Product Design Autonomy, Creativity and Expertise

Students on this course will learn how to: demonstrate ownership and autonomy through self-directed exploration and individual creative expression within an environment of professional and peer-critique; understand and deploy the design process as the synthesis of research, analysis, development and critique within the context of contemporary design practice; evidence the value of design in response to a given opportunity, problem or context; produce both tangible design outcomes and communication to a professional level where their value to business, society and industry is explicit.

CRM: Research Methods and Methodologies in Practice

This course aims to provide students with opportunities to critically develop disciplinary research methods; enable students to autonomously design their own research project / object/ practice with a critical grounding in appropriate research methods both relevant to their disciplinary specialization and, where relevant, enabling of trans, multi, or inter-disciplinarity; provide students with a rigorous understanding of research ethics as relevant to their research / practice; facilitate critical reflection on the relationships between forms of research and modes of practice in order to encourage robust and /or innovative applications of existing methods.

MFA Critical Review of Studio Practice

The course aims to: introduce the principles and rationale for re-appraisal of previous work; encourage you to critically evaluate your practice in relation to recent issues within historical, critical and theoretical fields of enquiry; enable you to enhance your ability to formulate and express critical positions in a variety of appropriate forms; introduce you to fundamental principles and rationale of research in relation to creative practice; enable you to articulate your own distinctive responses to critical issues within your own practice and within the broader context of contemporary art; encourage you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of ethical good practice and your ethical responsibility in the public presentation of work; enable you to develop your awareness of Health and Safety issues as applicable to creative practice; enable you to articulate your ‘own voice’ as your own specific aesthetic response to cultures and their discourses

Core Research Methods for Design

The course aims to: provide students with opportunities to critically develop disciplinary research methods; enable students to autonomously design their own research project/object/practice with a critical grounding in appropriate research methods both relevant to their disciplinary specialisation and, where relevant, enabling of trans, multi, or inter-disciplinarity; provide students with rigorous understanding of research ethics as relevant to their research/practice; facilitate critical reflection on the relationship between forms of research and modes of practice in order to encourage robust and/or innovative applications of existing modes.

Communication Design Studio Practice

This course aims to: introduce students to critical reflection of own practice; review students practice in relation to proposal/s; encourage students to critically evaluate their practice in a historical, social, political, ethical and theoretical context; encourage students to identify their critical position in relation to their practice; introduce students to fundamental principles of research in relation to studio practice; encourage students to engage with discourse of the relevance of design in relation to historical, contemporary, socio-cultural and political contexts and discourses.

Writing Practice 2

The course support students to develop: an ambitious independent practice through a self-determined body of work, including defining research questions where appropriate; criticality and reflexivity in the application of knowledge, understanding and/or practices to research questions or modes of practice; receptiveness to new ideas, methods and approaches in the field of art writing, challenging established working methods and valuing peer and specialist critique; appropriate forms for distribution, questioning how and where writing meets a readership or audience; a knowledge of the visual art, art writing and experimental literature sector in Glasgow and Scotland, informed more widely by UK-wide and international contexts; the ability to apply a range of active-learning and interpersonal skills whether working independently, collaboratively or with an institution, including being able to work with others, debate effectively and modify one’s own ideas in order to support and develop independent thought; an advanced level of autonomy and initiative in professional, practical and academic situations.

The Genre-Bending Art of Essaying

This course will examine the structure and contexts of the experimental, literary and cross-discipline essay and will focus on how and why we write and read between and beyond genres, forms and disciplines. By integrating the close reading and discussions of published essays with the workshopping of students’ work, this course will encourage new writing and collaborations underpinned by the idea that the experimental essay is a powerful form where essential ideas are hashed out and communicated.