Year 1
You will receive an introduction to fine art. The focus will be on building your practice in a safe and ethical manner. Year one will involve:
- Structured activities to increase your awareness of digital possibilities within fine art
- Practical skills enhancing workshops at the Creative Computing Institute (CCI) will introduce you to the principles of creative coding
- Looking at key computational media ideas and terms within contemporary art and culture
- Seminars to develop an understanding of a decolonised visual culture
- Working with popular open source programming software such as Processing, OpenFrameworks, P5.js and Arduino
- Learning how to program in languages such as Java, Javascript and C++
- An introduction to key terms that underpin ideas and contexts relevant to computational media within contemporary art and culture
- Be taught strategies to help build confidence in different approaches to making work such as conducting academic research and working in the studio
Unit 1 - Introduction to fine art and computation
Unit 1 will introduce students to self-directed learning in fine art practice and the principles of computation. You will be required to complete an orientation log and present a project.
Unit 2 - Creative coding and practice
Unit 2 will be co-delivered with the Creative Computing Institute (CCI) to learn foundational creative coding skills.
Unit 3 - Computational ideas into practice
Unit 3 will extend this knowledge by putting computational ideas into practice. You will work collectively on shared projects to complete artworks that demonstrates a reflexive understanding of the medium. Research will be carried out into the relationship between practice and a wider theoretical context relating to a decolonised visual culture and an experimental understanding of time and space.
Unit 4 - Activating practice
Unit 4 has 2 parts. The first uses the graduation outcomes as an opportunity for reflective, critical and contextual writing. The second part asks students to imagine an external project outside the college’s studio environment.
- Lectures on the contexts in which art is made and shown. You will look at examples of how proposals around the world are realised for specific locations and exhibitions
- You will develop a proposal for an external context
- Be supported through tutorial and group discussions
- Write a review of a selected BA Fine artwork on public display
- Writing workshops to support you by looking at diverse styles and purposes of reviewing art exhibitions
Year 2
The second year is about working in context. You will learn how to identify your own strengths and work with others in a variety of situations considering different audiences. You will be introduced to the artistic potential of immersive media and machine learning through a series workshops within Fine Art and CCI.
By the end of this year you will be able to situate your practice formally and critically in terms of context, audience, material and technical choices.
Unit 5 - Working for a context
This unit builds on the knowledge and experience gained in the previous unit about working collaboratively to set tasks.
Unit 6 - Collaborative and collective practices
This is a collaborative unit which invites you to extend your practice by working collaboratively across the colleges and external contexts.
Unit 7 - Machine learning
This unit is focused on machine learning and the ethical, decolononial and social justice concerns that surround this field.
Unit 8 - Audiences
In unit 8 students focus on audiences through a number of exercises around the degree show and begin to propose what the focus of year 3 will be.
Year 3
Your final year is focused on articulation and presentation of your practice within a fast moving and ever-changing context.
- You will choose to undertake research either individually or collectively
- Your work plan will be co-curated with tutors
- You will establish a work pattern for the year between the BA Fine Art: Computational Arts studio and the CCI
- You will demonstrate an understanding of inclusive, sustainable and ethical ways of working.
Unit 9 - Practice and articulation
- Develop and produce work for a public audience
- Articulate a piece of research that can be produced either through a Dissertation, Presentation or Live Project
- Decolonial/Intersectional Art practice seminars and tutorials to support research
- Dedicated sessions will be offered to support artistic life after art school and how to apply for funding, jobs or postgraduate study
Unit 10 - Practice and presentation
- Present a multi-platform public-facing display of work
- Workshops, seminars, tutorials and lectures on approaches to curation, audiences, methods of display, materials and the ethics of representation
- Produce written work or a digital portfolio that presents your practice and ideas
- You will be encouraged to proactively network to engage with communities within and outside of the art school to build sustainable and ethical working relationships
Optional Diploma between year 2 and 3
Between year 2 and 3 you can opt to undertake the Diploma in Professional Studies or the UAL Diploma in Creative Computing. Whilst these Diplomas are an optional aspect of the course, they are designed as an integrated and assessed part of your journey through the course.