Number of students 2012/13

49

Download Ceramics & Glass Programme Specifications (PDF).

The programme exists to encourage skilled practice and creative thinking in the two media of ceramics and glass. We feel that there are interests and outcomes common to both, and students are encouraged to experiment across a range of material possibilities.

In the first year, students will engage in projects that develop their technical skills, explore methods of research and promote analytical and critical thinking. They are offered opportunities to question assumptions and engage with new methods of making.

On joining the programme, students will engage in a short project that explores ‘surface’ across both glass and ceramic. This will include introductions to a wide range of processes and techniques from the technical and academic staff. Following this is a project that makes use of the ceramic and glass collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and acts as an introduction to the programme’s facilities, materials and personalities. For the rest of the first year, students will work in one of three independent groups. These form the basis for an evolving series of group and personal projects that will develop and challenge students’ art and design practices and contextual awareness. Each group is led by a tutor who sets the project briefs, gives tutorials and organises the activities, supported by the rest of the staff team and guest lecturers. This structure focuses work relevant to students’ personal interests and is organised to inform their future practice.

Students also undertake the mandatory Critical & Historical Studies programme in their first year, in which a series of lectures, seminars and tutorials culminates in the submission of a dissertation at the start of the second year.

Work in the second year looks towards and sets the agenda for individual future practice. Routes of study are chosen and negotiated with the staff team and are based upon a student’s ambition and knowledge. Some of our work is collective, in groups of various sizes, but most of the time the one-to-one tutorial forms the basis for discussion. Through the second year, individual programmes of study will be negotiated with personal tutors exploring the context and working methods that will inform an individual’s future practice. There are opportunities to engage with a range of staff and visiting lecturers, and student-led discussions and seminars are encouraged to promote independent thinking.

In the studios and workshops, first- and second-year students (MA and research) work alongside each other. It is the mixing of the two years of the MA with the research cohort and the juxtaposition of glass and ceramics that creates an environment where some of the most important learning is experienced within the student group.