About The Course
The course acknowledges the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary practice in its diversity and relational aspects and identifies the currency of debate, dialogue and mediation in the contemporary field of practice.
It promotes individual creative approaches and encourages students to study the inter-relationship of thinking and practice in contemporary contexts.
Students engage with photography, print processes, audio-visual practice, sound, digital processes, and web-based practices in an exploratory and experimental environment which supports the validity of personal and idiosyncratic working methods, whilst identifying rigorous inquiry into diverse and hybrid areas of contemporary creative practice.
Optional group projects throughout the course address the importance of collective activity, and the currency of curating and documenting in contemporary practice. Collaborations with external organisations and institutions aid the student’s awareness of the international and cross-cultural dimensions of practice.
A programme of visiting lecturers that offers students regular contact with practitioners from a wide range of vocations and areas of contemporary creative practice, locally, nationally, and internationally, underpins exposure to external projects and professional awareness.
Throughout all three levels of the course students engage in presentations, workshops, and tutorials that discuss individual progress, supporting reflection upon the methods and nature of how creative work is made, presented, viewed and critiqued in shifting social and cultural contexts.
Through text based projects and personal documentation a student investigates the uses of text in professional and commercial creative contexts, including, for example, criticism, reviews, personal statements and other relevant textual dialogues and journalism.
The course aims to prepare a student for engagement with contemporary practice in all its forms with a professional awareness and individual outlook that reflects the progressive and changing nature of the global creative environment.
Structure & Curriculum
Level One
Level one introduces students to the course philosophy and enables them to begin to engage with contemporary creative practice. It initiates the student into the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary practice in its diversity and relational aspects through an integrated lecture and seminar programme which informs, qualifies, and reviews students understanding, particularly in relation to the three terms (‘contemporary’, ‘creative’ and ‘practice’) that constitute the course title. This structure progressively enables students to recognize the currency of debate, dialogue and mediation in the contemporary field of practice. Students are made aware of the importance of beginning to articulate an individual creative approach with confidence and awareness of the interrelationship of thinking and practicing in contemporary contexts.
It develops the students’ creative work through engaging them in thematic projects and introducing them to the processes, methods and strategies that are employed in contemporary creative practice. An integrated series of introductory technical workshops enables the student to develop their project through the use of available equipment, materials, and tools including photography, printmaking, audio-visual practice and editing, sound production, digital processes, and web-based practices. These workshops are inclusive of informing students of the health and safety regulations relevant to each area and the proper ways of planning and mediating the use of particular workshops. Students are encouraged to develop their project using the resources in an exploratory and experimental manner that is reflected in an initial ability to interpret and articulate their study.
Integrated into the initiation and development of students through the level is an introduction to the methods and philosophies of research which includes an introduction to the library and its learning support services. Students are made aware of the importance of acquiring the basic skills of research promoting the integration of theory and practice and the validity of personal inquiry into the diverse and hybrid areas of contemporary creative practice. This introduction to research and its role in informing an ability to articulate individual practice is reviewed in group seminars which serve to support and clarify an understanding of the students’ engagement with contemporary creative practice.
It provides opportunities for student participation in a series of identified collaborative and group projects each reflecting a particular aspect of contemporary creative practice that promote the importance of collective activity and the currency of curation and documentation.
The identified collaborative projects are integrated with lectures and seminars that contextualise the projects and inform students of the research potential within them. The series of projects and their supporting lectures and seminars are delivered by a combination of members of the course team and visiting lecturers. This leads to the production of a collective document to which all students must contribute. This document is produced through the establishment of a separate collaborative project, which records, collates, edits and communicates all of the group activity and some individual initiatives developed throughout the unit. The planning, conception and production of this document enables an introduction to the importance of working in a team and an ability to recognise the value of combining the appropriate skills of individuals. It also serves to prepare the student for a more professional approach to practice in Level Two. Individual contribution to this exercise aims to initiate an awareness of the need for documenting creative work and mapping personal development and progress.
The level consolidates student progress through presentations and reviews. This process allows students to articulate their intentions and awareness of the contexts in which they are operating, and evidence their approach to presenting their practice in appropriate ways.
Level Two
Level two builds on the consolidation of individual creative work at the close of Level One and, through tutorials and presentations, assists the initiation, location and development of independent and individual projects. Within the establishment of this individual practice a student indicates their interest for involvement with collaborative and group projects. It supports needs for the development of technical abilities through practical workshops and assists through presentations and tutorials the wider understanding of interdisciplinary creative practice.
Developing awareness of the international and cross-cultural dimensions of practice is fundamental to study throughout the level. This is supported by the development and delivery of identified projects with distinct outcomes that progress over specified periods of time. These projects enable students to work in collaboration with each other and external organisations and institutions. This exposure to external projects, locally, nationally, and internationally, is underpinned by a programme of visiting lecturers offers students regular contact with practitioners from a wide range of vocations and areas of contemporary creative practice. Discussion of and interaction with this programme aims to focus students’ ability to reflect upon their own practice and reinforce their aspirations relative to the external world of contemporary creative practice.
The level identifies methods of research and establishes individual students’ approach toward contributing to the production of a research database at the end of the culmination of the level. All students are expected to participate in the development of this database, which provides a communal and increasingly professional hub for student research. It promotes and communicates throughout the level the relevance of exploring social, creative and information cultures and identifies the benefit of distilling this material into a personal plan for learning which increasingly reveals and supports an individual creative identity. The development of this project supports the opportunity for increased awareness of the international dimensions of study.
Further development of individual activity and participation of external projects is supported by presentations, planning meetings and tutorials. Students are encouraged to develop with particular reflection upon the methods and nature of the presentation of their creative work. This is assisted by the demands of external projects, which will in diverse and appropriate ways require students to consider and work towards final outcomes and presentations in relation to shifting social and cultural contexts.
Initiated research will continue throughout and assist the consolidation of individual practice. The participation in the research database is expected to culminate in an articulation and constituent contribution of a personal practice and relevant research, which identifies a planned and progressive attitude towards study. Throughout the unit there will be review meetings concerning the progress of the database and an identified constituent body will be identified to maintain its development. The level will consolidate students’ active research throughout by concluding the database as a collective body of information and a progressive record of student activity, both individual and collaborative, that reflects both the internal and external projects that have taken place. Individual results from this aspect of study will contribute to the student record of planning and progressing.
A programme of reviews and presentations allows students to consolidate their practice in a reflective, supportive and self -critical environment that promotes group discussion and allows for the investigation of and contribution to the development of others in a spirit of reciprocal dialogue.
Level 3
Level three establishes a consistent creative practice through the initiation and development of individual student projects. It enables professional awareness and develops a capacity to engage with specific contexts of practice through appropriate methods of articulation and presentation. Through negotiation the student presents an identified project or path of study and participates in group workshops appropriate to their particular use of processes and procedures.
The development of the project is mediated and reviewed through the participation in presentations, which enable the student to articulate and refine their aims and intentions, their technical abilities and their appropriate methods and strategies of presentation. The unit offers the opportunity for engagement and discussion with professional practitioners through the visiting lecturer programme and encourages the identification of and communication and participation with opportunities external to the university.
At the beginning of the level students are required to present a draft document, derived from the outcomes of their creative work and the documentation of research at the conclusion of Level Two, that proposes, outlines, and contextualises an individual project that they will undertake throughout the level. This document is reviewed at identified points throughout the level with particular attention to its relation to professional practice and research methodologies appropriate to its purpose. It should reflect the students’ experience and acquisition of knowledge from research made in Levels One and Two, and should reveal an awareness and study of the uses of text in professional and commercial creative contexts, including, for example, criticism, reviews, personal statements and other relevant textual dialogues and journalism.
Participation is required in a final series of workshops and presentations that are specifically concerned with identifying and defining final modes of presentation and locating the final body of work in a context relative to those in the external world of contemporary creative practice. These presentations confirm the vocational relevance of critical reflection and the ability to evaluate individual practice relative to that of others. Workshops assist the final refinement of technical processes and related presentation techniques and allow for the consideration and analysis of these through group discussion.
The concluding part of level three requires the further development, editing and completion of the draft document begun at its beginning. This enables the presentation of a concise textual document alongside the outcomes of the project as submitted for final assessment which articulates to an external audience the intentions and contexts of the creative work. The development, refinement, editing and presentation of this document are supported throughout by individual tutorials and review seminars. In its final form the document articulates the end point of a students trajectory through the level and, along with the identified research outcomes and their documentation from the previous two levels, constitutes a file that demonstrates the student’s ability to plan, negotiate, initiate, research and reflect upon their own practice and study and their ability to observe, seek out, research, and investigate the professional world of contemporary creative practice and its vocational contexts.
The further development and consequent consolidation of the student’s individual project leads to the presentation of a body of creative work that represents the culmination of their activity throughout the level.
Application
Application to the course can be made through UCAS - Institution code L27, Course code EW12 or WW12
For further information, contact the Course Administrator on 0113 283 2600 ext 4976, or Course Leader Chris Bloor at c.bloor@leedsmet.ac.uk