Skip to main content
Postgraduate

MA Performance: Screen

Two people looking at a camera monitor
Fabio Modonutti and Victoria Gong MAPS 2022. Photo by: Ali
College
Central Saint Martins
Start date
October 2023
Course length
Two years (60 weeks) Extended full-time

MA Performance: Screen supports you to define your voice and strategy as an independent film maker and screen-based performance maker.

Applications closed 2023/24

We are no longer accepting applications for 2023/24 entry to this course. Applications for 2024/25 entry will open in Autumn 2023.

This course supports you to define your voice and strategy as an independent film maker and screen-based performance maker. It is part of the Performance programme.

Why choose this course at Central Saint Martins

    • Innovative: This is the first postgraduate course in the UK for hybrid moving image and performance practice
    • Interdisciplinary: We have a broad and inclusive approach to performance and moving image, constantly questioning the boundaries of genre and looking to their future in an increasingly digitally mediated era
    • Ideas led: Encouraging a holistic yet flexible approach to the relationship between theory and practice, we support you to find your voice
    • Skills focused: The course emphasises the development of your professional screen skills within an experimental and collaborative studio context.

Open days

There are currently no open days scheduled for this course, please check back at a later date.

Scholarships, bursaries and awards

Course overview

The Performance programme at Central Saint Martins takes a radical, interdisciplinary, experimental, and frequently collaborative approach to performance-making. The work produced is political, free-thinking, and inclusive. It encompasses live performance, moving image, critical theory, socially engaged practice, choreography, scenography, dramaturgy, performance writing, animation, and immersive technologies.

MA Performance: Screen offers an experimental, open, and discursive framework in which to explore the convergent mediums of performance and moving image via critical thinking and experimental studio practice. Students are encouraged to situate their work within the context of the wider social, political, and economic realities of contemporary visual culture and interrogate how images are encountered, produced, and consumed. Specifically aimed at interdisciplinary moving image and performance makers, the course supports an expanding field of practice across performance art, artists’ moving image, expanded cinema, experimental film, participatory practice, documentary, community cinema, and post-internet art to encourage new approaches and methodologies of making, processes, and outcomes.

The course promotes the acquisition of practical production skills.  These include single and multi-camera directing and dramaturgy, cinematography, lighting, choreography / blocking for camera, sound recording, editing and colour grading. The course is structured to simultaneously help students to develop an in-depth knowledge and understanding of relevant critical discourses including theories of performativity, mediation, and representation. Project outputs on the course might include single or multiscreen narrative works, site-specific installations, hybrid documentaries, experimental films, performance lectures, and online and immersive moving image projects.

Our student body and teaching team come from a wide range of personal and professional backgrounds. As a community, we are deeply committed to the idea that diverse environments are the most vibrant creatively and we actively celebrate difference. As a programme, we encourage creative risk-taking by cultivating a supportive and accepting environment in which unique individual and collective perspectives can develop. We believe in the potential for performance to change the society in which we all live.

On leaving the course, MA Performance: Screen graduates will be prepared for a variety of careers in the performance and screen industries.  They will have the agility and confidence to diversify and respond to the demands of the current climate. The course takes a broad and creative view of performance and moving image, supporting progression into a variety of singular or portfolio careers in performance and moving image. You may go on to doctoral research, choose to work within contemporary art or film production, theatre, live events, art and design, photography, screenwriting, festival programming or curation.

We are committed to developing ethical performance screen practices. To achieve this, we are working to embed UAL's Principles for Climate, Social and Racial Justice into the course. 

Contact us

Register your interest to receive information and updates about studying at UAL.

Contact us to make an enquiry.

Course units

Central Saint Martins is a site of intense cultural production, generating critical practice which frequently crosses discipline boundaries and intersects with areas of image-making, society and politics.

Working from an initial understanding of the critical histories, social and political contexts and drivers for performance and moving image practice, you will progress through a variety of technical and production processes based on the experience of independent and collaborative making. This will culminate in a final point of realisation which is supported by critical analysis and reflection.

Central Saint Martins, as a college community, seeks to prioritise the urgencies relating to: identities and equity, climate ecologies, and publics and commons. In particular, that our community of staff and students actively pursue change in their sphere of influence that will impact and improve social justice, climate sustainability and cultural democracy. These are reflected in research themes across the college and in the College’s programme of course development. The MA Performance: Screen course sits within this environment and is motivated by these themes.

The course is structured into six units. This complete learning arc offers intense moments of individual and group production and project work.  The programme works with our Knowledge Exchange team to source opportunities for off-site collaboration. Optional units midway through the course support you in choosing where to place your emphasis.

Unit 1: Performing Images: Process and Practice (20 credits)

The initial practice block grounds you in the technical and practical aspects of single-camera audio-visual production. It encourages an expansion of knowledge through collaborative experimentation with different ideas and processes relating to camera, body and space. This unit will provide opportunity to develop skills in camera operation and cinematography, sound recording, lighting for video, editing, colour grading and audio post-production via practical workshops and conceptual experimentation. Privileging the body, outcomes for this unit might include experiments in live art, video-streaming, dance films, performance lectures or other forms of expanded cinema.


Unit 2: Film Forms: Creation & Production (20 credits)

The emphasis then shifts to ideas around film form and individual approaches to the creation and production of lens-based performance and moving image work.  This enables you to develop a greater understanding of storytelling, narrative, and film language. This Unit explores the wider conditions of global visual culture and interrogating how images are encountered, produced, and consumed. Outcomes for this unit might include single screen short films, multiscreen installations, or immersive, VR (Virtual Reality), AI (Artificial Intelligence), gaming or other online projects. Unit 2 engages students with the expanding field for film and non-conventional forms. Exploding the potential of narrative and the experiences of time. The unit also provides opportunity for the public sharing of work.


Unit 3: Performing Images: Cultures & Contexts (20 credits)

This unit introduces the contexts and critical values of new, contemporary and established screen formats via the analysis of key concepts and debates concerning the body and its relationship to film and video. Your understanding of the history and theory of performance and moving image is developed through a weekly programme of critical and historical studies lectures and interactive talks with guest practitioners. You will submit an individual written or audio-visual essay about a critical topic of your choice. This unit establishes the expectation that research interweaves with practice to support awareness of creative opportunity.


Unit 4: Option Units (40 credits) Choose either: Film Forms: Community & Collaboration, or Film Forms: Practice in Context

Unit 4 runs across the final term of Year 1 and the first term of Year 2 alongside Unit 5. Core teaching encourages and facilitates students in gathering experience and evidence of learning from independent enquiry (practice) and by engaging with external communities in the making and public presentation of work. The two options are to pursue either applied participatory practices or engage with focused research themes.

The Film Forms: Community & Collaboration option considers ideas around performativity, activism, ethical representation, and models of participatory practice. It focuses on how contemporary moving image can reframe relationships between filmmaker and subject. You will collectively interrogate how stories about and with publics are performed, authored, and disseminated to audiences within and beyond the community in question. Outcomes for this elective might include participatory films, lens-based performance/ installation works, filmmaking workshops, multi-camera live streamed events or other forms of visual research.

The Film Forms: Practice in Context option considers a body of moving image or lens-based performance work of your choice. The unit asks you to critically evaluate and contextualise through an extended research document or equivalent in negotiation with the unit tutor.  The research c focus should complement your individual Major Project. The unit provides the opportunity to develop a larger set of questions and ideas using skills, knowledge, and understanding acquired over the course.

Unit 5: REBEL (Options: 5B, Analysis and Insights; 5C Making and Production; 5H Skills and Application, 5I, Curiosity and Enquiry )

The Recognition of Experience Based Education and Learning (REBEL) units enable your engagement with multiple sources of experience. These might include: short courses, projects, and the possibility of participation in learning activities with UAL academic and knowledge exchange partners. The REBEL unit supports you in building an individually relevant programme of learning based on a mixture of lived experience, personal projects, intensive workshops, and transcultural learning exchange. The unit extends over a full year to allow you flexibility and options for joining projects beyond the course.

The REBEL unit is assessed through reflective and evaluative image and text documents that reference your portfolio of experiences. You select one of four options for submission from the following:

  • Unit 5b: Recognition of Experience Based Education and Learning: Analysis and Insights
  • Unit 5c: Recognition of Experience Based Education and Learning: Making and Production; 
  • Unit 5h: Recognition of Experience Based Education and Learning: Skills and Application
  • Unit 5i: Recognition of Experience Based Education and Learning: Curiosity and Enquiry.

Unit 6: Major Project (60 credits)

The Major Project builds on your individual interest and knowledge acquired from previous units to produce a significant body of work. You will conduct in-depth research and experimentation and exercise creative authorship through narrative composition, storytelling, sited practice, and editing. On completion of the unit, you will be able to evidence a strong understanding of potential audiences, choreographies of distribution and circulation as well as the ability to critically self-evaluate your work.

Important note concerning academic progression through your course: If you are required to retake a unit you will need to cease further study on the course until you have passed the unit concerned. Once you have successfully passed this unit, you will be able to proceed onto the next unit. Retaking a unit might require you to take time out of study, which could affect other things such as student loans or the visa status for international students. 

Mode of study

MA Performance: Screen is offered as an extended full-time course which runs for 60 weeks over two academic years between September and June. You will be expected to commit 30 hours per week to study and your making practice, which includes teaching time and independent study, to facilitate part-time employment, work placements and caring responsibilities.

Credit and award requirements

The course is credit-rated at 180 credits. On successfully completing the course, you will gain a Master of Arts (MA degree). Under the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, an MA is Level 7. All units must be passed to achieve the MA, but the classification of the award is derived from the mark for the final unit only. If you are unable to continue the course, a Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert) will normally be offered following the successful completion of 60 credits, or a Postgraduate Diploma (PG Dip) following the successful completion of 120 credits.

Learning and teaching methods

The learning and teaching methods devised for this course include:

  • Group ‘orientation’ exercises
  • Unit briefings and introductions
  • Reading tasks
  • Skills workshops
  • Technical instruction and demonstration
  • Self and peer critical evaluation
  • Personal and peer tutorials
  • Lectures and co-curated programme of guest speakers
  • Independent Learning Team projects
  • Lens-based performance making strategies
  • Facilitation and participation workshops
  • Opportunities to collaborate externally

Student work

Facilities

Associate Lecturer: Dr Alex Fletcher
Associate Lecturer: Dr Jane Stokes
Specialist Technician Video: Leila Ghouri
Specialist Technician Projection Mapping: Dimitrios Coumados

Fees and funding

Home fee

£6,045 per year

This fee is correct for 2023/24 entry and is subject to change for 2024/25 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Home fees are currently charged to UK nationals and UK residents who meet the rules. However, the rules are complex. Find out more about our tuition fees and determining your fee status.

International fee

£15,165 per year

This fee is correct for 2023/24 entry and is subject to change for 2024/25 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Students from countries outside of the UK will generally be charged international fees. The rules are complex so read more about tuition fees and determining your fee status.

Scholarship search

Entry requirements

The course team welcomes applicants from a broad range of backgrounds. Applicants are expected to demonstrate sufficient prior knowledge of and/or potential in performance and/or moving image practices to be able to successfully complete the programme of study and/ or have an academic or professional background in a relevant subject.

Applicants are most likely to come from disciplines that might include: performance and performance design, film and video, fine art, photography, theatre and dance, media or film studies, fashion, architecture, anthropology, or areas of interdisciplinary creative practice. This course is intended for those who want to pursue specialism in moving image and screen-related performance.

The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

  • An honours degree
  • Or an equivalent EU/international qualification.

AP(E)L – Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning

Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:

  • Related academic or work experience
  • A portfolio of creative practice
  • The quality of the personal statement
  • Or a combination of these factors

Each application will be considered on its own merit but cannot guarantee an offer in each case.

English language requirements

IELTS level 6.5 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking (please check our main English language requirements webpage).

Selection criteria

We select applicants according to potential and current ability in the following areas:

  • Prior experience and creative practice in performance and/ or moving image or a relevant arts discipline, evidenced through the portfolio submission.
  • A capacity for self-directed learning, self-reflection and potential for the development of practice-based research, evidenced within the personal statement.
  • A knowledge and critical understanding of contexts of cultural and social relevance specific to own area of practice.
  • Appropriate communication skills and a willingness to support others within the learning community.

Apply now

Applications closed 2023/24

You should apply by clicking on the link to the direct form below. The application form can be saved as you fill it out, so you do not need to complete it all at once. You will also have the chance to review all the information and make any necessary amendments before you submit the application form.

Deferred entry

Central Saint Martins does not accept applications for deferred entry. You should therefore apply in the year you wish to study.

Transfers

If you are currently studying at another institution and if you have successfully completed 60 credits in the equivalent units and modules on your current postgraduate course and wish to continue your studies at Central Saint Martins, you can apply to transfer. The Admissions Tutor will consider applications on a case by case basis, subject to places being available. You must apply directly to the course via the course webpage as early as possible.

Please check our Student Transfer Policy for more important information and be ready to provide us with your current course handbook and unit transcripts.

You will need to provide an official document (translated into English) from your current university, explaining the learning outcomes of the units you have completed.

Before you apply, please take time to read the guidance below. You will be asked to provide the following information when completing the online application form:

General information

  • Personal details (including legal full name, preferred name, date of birth, nationality, addresses)
  • Current English language level
  • Current and/or previous education and qualification details
  • Employment history

Personal statement

The personal statement (up to 1000 words) should address your capacity for self-directed learning, self-reflection and potential for the development of practice-based research.

CV

You should provide a full and detailed CV or résumé which demonstrates how you meet the selection criteria.

We cannot consider your application if you do not provide all the information above.

Communicating with you

After you have successfully submitted your application, you will receive an email confirming we have successfully received your application and providing you with your login details for the UAL Portal.  We will request any additional information from you, including inviting you to upload documents / portfolio / book an interview, through the portal.  You should check your UAL Portal regularly for any important updates and requests.

Application deadline

19 December 2022 and 3 April 2023

We are no longer accepting applications for 2023/24 entry to this course. Applications for 2024/25 entry will open in Autumn 2023.

When you'll hear from us

If this course requires a digital portfolio as part of the application process, you will be invited to submit this through UAL’s online submission tool, PebblePad. We will request this separately after initial processing of your application is complete. Once we request your portfolio, you will have 7 days to submit it.

Once you’ve sent in your application, this will be sent through to our course teams for review. Find out more about what happens after you apply.

Applications closed 2023/24

There are two ways international students can apply:

If you are applying directly you click on the link to the direct form below. The application form can be saved as you fill it out, so you do not need to complete it all at once. You will also have the chance to review all the information and make any necessary amendments before you submit the application form.

Deferred entry

Central Saint Martins does not accept applications for deferred entry. You should therefore apply in the year you wish to study.

Transfers

If you are currently studying at another institution and if you have successfully completed 60 credits in the equivalent units and modules on your current postgraduate course and wish to continue your studies at Central Saint Martins, you can apply to transfer. The Admissions Tutor will consider applications on a case by case basis, subject to places being available. You must apply directly to the course via the course webpage as early as possible.

Please check our Student Transfer Policy for more important information and be ready to provide us with your current course handbook and unit transcripts.

You will need to provide an official document (translated into English) from your current university, explaining the learning outcomes of the units you have completed.

Visas

Read our visit our immigration and visa advice page to find out whether you need a visa to study.

Before you apply, please take time to read the guidance below. You will be asked to provide the following information when completing the online application form:

General information

  • Personal details (including legal full name, preferred name, date of birth, nationality, addresses)
  • Current English language level
  • Current and/or previous education and qualification details
  • Employment history

Personal statement

The personal statement (up to 1000 words) should address your capacity for self-directed learning, self-reflection and potential for the development of practice-based research.

CV

You should provide a full and detailed CV or résumé which demonstrates how you meet the selection criteria.

Immigration history check

You will need to complete an immigration history check to establish whether you are eligible to study at UAL.  If you do not complete the check we will not be able to proceed with your application.

We cannot consider your application if you do not provide all the information above.

Communicating with you

After you have successfully submitted your application, you will receive an email confirming we have successfully received your application and providing you with your login details for the UAL Portal.  We will request any additional information from you, including inviting you to upload documents / portfolio / book an interview, through the portal.  You should check your UAL Portal regularly for any important updates and requests.

Application deadline

19 December 2022 and 3 April 2023

Our equal consideration deadlines have now passed. This course will remain open to applications for 2023 entry until places have been filled. Please be aware that courses can close without notice.

We recommend you submit your application as early as possible to allow the Admissions team to resolve any initial queries about your application as quickly as possible.

When you'll hear from us

Once you’ve sent in your application, this will be sent through to our course teams for review. Find out more about what happens after you apply.

After you apply

What happens next

We check your application to see if you meet the standard entry requirements for the course.  Following a review of the application documents, successful applicants will be invited to upload a digital portfolio.

Digital portfolio

You will be required to submit online a digital portfolio containing up to 25 pages of your work and may include written accounts as well as images, documentation, film and audio materials.

  • Where appropriate, include short annotations and notes to give context to the work
  • If you have worked on any group projects or collaborations, you may want to explain your role
  • In many instances, it is helpful to indicate the scale of the work and the media used.

For more information please visit our Portfolio Advice Page.

Interview

Following the review of the portfolio we select applicants to move on to the next stage of the process. These applicants will be invited to an online interview of 15 to 20 minutes.

How we notify you of the outcome of your application

You will receive the outcome of your application through the UAL Portal.

Feedback

This course receives a high number of applications, and unfortunately we cannot provide feedback to everyone who is unsuccessful. We can only provide feedback after you have had an interview.

If you would like to request feedback, please contact us via your portal.

Each and every application is carefully considered by a member(s) of our academic team. With so many strong applicants to choose from, it is often a very difficult decision to make. If you are unsuccessful, you are welcome to apply to us again in the future.

Deferring your place

This course accepts requests from offer holders to defer their place for one academic year. Deferral requests are granted on a first-come, first served basis until all deferral places are filled, or a deadline has been reached, whichever is sooner.