Art and Design with a Foundation Year - BA (Hons)

This module introduces critical thinking and building self-awareness to create a community. Through group discussions and debate you will be supported to develop learning strategies. You will be introduced to creative design thinking, verbal and visual communication tools, and core writing skills. You will look at a body of thoughts from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.

This module explores the connectivity of materials, and how materials collaborate with each other. You will collaboratively test, experiment and prototype, by exploring: fusion; confusions; knotting; welding; embedding; joints; and breaking things. You will look at a body of materials and their applications from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.

This module explores the fundamentals of, and interconnective relationship between, different contemporary creative digital technologies. You will collaboratively experiment, test and embrace digital technologies, by exploring: coding; digital modelling; digital drawing; projection; filming; editing; VR/AR; sound; and, light. You will look at a body of technologies and their applications from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.

This module focuses on narrative, the different ways narratives can be created, and the possible exploration of: movement; performance (of materials or a person); presentation; spoken word; animation; costume; or set. You will look at a body of performance from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.

This module focuses on making, using found materials in the natural environment. The module will explore a range of possible themes, including: natural materials; foraging; growing; building; stone carving; nesting; thatching; collecting; or observing. You will look at natural materials and their application across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.

This module is a round-up of the year, revisiting and building on what has been done to date. You and your peers will self-organise to look out to the wider community of Birmingham and collaboratively identify, develop and design speculative proposals. The module, and the year, will culminate with an outward-facing exhibition.

This module provides an opportunity for you to apply your knowledge and skills to an external, professional brief. The brief will be set by a local external client, user, community or audience, in consultation with the staff team, and it could be a ‘real life’ problem to be solved, or a simulation. It is an opportunity for you to engage in a professional manner, within the supportive infrastructure of the University. Where appropriate, the project may involve interdisciplinary collaboration with students from other courses. In this way, it reflects the collaborative, flexible nature of employment within the creative industries.

This module explores real-world challenge-based learning, through a nationally located live brief, set by an external client, partner, user, community or audience. The module will have an employability focus, an emphasis on building professional communication skills, and you will expand your knowledge of interdisciplinary design practice across the creative industries.

This module focuses on real-world challenge-based learning, through a globally located live brief, set by an external client, partner user, community, audience or institution. Building on the skills developed in the previous modules throughout year two, this module has a global perspective, and an emphasis on Global Citizenship, understanding different cultures, knowledge and working practices.

This module is an opportunity to learn and critically reflect on the skills of collaboration by enabling you to create an interdisciplinary project with students from complementary disciplines, or with academic staff. Collaboration is a vital employability skill within the creative industries and this module allows you to develop these skills, making use of University facilities and with the support of academic staff.

The purpose of this module is to enable you to develop professional attributes and subject skills through experience in the work place, and to critically reflect upon your learning in that context. You will normally be expected to arrange your own placement, with support from academic staff and ADM Careers+. Typically, the placement duration is a minimum 70 hours, maximum of 140 hours. This can be achieved in one block, or can be dispersed over a longer period of time, if required. If you fail to secure a placement by the specified deadline, an “as live” industry standard project will be set by the module tutor. The work placement will be considered and approved by the module tutor in order to ensure that the learning opportunity is of benefit to you.

The purpose of this module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically informed research project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. You will be guided towards choosing a research topic, which is relevant to your discipline and in which your lecturers have expertise.

In this module you will investigate the wider creative industries, locally, nationally and globally, to better understand what your potential future pathway might look like. In response to a series of supporting lectures from a range of industry experts, you will develop your professional identity by constructing a range of appropriate self-promotional materials.

This module is tailored to your individual strengths, research areas and career aspirations. You will follow your own pathway to make a body of work, navigating your way through the Thought Lab, Materials Lab and Digital Lab. This could be achieved individually, or in collaboration with others, using an external live brief or a speculative brief.

This module is tailored to your individual strengths, research areas and career aspirations. You will follow your own pathway to make a body of work, navigating your way through the Thought Lab, Materials Lab and Digital Lab. This could be achieved individually, or in collaboration with others, using an external live brief or a speculative brief.