Art and Emerging Technologies MA

This module explores interrelationships between nature, culture, art and technology, introducing key concepts and technical skills within physical computing, creative coding, and sensing practices, and applying these technologies in a practice-based project to question, and critically reflect upon current environmental and societal challenges.

Through active engagement within a specific site, location or community, you’ll work alongside collectives, scientists, researchers, or other relevant stakeholders within the creative industries, fostering a deeper understanding of our relationship with the changing environment and the interconnectedness of ecological, social, and political systems.

This module explores emerging media in relation to creative practice. Through mapping, mediation, and augmentation of environments through extended reality (XR) and locative technologies, you’ll consider the impact and transformation of our perception of the world and the use of technological intervention to enhance user experience and engagement, participation and new modes of interaction and creation.

The module encourages critical engagement with the expansion of reality within and beyond the body and physical space, considering challenging questions, live problems and ethical dilemmas that arise in relation to emerging technologies within the creative industries.

This module will support you to develop an independently defined practice-led project grounded in the contextual understanding of your area of practice, relevant theoretical debates, and the wider creative industry.

The output may take the form of either practical outputs, a written dissertation, or a combination of both. The output format is negotiable in terms of the balance of written and practical elements but should be the equivalent of 10,000 words; you’ll work with your tutor to assess the balance between text and practice. Workshops, talks and seminars are offered to introduce you to a range of research and practical skills, such as writing proposals, project management and dissemination strategies.

Through continuous critical reflection, you’ll consider the societal impact, ethical implications and sustainability of your cultural practices.

This module offers a framework for you to reflect, develop and identify your professional interests and future career path, and to gain a working knowledge of the creative industries, while supporting you to develop a range of relevant professional skills. Through a series of talks, seminars, workshops and external visits, you’ll be introduced to a variety of working practices in the art and creative industries.

Support is offered through tutorials to monitor your progress and live projects, advise on your professional development needs and direction to relevant resources and networks. You’ll also be supported by the Careers & Employability service and Westminster Enterprise Network (WeNetwork) to identify opportunities, develop skills and make informed decisions about your career plans.

This practice-led module is hosted by the Global Contemporary Art MA and focuses on the range of practical and conceptual skills involved in curating for diverse contexts of global contemporary art and creative industries more widely.

The module’s emphasis is on new forms of curation which are collaborative, innovative and disruptive, and where the concept of the ‘exhibition’ becomes a site of negotiation and challenge. You’ll be introduced to theories and histories about the artistic and social role and function of the curator in arts practice.

This module is hosted by the Art and Emerging Technologies MA and investigates the potential of digital art and design practices and advanced technologies such as 3D scanning and photogrammetry to expand and create the archive of the future. You’ll consider archives and source sites as curatorial tools to present and experience collections that employ transmedia approaches, interactive and immersive platforms.

You’ll also use participatory practices to democratise access, engage new audiences and create dynamic ‘living’ archives. You’ll work in cross disciplinary groups and engage with live projects within archives, galleries, and heritage sites. The module also addresses the societal, ethical, and sustainable aspects of archival practices, including contested material and narratives.

This module is hosted by the Global Contemporary Art MA. It is a research-led module that may take either a text-based or practical approach to address concerns with global issues of climate, social justice, and biodiversity.

The module will include experimentation, fieldwork and/or digital/material investigations. Outputs could take the form of interventions, artworks, performances, or presentations, supported by documentation and research findings. A key feature of this module is the development of ideas that are actionable in the context of future challenges and that provide audiences with an understanding of these issues and their global context.

This module is hosted by the Expanded Photography MA and addresses essential aspects of future-facing photographic production: cutting-edge presentation and dissemination of projects for specific audiences and industries. The module will enable you to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to create and distribute photographs and related practices in a sustainable and ethical manner while remaining responsive to changing technological and cultural contexts.

Seminars and workshops will address a range of innovative physical and virtual spaces where current practices are disseminated, including but not limited to digital platforms, social media, galleries, pop-ups, site-specific public interventions, magazines and photobooks. You’ll develop exploratory methods for presenting a self-directed body of work in a particular context, demonstrating a self-critical use of technologies, emerging research and understanding of the relevant creative industries.

This module is hosted by the Art and Emerging Technologies MA and investigates the scope and potential for digital art practices and emerging technologies to be used to develop new forms of experiences and approaches to interactive storytelling. Through technical exploration and project development, you’ll critically engage with techniques, methods and concepts used in digital storytelling, interactive and immersive experience design, virtual environment creation and world building, game design and digital simulation.

The module will further challenge you to consider cultural and industry-based audiences in the creation of their practical self-defined projects by emphasising the user experience and participatory elements of interactive technologies.

This module is hosted by the Expanded Photography MA and aims to engage students with expanded notions of photography within virtual spaces, such as gaming, AR, VR, AI, creative coding and 3D visualisation. You’ll be introduced to the critical and ethical context of these practices in media and aesthetic theory.

Workshops are offered to deepen your technical understanding of specific virtual photography practices and how they function in the creative industries more broadly. You can choose to produce either a visual or written project in response to a self-directed research question to assess the functioning mechanisms of photographs and their ethical and legal challenges.