Print

Seminars, visiting artists, publishing projects and the wider environment of the School, College and London help to provide a critical framework to question the nature of expanded Print practices. The multiplication of images always raises questions of originality, authenticity and value. Print includes industrial production and craft processes. Its history is inextricably linked to commerce, entertainment and education. As the demand increases for all Fine Art practices to be replicated and transmitted digitally, the difference between hard copy and screen-based images grows ever more complex as evidenced by current debates about NFT’s and the role of social media. How do shifts in the registers of different media affect our lives, ways of communicating and the stories we tell? Engaging with a wide range of artists and archives places debates within the program in a state of dynamic flux.

Learning and teaching activity on the programme may include, but may not be limited to: briefings, lectures, seminars, tutorials (individual and group), critiques, technical inductions and negotiated technical learning, workshops and public dissemination of work.

The programme is delivered across three terms and includes a combination of programme, School and College units.

Term 1

In Orientation, Induction and Experimentation we begin with the notion of orientation, a term originating from ‘Orient’: ‘a person's basic attitude, beliefs, or feelings in relation to a particular subject or issue’.

You will begin the programme with a series of orientation sessions and technical inductions. Seminars and external visits to exhibitions and archives will help you understand the expanded field of Print in the context of the broad field of contemporary art. You will be encouraged to experiment with new ways of making to challenge existing models of thinking and demonstrate this through studio practice.

Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in AcrossRCA, the College-wide unit. See below for more details.

Term 2

Development and Context focuses on deepening an engagement with both producing work and through discussion, understanding the ways in which it might be read, displayed and contextualised. To this end the holding of a group exhibition/event, and a publication project give you deadlines and experience of professional contexts.

In term 2 all School of Arts & Humanities students will participate in the Urgency of the Arts, School-wide unit. Through this unit we ask: what does arts and humanities research and practice have to offer in our current socio-political climate? The unit introduces students to a diverse range of perspectives, approaches and practices relevant to contemporary practice and thought in the Arts & Humanities. The delivery is devised to help you identify and query your own practices and disciplinary assumptions through encounters with others and within the various practices undertaken by students in the School, and to raise awareness around contemporary concerns. You will be supported in understanding the ramifications of your own work and practice within a broad cultural context, and to recognise its many potentially unintended readings and consequences.

Term 3

Independent Research Project

You will have submitted a plan for your independent research project at the end of the second unit based on the experience of the exhibition and publications projects in unit 2. The Independent Research Project (IRP) emphasises the sharing of work with an audience. The focus is on completing work which synthesises and builds upon the work of the last two terms. You will be expected to make, curate and exhibit in the context of a group exhibition. Most Print students would work in exhibition, though a few may choose publication as the principal form. The shift is towards identifying forms of presentation and understanding individual needs in terms of future professional development. In the closing weeks of term, professional development activities, applying for grants, setting up studios, self- employment and residency applications are the focus of School-wide events. You are required to participate in a public ‘Print Out’ panel discussion with invited guests.

Situated at the core of your RCA student experience, this ambitious interdisciplinary College- wide AcrossRCA unit supports how you respond to the challenges of complex, uncertain and changing physical and digital worlds by engaging you in a global creative network that draws on expertise within and beyond the institution. It provides an extraordinary opportunity for you to:

• make connections across disciplines
• think critically about your creative practice
• develop creative networks within and beyond the College
• generate innovative responses to complex problems
• reflect on how to propose ideas for positive change in local and/or global contexts.

AcrossRCA launches with a series of presentations from internationally acclaimed speakers that will encourage you to think beyond the discourses of art, architecture, communication, and design, and extend into other territories such as economics, ethics, science, engineering, medicine or astrophysics.

In interdisciplinary teams you will be challenged to use your intellect and imagination to respond to urgent contemporary themes, providing you with an opportunity to develop innovative and disruptive thinking, critically reflect on your responsibilities as a creative practitioner and demonstrate the contribution that the creative arts can make to our understanding and experience of the world. This engagement with interdisciplinary perspectives and practices is designed both to complement your disciplinary studies and provide you with a platform to thrive beyond graduation.