Visual Studies

Visual Studies provides you with the opportunity to make work that is responsive to the potential of creative thinking rather than within the context of a single art and design discipline. You will be encouraged to make connections and to explore synergies across a range of visual art and design practice, media, processes and approaches.

On graduation students have chosen to pursue careers as artists or have entered a wide range of professions in design such as illustration, exhibition design, marketing, interior design, photography and web design. Others have pursued careers in all sectors of education as teachers, lecturers and technicians and the course has also enabled its graduates to successfully complete postgraduate courses in Fine Art, Design and Film.

Level One

Working with ideas and themes you will explore the apparent and less obvious connections between ideas, images, objects, words and theories. Work can be in two or three dimensions and you are encouraged to consider both art and design based concepts in the realisation of your creative thoughts. Emphasis is placed upon acquiring practical and conceptual skills to help you develop your ideas and define an appropriate focus for your working practice as you progress through the course.

You will be encouraged to reflect upon your studio practice in terms of the historical and cultural influences that relate to your area of interest, and this will help you to understand opinions and theories relevant to the work of others, as well as your own.

A number of workshop inductions will introduce you to working methods that are reliant on skill with equipment, processes and software.

LEVEL TWO

The first part of your second year continues to encourage a broad approach to studio work and the course will support you in maintaining a diversity of practice according to the ideas or intended application of these concepts. Understanding the relationship of your work to audience or client; what your work intends and how it might be received by others will be explored through considerations of art and design language, the expectations of the creative industries and a professional practice. Team-working and the ability to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences are essential skills that you will develop as a practitioner within the visual arts.

This level of study also provides you with an opportunity to engage in work related learning through live projects, collaborative practice, volunteering and outreach work with schools and colleges or within the wider community. Such experiences are intended to help define and support a career direction.

A series of lectures and seminars provide a range of cultural, historical and contemporary contexts for a studio practice embracing aspects of art and design and collaborative working.

LEVEL THREE

Level Three is an opportunity to plan, develop and produce a substantial body of work over an extended period of time. You will be expected to focus your studio practice at this stage, making a commitment to a particular set of visual concerns that will be driven by theme, an art or design direction or interdisciplinary approach.

By this point in the course you should be ready to advance the notion of an individual or personal visual signature that can reflect your strengths and enthusiasm for a particular aspect of visual practice.

Your approach may be centred in thematic ideas, or a materials and methods based means to make work, or perhaps you will be interested in particular applications for creative thinking. You will decide on a direction in discussion with staff that will help you devise a plan for your studio practice and written Research Report. Work related learning experiences can continue to factor in your studies as can collaborative projects.

You will continue to develop skills in your final year of study that relate to idea generation and management, maximising the potential of materials and working methods to effectively communicate or share your creative energies with the rest of the world.

WHAT MAKES US SPECIAL

The course is centred on creative visual thinking and innovation. Students can continue to explore art and
design based approaches in their studio work throughout the first two years of the course focusing on how ideas are developed and applied within a broad spectrum of creative visual practice. Students will be encouraged to bring other arts interests in music, creative writing and performance, for example, into the studio to consider relationships between a number of distinctive arts practice.

Collaborative work is also championed within the context of the creative industries where team work is essential. Key skills such as communication, negotiation and the ability to be able to respond to a wide range of employment possibilities are nurtured through a teaching strategy that is responsive to individual aspirations. Students are supported to engage in a wide range of work related learning experiences throughout the course.