The academic year for this course is divided into Block 1 and Block 2. Block 1 is of 15 weeks’ duration from late September to February. In accordance with the University timetable, there will be a 4-week holiday in December. Block 2 is also of 15 weeks’ duration from mid-February to the end of June with a 4-week holiday for Easter.
Year one
Year one will introduce the fundamentals of 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion, outlining the key skills and techniques as a grounding for your practice.
Introduction to Design for Performance
This unit aims to introduce you to your discipline in the context of study at Higher Education level; learning skills and the requirements of effective studentship at undergraduate level; and to orientate you within your course, the College and the University.
Introduction to 3D and Modified Forms
This unit will introduce you to some of the fundamental principles and techniques used by 3D effects practitioners. You will be required to research and record processes and the exploration of techniques and approaches in a visually appropriate and informative way.
The unit encourages your development in technical areas underpinned by an understanding of the principles of specialist subject processes as well as exploring creative three-dimensional approaches to modifying, altering or adapting the performing body. You will develop an understanding of how basic techniques can be used creatively and will be encouraged to develop an enquiring approach to the development of 3D effects for performance.
Fashion Cultures and Histories
This unit introduces the Cultural and Historical Studies approach to fashion and related areas. The unit provides a broad overview of the subject and introduces key concepts and ways of thinking that will form the basis of subsequent study.
Better Lives
This unit will provide you with a solid understanding of London College of Fashion’s core values and how they connect to your practice. As part of this unit, you will explore diversity, social responsibility and sustainability, themes which you will then apply to a selected project. At this stage, the emphasis is on how you apply your thinking across these important themes to your practice. Fashion can change lives. We want you to use fashion to examine the past, build a sustainable future and improve the way we live. That’s why we call this unit ‘Better Lives’.
Collaboration one: Design and Production
This unit will enable you to integrate the research practices and principles of design, learned in the Introduction to Design for Performance Unit, into a series of collaborative and / or personal projects. It will also extend your knowledge of other areas of design.
You will undertake research, design development and presentation principles within a collaborative project, working with students from across the Performance Programme. Further project work will introduce you to the approaches, terminologies and processes of your specialist subject.
You will be encouraged to take an innovative approach to the design of your work using both experimental and traditional methods within a contemporary performance context.
Year two
Year two provides the opportunity to explore new areas of 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion such as digital technology and working collaboratively with industry.
Critical Issues in Fashion Research
The Cultural and Historical Studies unit Critical Issues in Fashion Research will broaden or deepen your learning of areas relating to your chosen field. You will be able to learn alongside students from other courses and will read relevant academic texts and complete a formal academic essay for assessment.
Core skill: 3D Innovation and Design
Responding to a given text, this unit will develop your awareness of the relationship between research, design and technical processes within your specialist subject area. You will develop an understanding of how techniques can be used creatively and will be encouraged to develop an enquiring approach to technical development and experimentation within your work.
Situating your Practice: Industry project
This unit aims to develop your practitioner identity and consider your personal manifesto for performance, by completing a performance proposal for a performance event around a location, and stimulus of your choosing. It will allow you to expand your understanding of the work of practitioners who you find useful, inspiring, and interesting, before then applying that knowledge in the creation of your own performance event.
Situating your Practice: Industry placement
This unit aims to develop your professional skills within an industry environment. On your placement, you will be able to experience the pace, atmosphere and discipline of working in the industry. This will give you practical experience of the roles, functions and operations within the industry. The unit requires a minimum of 60 work placement hours.
Collaboration two: Interdisciplinary and Experimental
During this unit, you will collaborate with other students to design and realise characters for a narrative. Working in a small group you will choose a context for the performance, you are encouraged to look at a context you may not have designer for previously, and to collaborate with performers and students from other disciplines.
Year three
Year three will give the opportunity to showcase your progress and skill development through creative and academic work across three units.
Innovation and Design
This unit requires you to identify an area of personal interest and then to investigate, research and experiment to develop your concept and designs for realisation in the final unit. You will demonstrate your skills in the creation of an extensive body of work to show development and experimentation. You should consider theoretical and professional contexts of your project, and the surrounding industries, to develop your chosen narrative and performance context. You may choose to focus on one line of enquiry, or produce a series of small test projects, or explore a range of research avenues and methods.
Cultural and Historical Studies Dissertation
The overall aim of the dissertation is to provide an opportunity for you to demonstrate your understanding of the critical and analytical perspectives developed within cultural and historical theory and your ability to apply those perspectives in a specific study. You will undertake a substantial piece of structured primary and secondary research that critically engages with cultural issues relating to fashion, the body, performance, or the media and communications industries and which reflects on the critical debates and concerns addressed in your course.
Personal Performance Project
Building on your previous design portfolio created for Innovation and Design unit, you will now realise your ideas. This unit will enable you to realise a personal response to your concept. The structure and outcome of your project will be determined by you. You will identify and construct individually negotiated outcomes to communicate your concept towards your chosen audience.
