module specification

The Fine Art Techniques module introduces you to range of media through a programme of practical, hands-on workshops. This module will teach you the medium specific techniques and skills that will enable you to develop a materially diverse and technically proficient studio practice.

This module supports an applied understanding of technical literacy through the development of basic skills and the advancement of techniques. The programme of study utilises the technical facilities of AAD to provide the necessary technical skills required for the development of medium specific art practices. The technical demonstrations are supported by introductory seminars that provide a contextual framework for each medium within a diverse field of contemporary fine art practice.

This module focuses upon key skills and concepts, with the aim to enable you to make heuristic connections between intention, process, and outcome as you test the methods of art enquiry introduced in other modules by applying art processes and art media techniques effectively. This module will induct you to the essential health and safety procedures and processes that are necessary in order to access the workshops independently with the aim for you to be proficient in the organisation of tools and materials and to use the technical facilities and equipment with confidence.

Students are taught in small groups that rotate every 6 weeks so that by the end of the year each student has completed every workshop including: Printmaking; 3D (ceramics, wood work, metal work); Photography (digital and analogue), Painting; and Audio-Visual (LO1).

Each medium specific workshop is introduced by a seminar that frames the technical skills taught within an art historical and contemporary context (LO2). Each workshop will demonstrate and induct the necessary organisation of tools and materials in that medium (LO3). Each class will provide technical demonstrations which provide students with the practical experience of testing out ideas through the application of techniques (LO4). Student will be inducted to the health and safety procedures that are essential for students to be able to use the facilitates independently, through which students will gain significant understanding of the necessary protocol required for the participation in technical facilities and the operation of professional equipment. (LO5)

 Scheduled teaching provides the guidance and foundation to ensure that independent study is effective in addressing the module’s learning outcomes and assessment tasks.    

In-class activity makes use of varied student-centred approaches such as active and blended learning, so that a range of learning strategies is deployed, and individual learning styles are accommodated. Information is provided through a range of means and sources to minimise and remove barriers to successful progress through the module.  
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.      

Activities foster peer-to-peer community building and support for learning. Reflective learning is promoted through interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, receive 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 written reflections on progress and achievement.      

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-based learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal and career 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 will:

1. Learn technical skills essential to medium specific processes 
2. Understand the relevance of specific media in contemporary art practice and their historical context   
3. Operate technical equipment for art-making with proficiency and confidence 
4. Learn how to develop ideas though the application of technical skills
5. Understand the essential health and safety criteria in order to work independently and professionally across a wide range of technical workshops

Students produce a journal that addresses the module’s learning outcomes through the tasks and criteria as set out in the assessment brief. These will be detailed at the start of each academic year.

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