodied and various implied meanings are accurately understood. The context for the study will be the academic territory of material culture and those aspects of ethnography and social and cultural studies that it encompasses. The systems and relationships between people and objects will be studied to discover how and why they are endowed (purposefully or otherwise) with meaning, narrative, belief, emotion, memory, ritual purpose, deterioration or other properties, and how this may change through time and ownership, and how this impacts on human senses and perception. The practices of recycling and upcycling will be studied and the new meanings that attach to objects’ afterlives will be considered.

Following this study, you will propose a design for an object or scheme for an individual, group or society, that has purpose and meaning beyond the utilitarian or merely aesthetic, persuasively making the case that the object will have the meaning and effect on the users as intended.

Available for Study Abroad? NO

The syllabus will typically include lectures and seminar discussion of the global, historic and contemporary production and consumption of artefacts and their purposes, meaning and relationships with users. Both historic and contemporary examples will be surveyed, and exploration of diverse cultural practice and production is encouraged. Key texts relating to material culture will be used to provide the theoretical framework for investigation and understanding. (LO1-3)

Students will research and propose a design for an object, collection or scheme for an individual, group or society that embodies purpose and meaning in such a way that the intended relationship between the artefact and user/s will be designed, understood and successful. (LO 4)

As a taught postgraduate module, all of the teaching and learning strategies promote reflective learning, enquiry, and independence of thought, rigour of research and testing, and professionalism in presentation.

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.

Formal lectures and workshops are supported by individual tutorials and group seminars. Together they provide the support to ensure that the structured content and independent study conducted throughout this module is effective in addressing the module’s learning outcomes and assessment tasks. The module operates within a framework of mutually supporting modules and curricula, ensuring that course learning outcomes are addressed and met overall. As the module progresses, there is regular interim formative feedback on work in progress that asks you to reflect and identify areas for improvement in the development of your assignments.

In-class activity makes use of varied student-centred approaches such as active, flipped and blended learning, fostering peer-to-peer community building and support for learning so that a range of learning strategies is deployed, and individual learning styles are accommodated. The course team seeks to embed the University’s Education for Social Justice Framework in fostering learning that is enjoyable, accessible, relevant and that takes account of the social and cultural context and capital of its students.

On successful completion of this module you will be able to:

Cognitive intellectual abilities

1. Place your understanding of the relationship between designed artefacts and their users in a theoretical context;

Knowledge and understanding

2. Explain how artefacts embody meaning through their design, material selection and fabrication, and through their subsequent relationships with users;

3. Identify and understand the cognitive, sensory, emotional, ethical and social factors that are entailed in people’s relationships with objects and environments;

4. Analyse and explain the impact of existing or proposed designs on people and communities;

Subject specific skills

5. Present a design proposal for an artefact or scheme that embodies meaning or relationship for the users, as intended;

Professionalism and values

6. Understand the responsibilities, including ethical and environmental, of the designer to all those involved or affected by their work, whether intended or incidental.

The module is assessed through:

1. A written study of an artefact or scheme, investigating and explaining its relational properties with its designers and users. Precise requirements will be set at the start of the module. (1500 words)

2. A design for an object, collection or scheme for an individual, group or society that embodies purpose and meaning in such a way that the intended relationship between the artefact and user/s will be designed, understood and successful. Precise requirements will be set at the start of the module. (digital portfolio including written contextualisation and rationale for the design. (500-700 words)

The work will be assessed in relation to:

• Evidence of clear and accurate understanding of the cognitive, sensory, emotional, ethical and social factors that are entailed in relationships between people and their objects and environments, and related theoretical contexts;

• The demonstrated ability to understand and evaluate the impact of designed environments and artefacts on people and communities through knowledge of case study exemplars and precedents;

• The quality of the design proposition and its communication.

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