The course enables students to engage with a diverse range of theoretical frameworks, and methodological approaches that will inform and enrich their experiential design thinking and making practice. Through its multi-model approach, the course is designed to guide studentstoward the development of an individual critical position, collaborative approach, and agile mindset, informing their future design practice. The course aims to create transdisciplinary practitioners equipped with the strategic, creative, and technical skills necessary to navigate and flourish in the dynamic and mutable terrain of the contemporary creative industries, working in emerging fields such as experiential design, environments and organisation design, creative direction, design research and innovation, design strategy, and futurology/foresighting.
The course curriculum is composed of a series of focusedpractice-based units that are structured around students working either individually or in small groups,that are scalable in numbers. The units are organised around a combinationof short assignment ‘sprints’designed to encourage collaborative, innovative and entrepreneurial ways of working, andmore in-depth investigations that encourage analytic andcritical research approaches.
Using the body as its central interface,the units are organised into three sequential stagesthat expand in scope and complexity.In Stage 1, students, will be introduced to the core theories, skills, and methods of experience design through an exploratory hands-on engagement with emerging technologiessuch as VR, AR, AI and platform software. Stage 2 builds on this knowledge by situating it within an applied strategicand speculativedesign context. Stage 3consolidates these skills and expands them further by enabling studentsto identify, develop, and realise theirown extended research-driven, practice-based Master’s Project.
Over the three stages, students are introduced to a range of issues and concerns around how the convergence of pervasive computationaland new media advancements, the ecological crisis, and the rise of the experience economyarefundamentally shaping the fashion and creative landscape. Each unit delivers core disciplinary knowledge, research, and technical skills; and explores methods of design thinking, strategy, collaborative engagement and critical practice through project-based learning.
The first five unitsthat make up stages 1 and 2 are undertaken sequentially, after which the course culminates in Unit 06: Master’s Project, in which students, working independently or collaboratively, develop individual positions, methods and approaches to designing for embodied experiences.
Units are organised and run through a series of iterative sprints that vary in pace and duration. Units will be carried out individually or in small groups and culminate in a mix of individual and collaborative assessment.
Blended learning will be practiced throughout the duration of each unit in which online and face-to-face tutor, peer-to-peer support, and external industry feedback are provided. Unit 06: Master’s Projectis supported by design and academic tutorials both online and face-to-face.
Stage 1: Explore
Stage1 commences with a two day ‘summit, consisting of reading seminars, guest expert lectures, and group discussions. The summitwill provide the conceptual and theoretical foundation for the courseand kick startsthe stage’s key themes for the practice-led unitsthat follows.
Unit 1:Collaborative Challenge (20 credits)*
This unit isdesigned to enable youto innovate, engage in developmental processes and participate in collaborative working practices. Youwill be encouraged to develop the professional negotiating and networking skills that will be neededin order to be successful in the cultural and creative industries. The nature of this collaboration may be within the course, with students on other courses, with research centres such as the Digital Anthropology Lab,or with industry.
Unit 2: Immersive Spaces (20 credits)
This unit introduces you to experience design as a critical and creative practice. The unit will focus on how emerging sensory technologies can be used to create immersive experiential spaces within a fashion context. Supported by lectures, seminars, and workshops the unit will offeryou a solid grounding in experience design theory and methods. Through a set of short ‘sprint’ assignments, you will investigate emerging ‘immersive’ technologies as well as relevant prototyping technologies in order to research, develop and document a series of prototypes for an immersive spatial experience. This unit will enable you to develop skills in rapid concept creation and testing, as well as build a foundation for future creative applications such as exhibition installations, immersive brand experiences and showcase events, as well as enable you to identify the potential future direction of your creative practice.
Unit 3: Experiential Narratives (20 credits)
This unit focusses on the development of experiential fashion narratives. It will introduce you to contemporary design methods and processes, experience mapping, as well as the essential ideation, management and organisational skills that are necessary for designing omnichannel experiences. Working in small groups, you will develop a concept for a mixed-reality fashion experience journey spanning multiple touch-points (digital and location-based) that you will present as a short explanatory film. Over the course of the unit you will develop a hands-on and reflective understanding of the design processes and various roles and responsibilities you may occupy within an experiential design team, the ethical issues surrounding the use of platform technologies, as well as gain experience in collaboration, negotiation, storytelling, and independent learning.
Stage 2: Situate
Stage 2 commences with a two day ‘summit, consisting of reading seminars, guest expert lectures, and group discussions. The summit will build on the conceptual and theoretical foundation established in stage 1 by situating it within a broader socio-political and planetary context that will define stage 2’s research and practice-basedunits.
Unit 4: Research Proposal (20 credits)*
This unit introduces youto arange of research methods, approaches and tools that are available to youin order to conduct yourpost graduate project. The unit will cover philosophy and ethics in research, primary and secondary research methods, includingquantitative, qualitative, visualand practice research methods.The unit will consider research in a range of contexts relevant to the cultural and creative industries and enable youto understand the relationship between theory and practice.
Unit 5: Critical Strategies/Speculative Realities(40 credits)
This unit focuses on the development of strategic thinking and compelling alternative fashion experiences as a means of enabling behavioural and systemic change. It is designed to expand and enrich your experience design skills by embedding them within a broader strategic and long-term speculative context, as well as enable you to begin defining your own creative pathway which will prepare you for your individual Master’s project/production. The unitis organised into two connected parts andintroduces you to a range ofstrategic and speculative design methods such as foresight, iterative prototyping, future anthropology, transition design, framing, role-play and world-building. In the first part of the unit, you will work in a small group to develop and present a strategy proposal. Through a series rapid sprints, that cover research and analysis, insight development, and scenario building your group’s strategy proposal will address a real-world issue by responding to the potential implications of emerging social, technological and environmental developments. In the second part of the unit, and working individually, you will define your own creative pathway byusingyour group strategy proposal as your starting point to produce a related speculative design outcome that offers a “vision” of what our near future fashion experience might look and feel like.
Stage 3: Integrate
Unit 6: The Master’s Project (60 credits)*
The Masters Project is the final stage of your Masters’ course and is the is the culmination of your studies and provides you with a space to synthesise all the knowledge and skills you have gained on the course so far. Your project will be self-directed and you will negotiate the shape and direction of your project at the outset with your supervisor. This important final phase of your studies is where you will effectively communicate your work along with your ability to critically interrogate your practicewith robust approaches to research and theoretical analysis. Upon completion of your project, you will have generated a high-level Masters’ quality piece of work that will showcase your practice, academic literacy and the professional standards that will act as a platform for your future career and professional development.
