This interdisciplinary studies unit will engage with complex contemporary challenges via project-based activities and problem-based learning. Students will apply knowledge, techniques and methodologies from their individual disciplines in collaboration with others' as they investigate a range of disciplinary perspectives and approaches relevant to the challenge at hand. Student cohorts may include any combination of art, design or architecture students as well as students from other disciplinary backgrounds. Developing the ability to critically and creatively engage with 'real world' problems through interdisciplinary approaches will be the core of learning in this unit. Students will develop skills in communication, collaboration and innovation, as well as reflective approaches that will focus on developing a clearer understanding of the personal perspective and skills each contributor brings to a shared challenge. Final outcomes from the unit may include collaborative or individual submissions.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. understand a range of opportunities for discipline-specific practitioners in interdisciplinary contexts;
2. apply collaboration, representation and communication skills for interdisciplinary engagement;
3. conduct critical enquiry relevant to an identified issue, and analyse and evaluate findings;
4. conceptualise, develop and present a creative response to a given interdisciplinary problem;
5. critically reflect on the students' own contributions to an interdisciplinary undertaking;
6. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the interdisciplinary study, in order to collaborate safely with peers.

Preparation task (15%)

Project delivery (60%)

Critical reflection and review (25%)

12 hours total per week, consisting of: 4 contact hours (including site visits, lecture, seminar and tutorial, etc), and 8 hours independent study time; or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

Design Thinking applies the skills and strategies developed by designers to a wide range of problems and situations. These skills and strategies include a range of conceptual and communication approaches, ways to explore and reconsider the context in which we work, as well as what should or could be achieved. Design thinking brings together some approaches that are known in the sciences and humanities, such as analysis and synthesis, but applies them in ways that are particular to a design approach. Design thinking can enable a more flexible approach to problem solving, and a more nuanced engagement with the complex issues of our contemporary world. This unit will introduce students to the key skills and practices associated with design thinking, and offer opportunities to explore the application of these basic creativity techniques in a range of disciplines.

On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate understanding of the concepts of design thinking and their application;
2. Identify and analyse ill-defined, real-world project problems and relevant design thinking approaches;
3. Apply Design Thinking methods and approaches to a project-based problem, to develop new perspectives on key issues and to identify potential opportunties;
4. Develop, test and evaluate original proposals in response to project-based problems;
5. Develop an awareness of their preferred approaches to complex tasks, and ways these may be extended through Design Thinking.

Investigations (20%)

Testing and Refinement (20%)

Proposition and Reflection (60%)

12 hours per week, including an average of 3 contact hours (in person or online) and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

The interdisciplinary studio environment provides through team-based project activities and problem-based learning, the application of knowledge, techniques and methodologies from the students' individual disciplines, whilst addressing a complex multi-faceted problem. The unit may involve any combination of art, design or architecture students. The ability to critically and creatively engage with 'real world' problems through interdisciplinary approaches will be the core of this unit. Students will develop skills in communication, collaboration and innovation, essential tools for both professional practice and research activities within their chosen field and beyond. The final outcomes from the unit may be collaborative or individual.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. operate constructively and collaboratively as part of a team;
2. develop observation, research, communication and information gathering skills;
3. contribute as a discipline-specific practitioner within an interdisciplinary context;
4. conduct critical enquiry and provide summative reviews of peers across disciplines;
5. conceptualise, design and create a response to a given interdisciplinary problem;
6. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the interdisciplinary practice, in order to collaborate safely with peers.

Fieldwork may be required for this unit. Full details will be outlined in the Unit Guide

This is a semester-long project unit. 100% mixed mode by folio at both mid-semester assessment and final assessment

24 hours total per week, consisting of:

8 contact hours (including site visits, lecture, seminar and tutorial, etc) and 16 hours independent study time; or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This interdisciplinary studies unit will engage with complex contemporary challenges via project-based activities and problem-based learning. Students will apply knowledge, techniques and methodologies from their individual disciplines in collaboration with others' as they investigate a range of disciplinary perspectives and approaches relevant to the challenge at hand. Student cohorts may include any combination of art, design or architecture students as well as students from other disciplinary backgrounds. Developing the ability to critically and creatively engage with 'real world' problems through interdisciplinary approaches will be the core of learning in this unit. Students will develop skills in communication, collaboration and innovation, as well as reflective approaches that will focus on developing a clearer understanding of the personal perspective and skills each contributor brings to a shared challenge. Final outcomes from the unit may include collaborative or individual submissions.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. understand a range of opportunities for discipline-specific practitioners in interdisciplinary contexts;
2. apply collaboration, representation and communication skills for interdisciplinary engagement;
3. conduct critical enquiry relevant to an identified issue, and analyse and evaluate findings;
4. conceptualise, develop and present a creative response to a given interdisciplinary problem;
5. critically reflect on the students' own contributions to an interdisciplinary undertaking;
6. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the interdisciplinary study, in order to collaborate safely with peers.

Preparation task (15%)

Project delivery (60%)

Critical reflection and review (25%)

12 hours total per week, consisting of: 4 contact hours (including site visits, lecture, seminar and tutorial, etc), and 8 hours independent study time; or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

The interdisciplinary studio environment provides through team-based project activities and problem-based learning, the application of knowledge, techniques and methodologies from the students' individual disciplines, whilst addressing a complex multi-faceted problem. The unit may involve any combination of art, design or architecture students. The ability to critically and creatively engage with 'real world' problems through interdisciplinary approaches will be the core of this unit. Students will further develop skills in communication, collaboration and innovation, essential tools for both professional practice and research activities within their chosen field and beyond. The final outcomes from the unit may be collaborative or individual.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have gain the ability to:

1. operate constructively and collaboratively as part of a team
2. develop observation, research, communication and information gathering skills
3. contribute as a discipline-specific practitioner within an interdisciplinary context
4. conduct critical enquiry and provide summative reviews of peers across disciplines
5. conceptualise, design and create a response to a given interdisciplinary problem
6. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the interdisciplinary practice, in order to collaborate safely with peers

Fieldwork may be required for this unit. Full details will be outlined in the Unit Guide

This is a semester-long project unit. 100% mixed mode by folio at both mid-semester assessment and final assessment

24 hours total per week, consisting of:

8 contact hours (including site visits, lecture, seminar and tutorial, etc) and 16 hours independent study time; or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This interdisciplinary studies unit will engage with complex contemporary challenges via project-based activities and problem-based learning. Students will apply knowledge, techniques and methodologies from their individual disciplines in collaboration with others' as they investigate a range of disciplinary perspectives and approaches relevant to the challenge at hand. Student cohorts may include any combination of art, design or architecture students as well as students from other disciplinary backgrounds. Developing the ability to critically and creatively engage with 'real world' problems through interdisciplinary approaches will be the core of learning in this unit. Students will develop skills in communication, collaboration and innovation, as well as reflective approaches that will focus on developing a clearer understanding of the personal perspective and skills each contributor brings to a shared challenge. Final outcomes from the unit may include collaborative or individual submissions.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. understand a range of opportunities for discipline-specific practitioners in interdisciplinary contexts;
2. apply collaboration, representation and communication skills for interdisciplinary engagement;
3. conduct critical enquiry relevant to an identified issue, and analyse and evaluate findings;
4. conceptualise, develop and present a creative response to a given interdisciplinary problem;
5. critically reflect on the students' own contributions to an interdisciplinary undertaking;
6. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the interdisciplinary study, in order to collaborate safely with peers.

Preparation task (15%)

Project delivery (60%)

Critical reflection and review (25%)

12 hours total per week, consisting of: 4 contact hours (including site visits, lecture, seminar and tutorial, etc), and 8 hours independent study time; or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

Design Thinking applies the skills and strategies developed by designers to a wide range of problems and situations. These skills and strategies include a range of conceptual and communication approaches, ways to explore and reconsider the context in which we work, as well as what should or could be achieved. Design thinking brings together some approaches that are known in the sciences and humanities, such as analysis and synthesis, but applies them in ways that are particular to a design approach. Design thinking can enable a more flexible approach to problem solving, and a more nuanced engagement with the complex issues of our contemporary world. This unit will introduce students to the key skills and practices associated with design thinking, and offer opportunities to explore the application of these basic creativity techniques in a range of disciplines.

On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate understanding of the concepts of design thinking and their application;
2. Identify and analyse ill-defined, real-world project problems and relevant design thinking approaches;
3. Apply Design Thinking methods and approaches to a project-based problem, to develop new perspectives on key issues and to identify potential opportunties;
4. Develop, test and evaluate original proposals in response to project-based problems;
5. Develop an awareness of their preferred approaches to complex tasks, and ways these may be extended through Design Thinking.

Investigations (20%)

Testing and Refinement (20%)

Proposition and Reflection (60%)

12 hours per week, including an average of 3 contact hours (in person or online) and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

Digital humanities

The interdisciplinary studio environment provides through team-based project activities and problem-based learning, the further application of knowledge, techniques and methodologies from the students' individual disciplines, whilst addressing a complex multi-faceted problem. The unit may involve any combination of art, design or architecture students. The ability to critically and creatively engage with research and 'real world' problems through interdisciplinary approaches will be the core of this unit. Students will further develop skills in communication, collaboration and innovation, essential tools for both professional practice and research activities within their chosen field and beyond. The final outcomes from the unit may be collaborative or individual.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have gain the ability to:

1. operate constructively and collaboratively as part of a team
2. develop observation, research, communication and information gathering skills
3. contribute as a discipline-specific practitioner within an interdisciplinary context
4. conduct critical enquiry and provide summative reviews of peers across disciplines
5. conceptualise, design and create a response to a given interdisciplinary problem
6. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the interdisciplinary practice, in order to collaborate safely with peers

Fieldwork may be required for this unit. Full details will be outlined in the Unit Guide

This is a semester-long project unit. 100% mixed mode by folio at both mid-semester assessment and final assessment

24 hours total per week, consisting of:

8 contact hours (including site visits, lecture, seminar and tutorial, etc) and 16 hours independent study time; or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit builds on ADA1111 or ADA3111 for students in undergraduate courses, and on ADA4500 for coursework Masters' students. The unit will extend students' individual understanding of Design Thinking approaches, supporting the development of valuable personal practices to inform new proposals relevant to students' interests and disciplines. Students will explore skills that support design insight and innovation and will refine bespoke approaches to the resolution of project-based problems and explorations. Students will develop their ability to investigate context and to identify actionable opportunities, applying and refining Design Thinking principles to connect project potential to real-world opportunities.

The unit highlights the 'opportunities of wickedness' in ill-defined design problems, and will focus on student development and application of communication tools that support the fruitful exploration of personal perspective. Reflective practices focussing on the experience, engendering and application of conceptual momentum will be a key element of the unit.

On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. demonstrate understanding of the concepts of Design Thinking and identification of actionable opportunities in developing projects;
2. understand and actively engage personal perspectives in a design development process;
3. identify, capitalise on and maximise the 'opportunities of wickedness' in project design;
4. apply project communication techniques using a range of tools to articulate and critique the evolution of design solutions;
5. effectively employ reflective practices as part of the development of design solutions.

Problem (re)framing (20%)

Constructing Perspective (30%)

Review, Refinement and Reflection (50%)

12 hours per week, including an average of 3 contact hours (in person or online) and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit is an introduction to visual cultures from the perspectives of art, design and architecture. Key themes within contemporary visual culture are discussed in terms of aesthetic, technological, historical and ideological contexts. Students develop critical skills in analysing the diverse artefacts and practices of art, design and architecture and communicating their significance in verbal and written forms.

On successful completion of this unit, students will have the ability to:

1. identify works of art, design and architecture and place them in cultural contexts
2. recognise relationships between art, design and architecture in the development of visual culture
3. engage with key issues and concerns within contemporary visual culture
4. critically analyse works of visual culture and communicate their findings in verbal and written form
5. identify contemporary visual culture with an awareness of ethical, social and cultural issues

Written Assignment 1,000 words (30%)

In semester assignment (visual test) (30%)

Research essay 2,000 words (40%)

12 hours per week including; 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

The aesthetic, spiritual and ideological energies of the industrial period in painting, furniture, advertising, metalwork and so on. The meaning of works of art and design and the meaning of the standard survey which is traditionally constructed to explain the patterns of art history.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. enjoy interpreting the cultural significance of works of art and design by placing them in the appropriate social, cultural and artistic climate
2. be able to chart the aesthetic and semantic origins of works and identify their social role, engaging a structured combination of historical information and imaginative conjecture
3. cultivate theoretical curiosity for the increasing alienation of design, art and craft in the industrial period
4. be able to produce a perceptive description of works and imaginatively connect such description with critical awareness
5. present a combination of factual and subjective arguments in an articulate, critical and written manner
6. recognise and champion critical values when conducting visual analysis and purposefully identify subjective habits and assumptions underlying attempts at historical or objective observation.

Written assignment 1000 words (30%)

Research essay 2000 words (40%)

In semester assignment (30%)

12 hours per week including; 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

Art Writing and Criticism is a unit in the "practical" dimension of the study of art history. Students will explore the various registers, genres and venues in which the discussion of art is carried out today - from academic journals, magazines, newspapers to online. Students will both gain a theoretical perspective on these different approaches to the discussion of art and their various histories and themselves undertake a number of practical exercises in writing in these different styles and formats. Students will especially be directed to thinking what is the future of the discussion of art in the new age of the internet and the electronic media. What opportunities can they think of for themselves and others to put the art-historical knowledge they otherwise gain in their studies to practical use in the public arena?

Throughout the unit a number of practical exercises in writing about art will be undertaken, giving students a sense of the different requirements for different kinds of writing. Above all, they will form the habit of writing about art, and understand that writing about art is a "practice" just as artists have a practice. To this extent, Art Writing and Criticism must be seen as allied to the new units offered in art curation (Curating: Histories and Theories and Curating: Practices) in opening up to students studying Art History certain "practical" or "vocational" outcomes for their skills and knowledges.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Identify and analyse the different places and formats in which the discussion of art takes place;
2. Demonstrate practical mastery of the various genres and styles of art writing;
3. Apply good work habits with regard to their own "art writing" practice;
4. Develop new venues and opportunities for art writing in the 21st century;
5. Employ new skills in online web publishing, graphic design and layout required to self- and other-publish online and in book and magazine production.

Projects (60%)

Reflection and critique 2000 words (20%)

Web or new technology exercise (20%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on European art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Key historical and theoretical topics in the art of the period will be considered, such as: the emphasis in Italian and Spanish Baroque art on spectacle, excess and spirituality; the tradition and legacy of French classicism from Poussin to Ingres; Northern European genre and still-life painting; art as politics and social commentary in France, England and Spain; the emergence of landscape and the philosophy of the picturesque and the sublime; the eroticism and escapism of Rococo; and the phenomenon of Romanticism.

The unit will provide students with an understanding of the history and historiography of European art after the Renaissance and before Modernism. Recent research and current topics of debate will be emphasised in lectures, seminar discussions and readings.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Identify the main characteristics of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art;
2. Understand the historical, cultural and social contexts of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art;
3. Understand key aesthetic, philosophical and historiographical concepts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art;
4. Perform critical analyses of historical works of art;
5. Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the history of European art.

Critical analysis (20%)

Research essay (40%)

Slide test (40%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit concentrates on the artist's body in art, including photography, performance, painting, sculpture, video and multi-media art. It will consider examples from the history of 20th century art but will focus primarily on art practice since 1960. The unit will deal with issues of identity, gender, sexuality and difference, drawing on performative theories of subjectivity. It will look closely at experimental art practices and how these practices have sought to close the gap between art and life; from the Happenings of the 1960s, through the body art of the 1960s and 70s, to relational aesthetics, and flash mob performance works in the 2000s. The unit will investigate live action in contrast to represented action, and will consider the live action and its remediation in video, digital art and film.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will:

1. have developed a detailed understanding of contemporary, experimental art and performance practice which centres on the body
2. have developed a working knowledge of the key debates and theoretical dialogues that have occupied artists and critics in relation to performativity in art
3. have developed skills in visual and critical analysis that can be applied to the investigation of the body and its performativity in art
4. have acquired the ability to research and write from an informed position about the body in contemporary art.

Assignment 1500 words (40%)

Research essay 2500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

World Art offers students an overview of non-Western art, with an emphasis on contemporary art. Particular emphasis will be given to Asian art, but the art of other regions (South America, Africa, the Middle East) will also be taken up. As well as becoming broadly familiar with a range of non-Western artists and art practices, students will be introduced to a number of the important methods for thinking about world or global art (postcolonialism, alternative or parallel modernities). Lectures will also be given on the "pre-history" of our global contemporaneity, with selected case studies showing how art has always been "world art" and Western and non- Western art have always been in a relationship with each other.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. recognise and speak of a wide variety of art from non-Western countries and regions;
2. engage with and employ a number of the existing art-historical methods to analyse this art;
3. contextualise historically this art;
4. analyse critically the existing art-critical methods;
5. situate both contemporary and historical Australian art within a wider world context.

Tutorial presentation (30%)

Essay (40%)

Slide test (30%)

2 hour lecture and 1 hour tutorial plus 9 hours independent study per week.

See also Unit timetable information

International Art 1945-1990 covers the art produced in the second half of the 20th century and its relevance to contemporary practice. Various actions, interventions and critiques of institutions, museums and the art market will be considered, as well as feminist, queer and non-Western perspectives. An objective of the unit is to reach an understanding of the way art-historical discourses promote and exclude certain practices and practitioners (especially due to gender, race, sexuality and location), with an emphasis on incorporating recent research on artists who were previously excluded from the historical "canon".

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Identify a number of major Western and non-Western artists and art movements after the War
2. Apply a range of methodological approaches to this art
3. Employ a critical perspective onto existing constructions of art history
4. Demonstrate an ability to respond to thoughtfully and critically respond to images in one's own words.

Assignment 1,500 words (20%)

Research essay 2,500 words (40%)

Slide test (40%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit considers contemporary international art from a variety of perspectives, with each week aligned to a relevant, local exhibition. The unit covers a range of material concerns: sculptural, painterly, filmic, performative, durational, conceptual and so on. Themes may change in different years, but include such questions as "What is contemporary art?", "How do we define aesthetics after conceptualism?" and "How can art be political today?" The course also covers institutional concerns, such as methods of dissemination, global reach, biennales, gallery contexts and curatorial implications. With help from teaching staff, students are encouraged to focus the assessment tasks on the concerns of their studio practice or art writing and art history interests.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Identify the wider concerns of contemporary international art as they are played out in a local context;
2. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of contemporary Australian art and the various art institutions of Melbourne;
3. Apply wider aesthetic, political and institutional concerns to particular art practices and institutions.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit looks at key moments in history in which art and artists have actively strived to generate social change. With a particular focus on the late 20th and 21st centuries, Art and Social Change critically explores the dynamic sites in which art, life and activism intersect. Diverse contexts and artistic practices will be examined. Topics include the use of art in political propaganda, culture jamming, identity politics, indigenous art and politics, the environment, art and the impact of global terrorism, and critiques of the art world itself. These thematic weekly study topics will be complimented by discussions of theory from key writers and theorists in the field.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Have developed an appreciation for the diverse ways in which artists have intervened in the social world since the modern period.
2. Approach art history with an appreciation for the social and political forces that inform art practice.
3. Be able to analyse activist art critically in a manner that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of different artistic approaches.
4. Be familiar with the key political philosophies that have informed the production and reception of politically motivated art.
5. Be able to express verbally and in writing critical points of connection between art and social change.
6. Understand the links between practice, theory and spectatorship in activist art.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on the art and architecture of early modern Italy. Key examples of Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque painting, sculpture, architecture, material culture, urbanism and landscape design are considered on site and in context. The principles of early modern Italian art and architectural theory are introduced, from the Renaissance emulation of Classical culture to the Baroque preoccupation with spectacle. The unit also emphasizes the multiple ways in which historical viewers experienced art: as aesthetic object, as narrative, as craft, as divine presence, and as talisman.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Identify the main characteristics of Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque art and architecture.
2. Understand the multiple historical, cultural, social and physical contexts of Italian art and architecture.
3. Understand the principles of historical art and architectural theory, as well as their critical reception.
4. Engage in on site analyses of works of visual art and architecture.
5. Demonstrate their awareness of the historical precedents for, and dimensions of, their own practice.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

3 contact hours per week or equivalent, site visits and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on research in contemporary art and architecture. Using international exhibitions of contemporary art, and/or art historical sites the unit will direct students through a fieldwork program. This will consider the context and conditions of contemporary art and architecture exhibition. Issues of contemporary art and its audiences will be engaged and/or the opportunity for art historical research. Taking advantage of contemporary exhibition opportunities, the unit will allow for a study of a contemporary artist's work in situ and/or a historical artwork.

On the successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Research and engage in on site analyses of works of visual art and architecture
2. Understand and evaluate the cultural, social and physical contexts of contemporary art exhibition.
3. Engage in research fieldwork.
4. Demonstrate their awareness of the precedents for, and dimensions of, their own exhibition practice.

One research book (3000 words): 50% + One essay (2500 words): 50%

3 contact hours per week or equivalent, site visits and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

The overall objective of this unit is to gain an understanding of the history of the moving image as it sits in a contemporary art context. The course will cover a range of moving image works, from feature-length films produced with a cinema audience in mind to short films and artist-made films made for art audiences, gallery installations and non-cinematic modes of projection.

On successful completion of this subject, students should:

1. understand the dynamic role played by the moving image in modern and contemporary art;
2. be familiar with key issues in the history of international and Australian art in the modern and contemporary period, as they relate to the moving image;
3. be able to identify the cultural and historical circumstances in which these artworks have been produced;
4. identify and understand the developments specific to the constant innovation of moving image practices during this period;
5. have developed their ability to think creatively and express their ideas clearly in written communication.

Assignment 1500 words (40%)

Research essay 2500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on the representation, design, experience and interpretation of space, both in Australia and abroad. Concepts of space and place are central to any understanding of modern society and culture and are at the forefront of scholarship and thought in several disciplines. This unit considers the aesthetics, politics and ethics of a wide range of social spatial environments, discourses and environments, with a particular emphasis on the ideas of space as inclusion and space as exclusion.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Be aware of current discourses in art, indigenous studies, public space and architecture that deal with the representation, experience and interpretation of space;
2. Be able to identify the social dynamic in key examples of recent art, architectural and design practice concerned with the articulation of place and spatial experience;
3. Have an awareness of how the notion of place differs across the various historical, cultural and political circumstances in which art is made;
4. Have acquired a good understanding of the multiple ways in which space is articulated and experienced within an Australian context that is grounded in Indigenous culture and history;
5. Have developed the skills to perform a critical analysis of spatial environments;
6. Have become aware of the theoretical and cultural precedents for and dimensions of their own practice.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

Popular Culture offers a history of popular culture from the late 18th century when the idea first arose through to the present. The course also offers a survey of the most important methodological approaches to popular culture. Topics touched on range from Immanuel Kant's theorisation of the "Fine Arts" to the folk music of Bob Dylan. The course concludes with the speculation that the era of popular culture is now over with the rise of the internet.

Upon completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. identify the long historical debate between high and popular culture;
2. elaborate certain important interventions in this debate (Kant, Herder, Adorno, Bourdieu);
3. demonstrate an ability to use this knowledge to consider and discuss contemporary art.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit will offer a history of photography from its invention in the mid-nineteenth century through to the present. It will also offer a survey of the various attempts to theorise the new medium of photography. The unit will conclude with a detailed consideration of the new "digital" era we are now living in, in which not only is "photography" the dominant artistic medium and technique but the whole world becomes in effect "photographic". Today it is arguable that "photography' in the form of the digital not only determines the making of images but also their circulation and reception.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have developed:

1. A broad knowledge of the multi-disciplinary nature of photography;
2. Critical skills that enable them to analyse a broad range of photographic texts and contexts;
3. An understanding of the critical and theoretical debates related to photography in society;
4. An understanding of two different modes of reproduction: the analogue and the digital;
5. An understanding of the ways in which technologies of reproduction change modes of representation.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on Neo-Baroque aesthetics in contemporary culture and their historical antecedents. The Baroque themes of spectacle, trompe l'oeil excess, and incorporeal experience will be examined with reference to the visual arts from Caravaggio to Borromini. The return of these preoccupations in contemporary art and media will also be explored. Key historical and theoretical topics, such as the status of illusionism and narrative in art, the representation of spirituality, sexuality and death, and the recent 'remediation'of earlier visual forms and ideas will be emphasized.

On the successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Identify the main characteristics of Baroque and Neo-Baroque visual culture.
2. Understand the historical, cultural, and social contexts of Baroque and Neo-Baroque art and media.
3. Understand key aesthetic and theoretical concepts in Baroque and Neo-Baroque visual culture
4. Perform critical analyses of historical and contemporary works of visual art and architecture.
5. Demonstrate their awareness of the historical and recent precedents for, and dimensions of, their own practice.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit explores the related practices of art criticism and curatorship and their role in communicating art to its publics. It offers a brief history of criticism/curatorship and critical/curatorial approaches, an assessment of reviews, including those of local exhibitions in Melbourne, and considerations of the theoretical underpinnings of critical reception. Students are invited to explore how they might themselves participate in the production of visual critique in the form of exhibition reviews, catalogue essays, curatorial statements, artist statements and so forth.

On successful completion of this subject, students should:

1. have a critical perspective of the selection of the voice, motives and bias of art critics and criticism;
2. appreciate criticism as a genre of writing, with the unique cultural and practical contingencies acting upon it, and understand the variety of art writing which it comprises
3. understand the role of the curator as having a creative, political and active part in the production, mediation and dissemination of contemporary art
4. identify and understand the developments specific to the rise of curator as an important cultural commentator, and the contemporary challenges faced by art criticism
5. have developed their ability to think creatively and express their ideas clearly in written communication.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 Hours per week including; 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

Digital humanities

This unit will offer students an introduction to the most important and influential theories of curating and provide an overview of the history of curating from the mid-18th century on. Although the unit will focus on curating insofar as it involves art objects, it will also point to both historical instances of curation that did not involve art objects (eg. Wunderkammers) and present-day instances of curating where the term has become virtually synonymous with any act of selection (music, photographs, food). The overall aim of the unit is provide students with a working vocabulary so that they can ask critical questions of the contemporary practice of curation.

Lectures will largely provide a chronological history of curation, starting with early museums and collections, but with an emphasis on the rise of curating and the figure of the curator from the mid-1970s on. A number of key instances of curation (particular exhibitions and international Biennales and Triennials) will be selected for particular analysis. In this way, students will be given both an overall history of art curation and a way of thinking the term's almost infinite expansion in the present. The overall aim of the unit is to provide students with an appropriate working method for any curation they might undertake in the future and a way of thinking about issues of curation if they choose to work in a museum or write about art. In some ways, the unit is intended as a preliminary to the more practice-based unit Curating: Practice, although this is not its only possible outcome.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. identify the key theoretical questions involved in the practice of art curating;
2. demonstrate a broad historical overview of the practice of curating;
3. elaborate key moments in the history of curating and of prominent historical and contemporary curators;
4. apply this knowledge to any practical act of curating they might undertake;
5. engage with the issues and theories of curating insofar as it applies to their art practice or study of art history.

Essay (50%)

Research essay (50%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

Curating: Practices is intended as a complement to Curating: Histories and Theories (although the units may be taken in any order). In this unit, students are encouraged to plan one or several acts of curation that need not involve works of art. Students may curate photographs, their hobbies, pieces of art writing, their own objects or those of others. However, the emphasis will be on the final form of the exhibition and the student's ability to explain and justify this curation. These exhibitions can take place in a variety of public spaces, including online. Classes will consist of 3 contact hours in which the lecturer will work with the students, and the students along with the lecturer will hold "crit" sessions in which proposed and upcoming exhibitions are discussed and workshopped.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. demonstrate practical and theoretical skills in contemporary curating;
2. put on an actual or online curated exhibition;
3. work with others in putting on such a curated exhibition;
4. evaluate the success or not of their own and others' exhibitions;
5. be ready to start curating exhibitions.

Presentation of a planned exhibition during class "crit" session (20%)

The putting on, in practice or online, of end-of-semester exhibition different from that presented in class for assessment (40%)

2000 word essay explaining and justifying this end-of-semester exhibition, drawing upon historical and theoretical sources (20%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

Australian Art offers a broad historical survey of Australian art from European colonisation to the present. Topics examined will be the First Fleet artists, the work of John Glover, the Heidelberg School, Australian modernism, post-War Australian landscape, the work of Albert Namatjira and Margaret Preston and the work of a number of contemporary Australian artists, including Gordon Bennett and Tracey Moffatt. The course will ask questions concerning the "Australianness" of Australian art and whether we can write a new history of Australian art appropriate to contemporary conditions.

Upon completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. identify a range of critical perspectives onto the history of Australian art;
2. show a broad familiarity with the major artists in the history of Australian art;
3. discuss a number of contemporary Australian artists and the methodological questions involved in the writing of Australian art history today;
4. demonstrate an ability to respond thoughtfully and critically to works of art in the student's own words.

Review of art exhibition 1,000 words (20%)

Essay 2,000 words (40%)

Slide test (40%)

12 Hours per week including; 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit examines the medium and its materiality across a range of visual art practices including: painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, multi-media, social practices and performance art. It focuses on a historical lineage of art's mediums and disciplines and how they are framed, constituted and judged in a diverse range of academic fields. Concepts and traditions of modern aesthetics, the effect of late-capitalism, socio-economic critiques of art and technology are pivotal to any understanding of how art's form moves between modes of medium-specificity to trans-disciplinary realms. The unit introduces key theoretical tenets to analyse late modernist and contemporary art practices as case studies. It introduces students to the critical dialogue around the medium and artists' material processes.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. understand and articulate what a medium is both conceptually and practically
2. analyse the debates surrounding the defence and criticism of medium specificity and the trans-disciplinary
3. contextualise studio practice within the conceptual models explored in the unit
4. reflect and engage in critical dialogue about the medium and its importance in twenty-first century art

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

Art Writing and Criticism is a unit in the "practical" dimension of the study of art history. Students will explore the various registers, genres and venues in which the discussion of art is carried out today - from academic journals, magazines, newspapers to online. Students will both gain a theoretical perspective on these different approaches to the discussion of art and their various histories and themselves undertake a number of practical exercises in writing in these different styles and formats. Students will especially be directed to thinking what is the future of the discussion of art in the new age of the internet and the electronic media. What opportunities can they think of for themselves and others to put the art-historical knowledge they otherwise gain in their studies to practical use in the public arena?

Throughout the unit a number of practical exercises in writing about art will be undertaken, giving students a sense of the different requirements for different kinds of writing. Above all, they will form the habit of writing about art, and understand that writing about art is a "practice" just as artists have a practice. To this extent, Art Writing and Criticism must be seen as allied to the new units offered in art curation (Curating: Histories and Theories and Curating: Practices) in opening up to students studying Art History certain "practical" or "vocational" outcomes for their skills and knowledges.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Identify and analyse the different places and formats in which the discussion of art takes place;
2. Demonstrate practical mastery of the various genres and styles of art writing;
3. Apply good work habits with regard to their own "art writing" practice;
4. Develop new venues and opportunities for art writing in the 21st century;
5. Employ new skills in online web publishing, graphic design and layout required to self- and other-publish online and in book and magazine production.

Projects (60%)

Reflection and critique 2000 words (20%)

Web or new technology exercise (20%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on European art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Key historical and theoretical topics in the art of the period will be considered, such as: the emphasis in Italian and Spanish Baroque art on spectacle, excess and spirituality; the tradition and legacy of French classicism from Poussin to Ingres; Northern European genre and still-life painting; art as politics and social commentary in France, England and Spain; the emergence of landscape and the philosophy of the picturesque and the sublime; the eroticism and escapism of Rococo; and the phenomenon of Romanticism.

The unit will provide students with an understanding of the history and historiography of European art after the Renaissance and before Modernism. Recent research and current topics of debate will be emphasised in lectures, seminar discussions and readings.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Identify the main characteristics of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art;
2. Understand the historical, cultural and social contexts of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art;
3. Understand key aesthetic, philosophical and historiographical concepts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art;
4. Perform critical analyses of historical works of art;
5. Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the history of European art.

Critical analysis (20%)

Research essay (40%)

Slide test (40%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit concentrates on the artist's body in art, including photography, performance, painting, sculpture, video and multi-media art. It will consider examples from the history of 20th century art but will focus primarily on art practice since 1960. The unit will deal with issues of identity, gender, sexuality and difference, drawing on performative theories of subjectivity. It will look closely at experimental art practices and how these practices have sought to close the gap between art and life; from the Happenings of the 1960s, through the body art of the 1960s and 70s, to relational aesthetics, and flash mob performance works in the 2000s. The unit will investigate live action in contrast to represented action, and will consider the live action and its remediation in video, digital art and film.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will:

1. have developed a detailed understanding of contemporary, experimental art and performance practice which centres on the body
2. have developed a working knowledge of the key debates and theoretical dialogues that have occupied artists and critics in relation to performativity in art
3. have developed skills in visual and critical analysis that can be applied to the investigation of the body and its performativity in art
4. have acquired the ability to research and write from an informed position about the body in contemporary art.

Assignment 1500 words (40%)

Research essay 2500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

International Art 1945-1990 covers the art produced in the second half of the 20th century and its relevance to contemporary practice. Various actions, interventions and critiques of institutions, museums and the art market will be considered, as well as feminist, queer and non-Western perspectives. An objective of the unit is to reach an understanding of the way art-historical discourses promote and exclude certain practices and practitioners (especially due to gender, race, sexuality and location), with an emphasis on incorporating recent research on artists who were previously excluded from the historical "canon".

Upon completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Identify a number of major Western and non-Western artists and art movements after the War;
2. Apply a range of methodological approaches to this art;
3. Employ a critical perspective onto existing constructions of art history;
4. Demonstrate an ability to respond to thoughtfully and critically respond to images in one's own words.

Assignment 1,500 words (20%)

Research essay 2,500 words (40%)

Slide test (40%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit considers contemporary international art from a variety of perspectives, with each week aligned to a relevant, local exhibition. The unit covers a range of material concerns: sculptural, painterly, filmic, performative, durational, conceptual and so on. Themes may change in different years, but include such questions as "What is contemporary art?", "How do we define aesthetics after conceptualism?" and "How can art be political today?" The course also covers institutional concerns, such as methods of dissemination, global reach, biennales, gallery contexts and curatorial implications. With help from teaching staff, students are encouraged to focus the assessment tasks on the concerns of their studio practice or art writing and art history interests.

Upon completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Identify the wider concerns of contemporary international art as they are played out in a local context;
2. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of contemporary Australian art and the various art institutions of Melbourne;
3. Apply wider aesthetic, political and institutional concerns to particular art practices and institutions.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

A 'survey' of visual arts in Australia from colonisation to contemporary contexts. Historical and social perspectives in the development of painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and film, architecture and design. Representation and subjectivity, cultural identity, nationalism and nationhood, ethnicity and gender. Issues of mainstream and marginality; notions of the 'centre' and regionalism, Australia's relationship to Europe and European art generally, and the notion of landscape as a shaper of national identity.

On successful completion of this unit, student will:

1. recognise the range of visual practices that have operated within Australian culture from both an historical and contemporary perspective
2. understand the significance and ideological uses of Australian visual practices in constructing notions of national identity
3. have a post-colonial perspective in contextualizing the historical and social developments of Australian visual culture

4 critically discuss the cultural practices of Australian artists and designers, in historical, artistic, ideological and socio-political contexts, and theorise the basis for the marginalisation of certain individuals and groups

5 be aware of the problematical nature of Australian artistic practices especially in terms of the local artist/designer's position within both regional and international contexts.

Short Essay 40% + Long Essay 55% + Reader discussion 5%

One 2 hour lecture, one 1 hour tutorial and 3 independent study hours per week

See also Unit timetable information

This unit looks at key moments in history in which art and artists have actively strived to generate social change. With a particular focus on the late 20th and 21st centuries, Art and Social Change critically explores the dynamic sites in which art, life and activism intersect. Diverse contexts and artistic practices will be examined. Topics include the use of art in political propaganda, culture jamming, identity politics, indigenous art and politics, the environment, art and the impact of global terrorism, and critiques of the art world itself. These thematic weekly study topics will be complimented by discussions of theory from key writers and theorists in the field.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Have developed an appreciation for the diverse ways in which artists have intervened in the social world since the modern period.
2. Approach art history with an appreciation for the social and political forces that inform art practice.
3. Be able to analyse activist art critically in a manner that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of different artistic approaches.
4. Be familiar with the key political philosophies that have informed the production and reception of politically motivated art.
5. Be able to express verbally and in writing critical points of connection between art and social change.
6. Understand the links between practice, theory and spectatorship in activist art.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours per week and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on the art and architecture of early modern Italy. Key examples of Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque painting, sculpture, architecture, material culture, urbanism and landscape design are considered on site and in context. The principles of early modern Italian art and architectural theory are introduced, from the Renaissance emulation of Classical culture to the Baroque preoccupation with spectacle. The unit also emphasizes the multiple ways in which historical viewers experienced art: as aesthetic object, as narrative, as craft, as divine presence, and as talisman.

By the successful completion of this unit, students will have acquired the following skills:

1. Identify the main characteristics of Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque art and architecture.
2. Understand the multiple historical, cultural, social and physical contexts of Italian art and architecture.
3. Understand the principles of historical art and architectural theory, as well as their critical reception.
4. Engage in on site analyses of works of visual art and architecture.
5. Demonstrate their awareness of the historical precedents for, and dimensions of, their own practice.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

3 contact hours per week or equivalent, site visits and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

The overall objective of this unit is to gain an understanding of the history of the moving image as it sits in a contemporary art context. The course will cover a range of moving image works, from feature-length films produced with a cinema audience in mind to short films and artist-made films made for art audiences, gallery installations and non-cinematic modes of projection.

On successful completion of this subject, students should:

1. understand the dynamic role played by the moving image in modern and contemporary art;
2. be familiar with key issues in the history of international and Australian art in the modern and contemporary period, as they relate to the moving image;
3. be able to identify the cultural and historical circumstances in which these artworks have been produced;
4. identify and understand the developments specific to the constant innovation of moving image practices during this period;
5. have developed their ability to think creatively and express their ideas clearly in written communication.

Assignment 1500 words (40%)

Research essay 2500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on the representation, design, experience and interpretation of space, both in Australia and abroad. Concepts of space and place are central to any understanding of modern society and culture and are at the forefront of scholarship and thought in several disciplines. This unit considers the aesthetics, politics and ethics of a wide range of social spatial environments, discourses and environments, with a particular emphasis on the ideas of space as inclusion and space as exclusion.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Be aware of current discourses in art, indigenous studies, public space and architecture that deal with the representation, experience and interpretation of space;
2. Be able to identify the social dynamic in key examples of recent art, architectural and design practice concerned with the articulation of place and spatial experience;
3. Have an awareness of how the notion of place differs across the various historical, cultural and political circumstances in which art is made;
4. Have acquired a good understanding of the multiple ways in which space is articulated and experienced within an Australian context that is grounded in Indigenous culture and history;
5. Have developed the skills to perform a critical analysis of spatial environments;
6. Have become aware of the theoretical and cultural precedents for and dimensions of their own practice.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit is designed to assist students specialising in art history and curating to extend their field of study with practical art writing and curatorial experience. A program of directed reading and critical writing, facilitated by regular meetings with staff, will underpin a research project designed to allow students to apply the knowledge they have learnt throughout the degree. Typically, this project will include an exhibition catalogue essay and the curating of an exhibition.

1. demonstrate evidence of extensive research and independent, critical thinking
2. appreciate the catalogue essay as a genre of writing, with the unique cultural and practical contingencies acting upon it, and understand the variety of art writing which it comprises
3. consolidate their understanding of the role of the curator as having a creative part in the production, mediation and dissemination of contemporary art
4. have developed their ability to think creatively and express their ideas clearly in written communication

Written exercise 1,500 words (40%)

Research project 2,500 words (60%)

12 Hours per week including; 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

Popular Culture offers a history of popular culture from the late 18th century when the idea first arose through to the present. The course also offers a survey of the most important methodological approaches to popular culture. Topics touched on range from Immanuel Kant's theorisation of the "Fine Arts" to the folk music of Bob Dylan. The course concludes with the speculation that the era of popular culture is now over with the rise of the internet.

Upon completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. identify the long historical debate between high and popular culture;
2. elaborate certain important interventions in this debate (Kant, Herder, Adorno, Bourdieu);
3. demonstrate an ability to use this knowledge to consider and discuss contemporary art.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

The unit traces the history of international and Australian photography from the medium's invention to the 21st century. The unit will investigate the concept of analogue reproduction, especially photography's promise to represent the 'real' world, and consider practices in which the real is consistently manipulated. Photography will be considered across a range of disciplines: art, ethnographic and anthropological photographs; documentary photography; and the use of photography by the legal and medical system. Finally, the unit will address the changes in the production and circulation of images evident in digital modes of reproduction.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have developed:

1. A broad knowledge of the history of international and Australian photography;
2. Critical skills that enable them to identify and analyse a broad range of photographs and contexts;
3. An understanding of the critical and theoretical debates related to photography in society;
4. An understanding of two different modes of reproduction: the analogue and the digital;
5. An understanding of the ways in which technologies of reproduction change modes of representation.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

This unit focuses on Neo-Baroque aesthetics in contemporary culture and their historical antecedents. The Baroque themes of spectacle, trompe l'oeil excess, and incorporeal experience will be examined with reference to the visual arts from Caravaggio to Borromini. The return of these preoccupations in contemporary art and media will also be explored. Key historical and theoretical topics, such as the status of illusionism and narrative in art, the representation of spirituality, sexuality and death, and the recent 'remediation'of earlier visual forms and ideas will be emphasized.

On the successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Identify the main characteristics of Baroque and Neo-Baroque visual culture.
2. Understand the historical, cultural, and social contexts of Baroque and Neo-Baroque art and media.
3. Understand key aesthetic and theoretical concepts in Baroque and Neo-Baroque visual culture
4. Perform critical analyses of historical and contemporary works of visual art and architecture.
5. Demonstrate their awareness of the historical and recent precedents for, and dimensions of, their own practice.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit explores the related practices of art criticism and curatorship and their role in communicating art to its publics. It offers a brief history of criticism/curatorship and critical/curatorial approaches, an assessment of reviews, including those of local exhibitions in Melbourne, and considerations of the theoretical underpinnings of critical reception. Students are invited to explore how they might themselves participate in the production of visual critique in the form of exhibition reviews, catalogue essays, curatorial statements, artist statements and so forth.

On successful completion of this subject, students should:

1. have a critical perspective of the selection of the voice, motives and bias of art critics and criticism
2. appreciate criticism as a genre of writing, with the unique cultural and practical contingencies acting upon it, and understand the variety of art writing which it comprises
3. understand the role of the curator as having a creative, political and active part in the production, mediation and dissemination of contemporary art
4. identify and understand the developments specific to the rise of curator as an important cultural commentator, and the contemporary challenges faced by art criticism
5. have developed their ability to think creatively and express their ideas clearly in written communication.

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 Hours per week including; 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit will offer students an introduction to the most important and influential theories of curating and provide an overview of the history of curating from the mid-18th century on. Although the unit will focus on curating insofar as it involves art objects, it will also point to both historical instances of curation that did not involve art objects (eg. Wunderkammers) and present-day instances of curating where the term has become virtually synonymous with any act of selection (music, photographs, food). The overall aim of the unit is provide students with a working vocabulary so that they can ask critical questions of the contemporary practice of curation.

Lectures will largely provide a chronological history of curation, starting with early museums and collections, but with an emphasis on the rise of curating and the figure of the curator from the mid-1970s on. A number of key instances of curation (particular exhibitions and international Biennales and Triennials) will be selected for particular analysis. In this way, students will be given both an overall history of art curation and a way of thinking the term's almost infinite expansion in the present. The overall aim of the unit is to provide students with an appropriate working method for any curation they might undertake in the future and a way of thinking about issues of curation if they choose to work in a museum or write about art. In some ways, the unit is intended as a preliminary to the more practice-based unit Curating: Practice, although this is not its only possible outcome.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. identify the key theoretical questions involved in the practice of art curating;
2. demonstrate a broad historical overview of the practice of curating;
3. elaborate key moments in the history of curating and of prominent historical and contemporary curators;
4. apply this knowledge to any practical act of curating they might undertake;
5. engage with the issues and theories of curating insofar as it applies to their art practice or study of art history.

Essay (50%)

Research essay (50%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

Curating: Practices is intended as a complement to Curating: Histories and Theories (although the units may be taken in any order). In this unit, students are encouraged to plan one or several acts of curation that need not involve works of art. Students may curate photographs, their hobbies, pieces of art writing, their own objects or those of others. However, the emphasis will be on the final form of the exhibition and the student's ability to explain and justify this curation. These exhibitions can take place in a variety of public spaces, including online. Classes will consist of 3 contact hours in which the lecturer will work with the students, and the students along with the lecturer will hold "crit" sessions in which proposed and upcoming exhibitions are discussed and workshopped.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. demonstrate practical and theoretical skills in contemporary curating;
2. put on an actual or online curated exhibition;
3. work with others in putting on such a curated exhibition;
4. evaluate the success or not of their own and others' exhibitions;
5. be ready to start curating exhibitions.

Presentation of a planned exhibition during class "crit" session (20%)

The putting on, in practice or online, of end-of-semester exhibition different from that presented in class for assessment (40%)

2000 word essay explaining and justifying this end-of-semester exhibition, drawing upon historical and theoretical sources (20%)

12 hours per week, including 3 contact hours and nine hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

Australian Art offers a broad historical survey of Australian art from European colonisation to the present. Topics examined will be the First Fleet artists, the work of John Glover, the Heidelberg School, Australian modernism, post-War Australian landscape, the work of Albert Namatjira and Margaret Preston and the work of a number of contemporary Australian artists, including Gordon Bennett and Tracey Moffatt. The course will ask questions concerning the "Australianness" of Australian art and whether we can write a new history of Australian art appropriate to contemporary conditions.

Upon completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. identify a range of critical perspectives onto the history of Australian art;
2. show a broad familiarity with the major artists in the history of Australian art;
3. discuss a number of contemporary Australian artists and the methodological questions involved in the writing of Australian art history today;
4. demonstrate an ability to respond thoughtfully and critically to works of art in the student's own words.

Review of art exhibition 1,000 words (20%)

Essay 2,000 words (40%)

Slide test (40%)

12 Hours per week including; 3 contact hours and 9 hours independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit examines the medium and its materiality across a range of visual art practices including: painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, multi-media, social practices and performance art. It focuses on a historical lineage of art's mediums and disciplines and how they are framed, constituted and judged in a diverse range of academic fields. Concepts and traditions of modern aesthetics, the effect of late-capitalism, socio-economic critiques of art and technology are pivotal to any understanding of how art's form moves between modes of medium-specificity to trans-disciplinary realms. The unit introduces key theoretical tenets to analyse late modernist and contemporary art practices as case studies. It introduces students to the critical dialogue around the medium and artists' material processes.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. understand and articulate what a medium is both conceptually and practically
2. analyse the debates surrounding the defence and criticism of medium specificity and the trans-disciplinary
3. contextualise studio practice within the conceptual models explored in the unit
4. reflect and engage in critical dialogue about the medium and its importance in twenty-first century art

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)

Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

The minor thesis should be on a topic chosen by the student and approved by the department by the end of the previous year. Students will be expected to commence work during the long vacation. The thesis will be written under supervision, and students will be expected to meet regularly with their supervisors. The thesis must be submitted in two typed copies, suitably bound, no later than the final day of the second semester.

The minor thesis should be on a topic chosen by the student and approved by the department by the end of the previous year. Students will be expected to commence work during the long vacation. The thesis will be written under supervision, and students will be expected to meet regularly with their supervisors. The thesis must be submitted in two typed copies, suitably bound, no later than the final day of the second semester.

Thesis 15,000-18,000 words (100%)

This unit is designed to equip honours students with critical and theoretical skills appropriate to the study of art history and visual culture at an advanced level. Topics to be considered will include theories of the image, representation and meaning, the operation of ideology, especially in relation to race and gender, social theories (including Marxist and neo-Marxist accounts), applications of psychoanalysis to the visual field, postmodernism and its critiques, cyberculture, and recent theorisations of visual culture.

First essay (2500 words) (25%)

Seminar paper (2500 words) (25%)

Second essay (4000 words) (50%)

3 hours (1 x 3 hour seminar) per week

See also Unit timetable information

This unit is based on a practice of internships for students in cultural institutions. It is designed to provide students with first hand experience of working within the culture industry while introducing them to the types of research customarily undertaken in such institutions. After several preliminary seminars, students will be assigned to a museum/ gallery in which they will work for two days per week, over a period of nine weeks, under the direction of the relevant director. They will undertake a research project of specific relevance to the cultural institution.

Catalogue exercise 1500 words (25%)

Research project 5500 words (75%)

Internship practical work (equivalent 2000 words)

Workload is 2.5 hour seminar per week for 4 weeks and 2 days per week during the 9 week period of internship

See also Unit timetable information

Issues of regionalism and internationalism will be addressed, as will the position of Australia in the global art world, including its relationship with the Asia-Pacific. The unit will move from discussion of the American influence to the 'pluralism' of the 1970s: minimal art, performance art and feminism. The focus from the 1980s to the present will address some of the following: neo-expressionism, appropriation, nomadology, aboriginality, post-feminism, developments in abstraction, installation, queer art, the body, relational and dialogical aesthetics. Contemporary theory will be addressed throughout.

On the successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Develop a thorough knowledge of Australian postmodern art.
2. Apply critical skills that enable them to analyse contemporary art.
3. Critically analyse the critical and theoretical debates related to postmodernism in Australia.
4. Use advanced reading and research skills.

First seminar paper 2500 words (25%)

Second seminar paper 2500 words (35%)

Essay 4000 words (40%)

2 hours (1 x 2 hour seminar) per week

See also Unit timetable information

This unit is designed to assist honours students specializing in art/design theory to extend their preferred field/s of study through a program of directed reading and critical writing, facilitated by regular seminars with senior Art history and theory staff.

1. To enable honours-level students to consolidate and extend their reading in fields of study relevant to their research.

2. To encourage and develop students' capacity to formulate critical responses and develop sophisticated written interpretations of key issues in the field of art and/or design theory.

3. To encourage students to explore new or unfamiliar theoretical material of relevance to their advanced studies in art and/or design theory.

Literature report (2000 words) 70%; Essay (4000 words) 70%

2 hours of seminars and 10 hours of private study per week

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This unit is the first part of a major art history and theory research project. It provides an opportunity to research issues and begin the work required for a 15000 word written thesis. The thesis should be on a topic chosen by the student and approved by the department at the time of application.. The thesis will be written under supervision, and students will be expected to meet regularly with their supervisors. This unit is followed by AHT4112 Major project (Art history and theory honours), under which the project and research must be completed.

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

1. be aware of current discourses in relation to an area of contemporary artistic production;
2. be able to advance sustained critical arguments in relation to a specialized topic;
3. be capable of high level bibliographical research in their chosen field;
4. be able to offer fresh interpretations of the literature in their chosen field;
5. be capable of conducting independent research at an advanced level;

Thesis (progress towards) as follows:

Bibliography (1000 words) (20%)

Introduction or First Chapter of Honours Thesis (4000 words) (80%)

On-campus: The average number of contact and private study hours per week for one 12cp unit should equal 24 hours.

Off-campus: Note any expected residential or on-campus component requirements for this unit, and give an indication of how private study time is expected to be spent.

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This unit is the second part of a major art history and theory research project; following AHT4111 Project studies (Art history and theory honours), it provides an opportunity to extend research and complete the work required for the written thesis. The thesis should be on a topic chosen by the student and approved by the department by at the time of application. The thesis will be written under supervision, and students will be expected to meet regularly with their supervisors. The thesis must be submitted in two typed copies, suitably bound, at the end of the Second Semester.

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

1. be aware of current discourses in relation to an area of contemporary artistic production;
2. be able to advance sustained critical arguments in relation to a specialized topic;
3. be capable of high level bibliographical research in their chosen field;
4. be able to offer fresh interpretations of the literature in their chosen field;
5. be capable of conducting independent research at an advanced level;
6. be capable of presenting a logically structured long-form text to a high standard of presentation

Thesis 15,000 words (100%)

This unit does not have prescribed contact hours; candidates will arrange to meet with supervisors as necessary. As a guide 36 hours of personal study are recommended.

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This unit is designed to assist honours students specialising in art theory or visual culture to extend their preferred field/s of study through a program of directed reading and critical writing, facilitated by regular seminars with staff.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will have the ability to:

1. Identify and explore new and unfamiliar theoretical material of relevance to their advanced studies in art theory.
2. Formulate critical responses and develop sophisticated written interpretations of key issues in the field of art theory.
3. Consolidate bibliographical research in fields of study relevant to their independent research.

First Tutorial Paper 2500 words (25%)

Second Tutorial Paper 2500 words (35%)

Research Essay 4000 words (40%)

4 contact hours plus 20 hours of private study hours per week

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Students enrolled in this unit will complete a six-week internship with an external organisation, such as a gallery or museum, for a minimum of one day per week. The internship is self-managed, with the assistance of the Unit Coordinator and host organisation. The internship experience will enable students to put their skills and knowledge into practice in a professional workplace, and build industry contacts and confidence. Students will complete a journal that documents and reflects on the internship experience.

On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. work effectively in a professional environment;
2. understand the essential elements of museum and gallery administration;
3. apply and extend knowledge obtained through their degree in a professional setting;
4. work autonomously on a range of tasks, such as the installation of artworks and the marketing of exhibitions;
5. communicate the results of the internship through a reflexive journal.

Written report, 1000 words (100%)

Off-campus: 48 hours (approximately one day per week over six weeks)

See also Unit timetable information

This unit aims to help students develop their knowledge and understanding of various key theoretical writers and concepts relevant to advanced studies in contemporary art. Prevailing critical theories and terms are outlined in order to open up research venues considered particularly productive for the art researcher's own personal directions. The unit is designed as a training for independent research and encourages students to investigate a wide range of ideas circulating in contemporary visual culture.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. be aware of current discourses in a range of disciplines which bear on contemporary artistic production
2. be able to pursue critical arguments with a sense of their ideological relativity
3. assess the bias of an investigative method, considering gender, class and ethnicity
4. understand methodology as a critique of method and be able to practice criticism in their chosen field
5. identify assumptions inherent in the formulation of critical questions and cultivate caution against prejudicing the outcomes of research by foreclosing on the terms of inquiry
6. be ready to explain the basis of art works not merely as the outcome of practical constraints but the expression of cultural values.

Assignments (two written papers): 30% and 70%

3 hours of lectures and tutorials and 9 independent study hours per week

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Designed as a flexible unit, with an innovative small-group mode of delivery that enables the unit content to be student-led. It is specifically designed to enable students to contextualise their own creative practice in theoretical terms. With an emphasis on creative and critically aware approaches to visual production, the unit aims to open up and consolidate research avenues that may be particularly productive for individual student's personal directions.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. grasp of key concepts in contemporary art theory relevant to the area of practice which they are pursuing;
2. relate the terms of their practice to the broader field of contemporary art;
3. practice criticism in small forums, identifying critical questions of other people's practice and considering and conjecturing how aesthetic standards are the expression of cultural values;
4. sustain an exegetical defence of their work and its placement in current visual production;
5. explain the senses in which their art practice involves research.

Two assignments: 30% and 70%

3 seminar hours and 9 independent study hours per week

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Foundation Studio introduces architectural design as a process of investigation, critical observation, and experiment. The unit focuses on design as a process engaged with the three-dimensional and material testing of ideas. Projects will be formulated to introduce issues such as scale in relation to the human body, site and environmental contexts, basic techniques of three-dimensional composition and the correct use of architectural drawing conventions.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate a progression to a basic level of competence in architectural design.
2. Have the ability to undertake basic analysis and respond appropriately to a straight-forward brief.
3. Have developed a basic understanding of how observation, analysis, experiment and critique apply to the architectural design process.
4. Have acquired a basic range of skills in verbal, graphic and 3-dimensional presentation.
5. Have acquired a basic range of skills in 3-dimensional and material testing of ideas.
6. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

100% Mixed Mode

8 hours studio per week or equivalent and 16 hours of independent study.

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Building on the basic architectural knowledge and skills attained in Architecture Foundation studio 1, this unit introduces students to a further level of complexity in the processes of investigation, critical observation, and experiment. The synthesis of a range of complex issues inherent in the production of architecture: material, structure, program, site, history and representation is further investigated in relationship to the production of architectural form.

Architecture Foundation studio 2 further emphasises the development of architectural designs through the three-dimensional and material testing of ideas. Students will continue the development of two and three-dimensional modes of representation. Studies will focus on developing a more nuanced understanding of design as a visual language and process of cultural production with a focus on social and environmental sustainability.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate a basic level of competence in architectural design.
2. Have the ability to undertake a level of complex analysis and respond appropriately to a brief.
3. Have refined their understanding of how observation, analysis, experiment and critique apply to the architectural design process.
4. Have acquired a range of skills in verbal, graphic and 3-dimensional presentation.
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

This is a semester-long project unit.

100% mixed mode

24 hours per week, including 6 hours studio or equivalent and 18 hours of independent study

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Delivered in conjunction with ARC1002. Explores materials, component systems, products and fabrication systems as they apply to building construction. This includes the study of materials in terms of their physical and chemical properties, environmental sustainability and impact, and involves physical testing and assessment of materials and their application in architecture.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Understand the basic use and properties of materials and fabrication techniques as they apply to architectural design;
2. Be familiar with historic and contemporary development of construction materials, component systems and fabrication techniques;
3. Understand basic physical and structural principles as they pertain to different materials;
4. Understand issues of environmental sustainability in relation to materials selection and design;
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

This is a semester-long project unit.

100% mixed mode

12 hours, including 4 hours of lecture/workshop and 8 hours of independent study

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Explores the principles, history and methods of perspective and orthographic projection, and engages in the practice of descriptive geometry through the use of contemporary computer technology and computer aided drafting (CAD). Basic techniques of visualisation and the translation of traditional analogue modes of representation into the digital will be introduced, along with technical CAD modelling and drawing skills in both two and three-dimensions.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Be aware of the function of computer aided drafting (CAD) as a fundamental tool of two and three-dimensional design;
2. Understand the transition between two-dimensional and three-dimensional systems of representation and their associated drawing conventions;
3. Have developed basic skills in computer aided drawing in two and three dimensions using industry standard hardware / software;
4. Understand the principles of descriptive geometry, its methods of representation and protocols of orthographic and axonometric projection;
5. Have basic knowledge of the theoretical and historical origins of perspective and orthographic projection as an analogue form of practice and representation;
6. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

100% Mixed mode

12 hours per week, including 4 hours lecture/tutorial and 8 hours of independent study

See also Unit timetable information

This unit introduces visual and spatial language, and their relationship to a larger world of ideas and modes of expression. Visual and spatial language are analysed in relation to technical, aesthetic, and ideological frameworks. The reasons behind stylistic development are sought within the framework of the history of ideas, from the political and social to the economic. Diverse forms of art, architecture and design are analysed to offer an appreciation for the connections between cultural production and larger processes of change. In tutorials students are given opportunities to develop visual and verbal skills for engaging in contemporary discourse on art, architecture and design.

On successful completion of this subject, students should have developed:

1. A basic appreciation of architectural history and theory as modes of critical thinking, relevant and applicable to contemporary architectural design and discourse
2. A basic understanding of architectural history and theory as interrelated disciplines
3. Basic knowledge of key historical epochs in architecture as they relate to theoretical themes and cultural contexts
4. Basic knowledge of key theoretical themes as they relate to architecture within historic contexts

Essay (1500 words): 25%

Essay (2000 words): 50%

Visual test (1 hour): 25%

Two 1 hour lectures and one 1 hour tutorial and 9 independent study hours per week

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Architecture Design Studio 3 further refines the process of investigation, critical observation, and experiment integral to architectural practice. Continuing the emphasis on perceptive synthesis of the range of complex issues inherent in the production of architecture: material, structure, program, site, history and representation will be investigated in their relationship to the production of architectural form.

Design Studio 3 continues to emphasise the development of architectural designs through the three-dimensional and material testing of ideas. Students will continue the development of two and three-dimensional modes of representation. Studies will focus on developing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of design as a visual language and process of cultural production with a focus on social and environmental sustainability.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate a progression to an intermediate level of competence in architectural design.
2. Have the ability to critically analyse and respond appropriately to a brief.
3. Have developed a competent understanding of how observation, analysis, experiment and critique apply to the architectural design process.
4. Have acquired an intermediate level of competence in a range of skills in verbal, graphic and 3-dimensional presentation.
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

100% mixed mode

24 hours per week including 6 contact hours per week and 18 hours of independent study or equivalent

See also Unit timetable information

Architecture Design Studio 4 continues to expand on the conceptual understanding and skill base of preceding design studios. The unit elaborates on architectural design as a process of investigation, critical observation, and experiment. It increases the emphasis on design as a synthetic process encompassing a range of complex issues inherent in the production of architecture: material, structure, program, site, history and representation are investigated in their relationship to the production of architectural form.

Architecture Design Studio 4 continues to enhance the development of architectural designs through the three-dimensional and material testing of ideas. Studies in the unit will maintain their focus on developing an understanding of design as a visual language and process of cultural production with a focus on social and environmental sustainability.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate an intermediate level of competence in architectural design.
2. Have the ability to critically analyse and respond appropriately to a compound brief.
3. Have developed a competent understanding of how observation, analysis, experiment and critique apply to the architectural design process.
4. Have acquired an intermediate level of competence in a range of skills in verbal, graphic and 3-dimensional presentation.
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

This is a semester-long project unit.

100% mixed mode

24 hours per week including 6 contact hours per week and 18 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit explores structure as it relates to architectural design and construction. This includes study of structural principles and the implications of these in relation to architectural design and construction processes and outcomes. Direct physical testing and manipulation of materials and structural systems will be used to understand and assess their application in architecture. A range of structural behaviors will be addressed in response to optimisation and material efficiencies as well as their relationship to design intent. Projects will be introduced to promote dialogue between this unit and design studio project processes and outcomes. Integral to the subject matter is the engagement with strategies for environmental sustainability in relation to structure design and construction.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Understand basic structural principles as they apply to architectural design and construction
2. Understand issues of material properties and construction processes in relation to structural system design
3. Develop an understanding of issues of environmental sustainability in relation to structural system design
4. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study

100% mixed mode

12 hours per week, including 3 hours lecture / tutorial and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent

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This unit focuses on the development of communication skills and understanding of conceptual, historical and ideological concerns which relate to 2 and 3 dimensional modes of representation. Examining the relationship between 2 dimensional modes of representation and 3 dimensional material and physical outcomes is a primary focus. Two related themes are explored: methods of digital image production, including visualisation and rendering; and processes of material production and fabrication.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate basic skills and understanding of material fabrication techniques;
2. Demonstrate basic skills in digital rendering of 3-dimensional CAD models (using industry standard hardware / software) and the associated use of post-production software (such as the Adobe suite for example);
3. Have developed a basic understanding of the transition between abstract 2-dimensional modes of representation and applied three-dimensional physical outcomes;
4. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

This is a semester-long project unit.

100% mixed mode

12 hours per week, including 3 hours lecture/tutorial and 9 hours of independent study, or equivalent

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This unit introduces the history and theory of selected Australian and international architecture since 1968.The unit will also introduce methods for the written, spoken and visual analysis of buildings including site visits, analytical case studies and other forms of analysis. In addition to the theoretical and historical contexts of the buildings studied the unit will investigate their contribution to architectural design.

On successful completion of this unit, students will have developed:

1. A basic knowledge of the history and theory of post 1968 architecture;
2. A basic knowledge of the varied contexts of post 1968 architecture;
3. Ability to demonstrate a basic understanding of techniques applicable to the visual analysis of architecture;
4. A basic understanding of the selected buildings' contribution to architectural design;
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

The Analytical Project, Essay and Visual Test will together form 100% of the assessment.

A range of lectures, seminars, intensives and site visits delivered in regular and or intensive mode averaging the equivalent of 12 hours work per week, including 3 hours contact and 9 hours of independent study.

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This unit introduces the history and theory of 19th and 20th century Australian and international architecture. The subject will also develop methods for the written, discursive and visual analysis of buildings including site visits, analytical case studies and other forms of analysis. In addition to the theoretical and historical contexts of the buildings studied the subject will investigate their contribution to architectural design.

On successful completion of this unit, students will have developed:

1. Knowledge of the history and theory of 19th and 20th century Australian and international architecture.
2. Knowledge of the varied contexts of 19th and 20th century Australian and international architecture.
3. An ability to demonstrate familiarity with the techniques applicable to the visual analysis of architecture.
4. An understanding of the selected buildings' contribution to architectural design.
5. An understanding and the ability to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

The Analytical Project, Essay and Visual Test will together form 100% of the assessment.

3 contact hours per week or equivalent

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Architecture Design Studio 5 continues to expand and consolidate the conceptual understanding and skill base of preceding design studios. It continues to elaborate on architectural design as a process of investigation, critical observation, and experiment. It increases the emphasis on design as a synthetic process encompassing a range of complex issues inherent in the production of architecture: material, structure, program, site, history and representation are investigated in their relationship to the production of architectural form.

Architecture Design Studio 5 continues the development of architectural designs through the consolidation of three-dimensional and material testing of ideas. Studies in the unit will maintain a focus on developing design as a visual language and process of cultural production with an emphasis on social and environmental sustainability

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate a progression to a refined level of competence in architectural design.
2. Have the ability to critically analyse and successfully respond to the complex range of issues inherent in an architectural design project.
3. Have developed a sophisticated understanding of how observation, analysis, experiment and critique apply to the architectural design process.
4. Have acquired an advanced level of competence and consolidation of all presentation skills: verbal, graphic and 3-dimensional.
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

100% Mixed mode

24 hours a week, including 6 Studio hours or equivalent and 18 hours of independent study

See also Unit timetable information

Architecture Design Studio 6 aims to consolidate the conceptual understanding and skill base of preceding design studios. It continues to elaborate on architectural design as a process of investigation, critical observation, and experiment. It increases the emphasis on design as a synthetic process encompassing a range of complex issues inherent in the production of architecture: material, structure, program, site, history and representation are investigated in their relationship to the production of architectural form.

Architecture Design Studio 6 continues the development of architectural designs through the further consolidation of three-dimensional and material testing of ideas. Studies in the unit will maintain a focus on developing design as a visual language and process of cultural production with an emphasis on social and environmental sustainability.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate a refined level of competence in architectural design.
2. Have a demonstrated ability to critically analyse and successfully respond to the complex range of issues inherent in an architectural design project.
3. Have developed a sophisticated understanding of how observation, analysis, experiment and critique apply to the architectural design process.
4. Have acquired an advanced level of competence and consolidation of all presentation skills: verbal, graphic and 3-dimensional.
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

This is a semester-long project unit.

100% mixed mode

24 hours, including 6 Studio hours or equivalent and 18 hours of independent study

See also Unit timetable information

This unit explores environmental systems as they relate to architectural design and construction. This includes study of environmental design principles and the implications of these in relation to architectural design and construction processes and outcomes. Analysis of environmental systems will be conducted with a focus on the relationship to design intent. A range of environmental behaviors will be addressed in response to performance optimisation. Integral to the subject matter is the engagement with strategies for environmental sustainability in relation to architectural design and construction. Projects will be introduced to promote dialogue between this unit and Architecture Design Studio 6 project processes and outcomes.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of environmental design principles as they apply to architectural design and construction,
2. Understand issues of material properties and construction processes in relation to environmental system design,
3. Have developed a competent understanding of issues of environmental sustainability in relation to architectural design,
4. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

This is a semester-long project unit.

100% mixed mode

12 hours, including 3 hours of lectures and tutorials and 9 hours of independent study

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This unit culminates the Technologies and Environments sequence with further integration of professional practices. It explores integrated building systems as they relate to architectural design, construction and project delivery. This includes study of principles of integrated design and the implications of these in relation to architectural design, pan-disciplinary collaboration and construction processes and outcomes. Students will be exposed to the multiple requirements and determinants that shape the stages of the professional project cycle. Through project-based exercises, students engage with the professional ethics and practices required for project development and the performative integration of building systems and design intent. Students will understand buildings as a site of collaboration of pan-disciplinary teams of experts and clients, whose input contributes to realisation within technical, legal and economic constraints. The unit also addresses strategies for environmental sustainability and optimisation in design, construction and delivery.

1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of integrative design principles as they apply to architectural design, collaboration, construction, and ethical project delivery
2. Have developed awareness of the collaborative processes and engagements inherent in architectural production
3. Have developed a competent understanding of issues of building system integration in relation to architectural design and construction for environmental sustainability
4. Understand the professional project cycle and the roles and responsibilities of the architect and participants in shaping the built environment. This includes gaining familiarity with the legal responsibilities of the architect in relation to contracts, codes and regulations and building industry procurement methods and practices
5. Gain familiarity and proficiency with advanced methods of collaboration and visualization for the integrated design of buildings
6. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study

100% mixed mode

12 hours per week including 4 contact hours per week and 8 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit introduces the history and theory of contemporary urbanism. The subject will also develop methods for the written, spoken and visual analysis of urban settings and their associated architecture including site visits, analytical case studies and other forms of analysis. In addition to the theoretical and historical contexts of the urban settings and associated architecture the subject will investigate their contribution to architectural design knowledge.

On successful completion of this unit, students will have developed:

1. Knowledge of the history and theory of contemporary urbanism.
2. Knowledge of the socio economic, political and cultural contexts of selected contemporary cities.
3. The ability to demonstrate the techniques applicable to the visual analysis of urban settings and their associated architecture.
4. An understanding of the selected urban settings and their associated architecture's contribution to architectural design in an urban context.
5. Understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

The Analytical Project, Essay and Class Presentation will together form 100% of the assessment.

12 hours, including 3 hours of lectures, seminars or equivalent and 9 hours of independent study

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This unit introduces aspects of architectural production. This unit covers architectural production in relation to a range of historical, theoretical, material and speculative domains addressing diverse social, cultural, technological, and communicative aspects of architecture. Explorations will incorporate various methodologies and points of view. The unit will help students develop analytical methods for understanding and contributing to the evolving built environment.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate a broader exposure and deeper engagement with architectural production
2. Actively engage research issues in architectural production
3. Critically assess aspects of architectural production
4. Utilise principles and strategies influencing the development of architecture
5. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

Mixed-mode assessment: 100%

On-campus: 12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit provides focused study into aspects of architecture culture. The unit will develop critical capacities for comprehending and contributing to the built environment. This unit explores architectural culture through the lenses of historically and theoretically based speculative and material developments. Investigations will incorporate various methodologies and diverse points of view. Students will also gain awareness of the associated effects on and of architectural design.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand and describe aspects of architecture culture
2. Critically analyse and evaluate dimensions of architecture culture
3. Compare and utilise methods and tactics involved in architecture culture
4. Demonstrate skills for producing and communicating explorations of architecture culture
5. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

This is a semester-long project unit.

100% mixed mode

On-campus: 12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit explores the multi-disciplinary nature of communication design by introducing and applying the basic elements and principles of two and three-dimensional design. Students develop a repertoire of knowledge through the exploration of creative problem solving methodologies and manipulation of design elements. Communication design is presented as a creative, analytical and synthesising process with social, cultural and artistic implications. Set projects encourage experimentation and skill development with materials and technology via drawing, image making and various digital imaging software options.

On successful completion of this unit, students will have the ability to:

1. Identify and apply the basic elements and principles of two and three dimensional design
2. Recognise the historical and aesthetic parallels between design and art
3. Demonstrate drawing skills and the use of creative drawing practice as a means of visual thinking
4. Understand and apply basic colour theories
5. Express ideas and concepts through introductory-level image making, typography and digital imaging
6. Construct design solutions using introductory-level digital production processes
7. Understand and apply the occupational health and safety requirements of this unit

100% Progressive assessment, by a series of assignments

On-campus: 8 contact hours plus 16 hours of private study hours per week.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit introduces communication design processes relative to the fundamental principles of typography, image, layout manipulation and time-based design. An understanding of how communication design enhances the human experience is initiated in this unit through observation, critical enquiry, interpretation and the creation of visual and interactive forms. Students will utilise typography both as a communicative and expressive tool. Historical and contemporary examples of visual communication, typography and time-based media will be examined, analysed and discussed, providing the opportunity for students to appreciate and develop skills in typography, page layout, motion graphics and digital media design.

On successful completion of this unit, students will have the ability to:

1. Construct design solutions using two and three dimensional design elements, image making, typography and time-based media
2. Develop a responsible, inquiring and adventurous attitude to design problem solving
3. Recognise and use terminology specific to communication design, typography and digital media
4. Understand and apply the fundamental elements and principles of basic typesetting and type design
5. Use the fundamental processes intrinsic to time-based design and motion graphics
6. Understand and apply the occupational health and safety requirements of this unit

100% Progressive assessment by a series of assignments

8 contact hours plus 16 hours of private study hours per week.

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Photographic Art Direction will develop students' skills in their ability to manipulate and control photographic imagery via a sound understanding of digital camera technology, its associated software and studio lighting. It will build upon the foundation knowledge of photography gained as part of CDS1001.

This unit will expose students to the processes involved in the documentation of their own work, product photography, and other situations that require a sound knowledge of the photographic experience and how best to creatively negotiate its outcome. Students will become adept at being able to intuitively and creatively direct the narrative of a photograph through a competent use of language, composition, timing, light, props and camera technology.

Students will explore the potential of the camera in both studio and outdoor settings, and begin to understand the scope of creative possibilities and challenges each circumstance offers. They will be exposed to the work of leading exponents of the practice, both contemporary and historic. This unit will be of particular interest to students wishing to document folio content as well as those wanting to pursue a design career in advertising and marketing.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand key aspects of digital camera technology and its associated software.
2. Recognise the value of lighting, props, timing and exposure in the direction of a photographic outcome.
3. Create a number of photographic outcomes that use both studio lighting and natural lighting in their creation.
4. Direct and edit the narrative of a photograph through use of language, composition, timing, light, props and camera technology.
5. Discuss the value photographic art direction plays in the realm of communication design production.
6. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study hours per week

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Illustration for Narrative explores the role of illustration and related image-making within a contemporary visual communication landscape. It intends to address the diverse media through which image-making can communicate ideas and narrate scenarios through both still and moving image. Contemporary image-makers need to know how to harness the potential of story-telling through various mediaexposure to, and experience with, the diverse processes available in essential to this end. Particular emphasis will be placed on the visual interpretation of words and stories, extracting the essence of their narrative content through visual means. These 'stories' may be provided or authored by the students themselves.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand the key role images play in the comprehension of narrative structures.
2. Utilise a variety of illustration techniques: traditional, digital and experimental.
3. Create narrative images using both still and moving media.
4. Identify the key elements of narrative upon which to base their image(s).
5. Respond creatively to any given text or concept as well as narratives developed as both author and image-maker.
6. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% Mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study hours per week..

See also Unit timetable information

Communication Design Studio 2A will elaborate on the practical and conceptual skills developed in CDS1001 and CDS1002. Students will be exposed to a broad range of creative communication processes from print to digital media, and will be able to identify the appropriate context(s) to which they would be applied independently and in conjunction with one another.

Students will explore a range of media elements including typography, image, layout, three-dimensional form, sound and motion as core components to their communication design solutions. Studio-based projects across both print and digital media platforms will develop skills in narrative structure, typography, image construction and manipulation, production methods and technologies, and the planning and management of design outcomes.

Students will be encouraged to approach all projects with an open attitude to experimentation and critical enquiry. Studies in this unit will help students develop an understanding of the vital space communication designers occupy in developing and contributing to the language of contemporary visual culture, alongside the social responsibilities inherently associated with this.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. construct communication design solutions utilizing a variety of media, including manual, print and digital processes with an open attitude to experimentation and critical inquiry
2. explore design solutions that utilize sound and motion as core components to their outcome;
3. produce design solutions that demonstrate an understanding of narrative conventions;
4. identify and competently use the technology appropriate for each design outcome;
5. plan and manage a design outcome from initial concept to final resolution;
6. demonstrate an understanding of how observation, analysis, response and conceptual thinking contributes to the practice of communication design;
7. confidently articulate an informed rationale for each communication design solution.
8. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% progressive assessment by a series of assignments

8 contact hours plus 16 hours of private study hours per week.

See also Unit timetable information

Communication Design Studio 2B will expose students to a broad range of creative communication processes from print to digital media, and will be able to identify the appropriate context(s) to which they would be applied independently and in conjunction with each other.

Students will explore a range of media elements including typography, image, layout, three-dimensional form, interaction design, spatial environments and visualisation as core components to their communication design solutions. Projects across both print and digital media platforms will develop skills in information design, way-finding, interactivity, user experience (experiential design), typography, image construction and manipulation, production methods, collaborative activity, and the planning and management of design outcomes.

Students will be encouraged to approach all projects with an open attitude to experimentation and critical enquiry. Studies in this unit will help students develop an understanding of the vital space communication designers occupy in developing and contributing to the language of contemporary visual culture, alongside the social responsibilities inherently associated with this.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. construct communication design solutions utilizing a variety of media, including manual, print and digital processes with an open attitude to experimentation and critical enquiry;
2. identify and competently use the technology appropriate for each design outcome;
3. engage with and understand print, interactive and online digital production methods;
4. create communication strategies that demonstrate an understanding of user experience, interaction and interface design;
5. plan and manage a design outcome from initial concept to final resolution;
6. demonstrate an understanding of how observation, analysis, response and conceptual thinking contributes to the practice of communication design;
7. confidently articulate an informed rationale for each communication design solution;
8. understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% progressive assessment by a series of assignments

On-campus: 8 contact hours plus 16 hours of private study hours per week.

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A Brand is more than a logo. It's the narrative story of a product or service that makes people feel a certain way towards it. It is a persuasive and highly potent communication vehicle in which communication designers play a pivotal role.

This unit intends to develop students' comprehension of the value of branding and the development of brand awareness. Through a process of practical studio exercises and tutorials they will explore the development of a brand from the creation of a name, to the development of a logo or identity, to the building of an emotional cache attached to that mark and its applications. Key branding strategies will be explored, including target market identification, product positioning, and competitor analysis. Students will be encouraged to explore creative brand strategies that engage both established and emerging media. They will comprehend specific language and key terminology associated with the branding process. They will be exposed to leading exponents of branding that are both historic and contemporary and will be able to identify key strategies utilised in the creation of their success.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Utilise and understand key terminology and concepts associated with branding.
2. Examine and discuss the historical milestones in the area of branding, including the the value of brands in a contemporary consumer culture.
3. Engage with the various forms of established and emerging media key to the successful creation of a brand.
4. Create a brand strategy beyond the creation of a logo and its applications.
5. Critically analyse the range of strategies utilised by existing brands, including target market identification, product positioning, and competitor analysis.
6. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study per week

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Packaging Design is a unit specifically for those who wish to explore the application of communication design processes within the realm of 3-dimensional packaging design.

Packaging continues to be a prominent component of our visual landscape and this unit will require its students to critically assess its environmental impact, materiality and purpose through well-considered and appropriate design solutions. Different sector needs will be explored. For example, the specific and heavily legislated needs for medication packaging may be analysed alongside the needs of a simple grocery item.

Students will be required to rationalise the environmental impact of each of their project solutions, in terms of materiality, reusability and recyclability. They will also comprehend the value of packaging as both a necessity for some items (sterile medical products, for example), and a persuasive and portable brand vehicle for others (foodstuffs like tea and coffee, for example).

Consumer needs including usability and ergonomics will also be an important consideration for students in this unit. Both form and surface graphics will be explored in detail. In addition students will be required to comprehend and apply the legal and production requirements of their packaging design outcomes.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand the place of packaging in a contemporary consumer culture.
2. Create packaging solutions for products that are responsive to environmental issues and consumer needs.
3. Create designs that reflect their understanding of packaging as a brand vehicle.
4. Create designs that merge both form and surface graphics in one successful design outcome.
5. Comprehend and apply the legal and production requirements of their packaging design solution(s).
6. Critically assess the resolution of their packaging solutions, rationalising its environmental impact, materiality and purpose.
7. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study hours per week.

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Code is the building block of all digital software and content. Once the domain of computer programmers, code is now being used by artists, designers and architects to translate their ideas into new forms of creative expression and communication.

This unit will enable students to apply the basic concepts and principles of coding, from concept to implementation, to create these unique forms of expression.

Through a process of practical studio exercises and workshops students will explore how code and software development can enable innovative ways of translating concepts into unique visual and auditory form. Students will be exposed to key terminology and processes of coding and encouraged to explore these processes to create dynamic and unique interactive digital content. An in-depth study of both the historical and contemporary leaders in art, design and architecture who use these processes to generate important cultural artefacts will contextualise the significance of creative coding in these fields.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Examine the unique characteristics of code and programming in contemporary audiovisual culture, and its relationship with other media standards and protocols.
2. Create visual and acoustic content using code, translating concepts into unique visual and auditory forms.
3. Organise and plan application development prior to coding, using processes to plan development of content.
4. Produce design specification documentation applicable to programming and coding, integrating key terminology and coding processes.
5. Apply knowledge of the basic structural organisation of code to develop dynamic and unique interactive digital content.
6. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study per week

See also Unit timetable information

Digital humanities

This unit introduces students to physical computing as a creative endeavour. Simple computers called microprocessors can sense all elements of the physical world including light, sound, heat, vision and motion. The data collected from these microprocessors can be reinterpreted and creatively expressed in software as images, animation, simulation, visualisation, video, sculpture and sound. Artists, designers and architects use this data to create new forms of expression and communication.

Through a process of practical workshops students will create innovative ways to interact with and control microprocessors and the data they collect. This unit will enable students to apply the concepts and principles of designing and controlling electronic components, from concept to implementation, to express unique and engaging forms of visual, sculptural and auditory communication.

In-depth studies of contemporary leaders in art, design and architecture who use creative digital technologies will contextualise the significance of physical computing in these fields.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Understand the basic function and design of electronic components.
2. Create new forms visual and auditory expression using physical computing.
3. Recognise basic micro-processor functions and the relationship microprocessors have with other electronic protocols.
4. Apply the concepts and principles of designing and controlling electronic components, from concept to implementation, to express unique and engaging forms of visual, sculptural and auditory communication.
5. Produce design specification documentation applicable to electronic circuit design and construction.
6. Discuss the unique characteristics physical computing has in art, design and architecture and the context of physical computing in contemporary culture.
7. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study per week

See also Unit timetable information

This unit will enable students to apply advanced principles of coding, from concept to implementation, to create unique forms of data visualisations.

Visualisation is the graphic representation of data. It enables complex information structures to be expressed creatively and understood quickly. Contemporary culture has seen a massive increase in the amount of data generated by social media, web sites like Amazon and other large cultural datasets. The challenge for designers, architects and artists is to translate this data into something that communicates a complex concept efficiently and creatively challenge the visual status quo to generate incisive cultural commentary.

Through a process of practical studio exercises and workshops students will explore how data can be used to generate unique interactive visualisations. Students will be exposed to key processes of data management, including organising, cleaning and preparing data for visualisation. Students are encouraged to explore these processes to create dynamic, unique and creative interactive visualisations. In-depth studies of the contemporary leaders in art, design and architecture who use these processes to generate data visualisations will critically contextualise the social and economic significance of the field.

On completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Examine the unique characteristics and context of data visualisation in historical and contemporary culture, and the relationship between data, information and content.
2. Create dynamic data visualisations through the application of advanced coding principles, from concept through to implementation.
3. Organise and plan content development prior to data visualisation using a range of data management processes.
4. Produce design specification documentation applicable to data visualisation, integrating key terminology and data management processes.
5. Apply advanced knowledge of the structural organisation of computer code to explore how data can be used to generate unique interactive visualisations.
6. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study per week.

See also Unit timetable information

Digital humanities

Unconventional Publishing is a unit for those wishing to explore new models of physical publishing involving designer-generated content. Various methods and rationales - both creative and pragmatic - for the instigation of self-initiated projects will be investigated. The unit explores the possibility of communication design as an autonomous creative practice.

The definition of publishing has expanded to include such diverse practices as websites, books, phone-based media, magazines, public posters, etc. In particular, small publishers have become more numerous and specialised, while traditional mass-market publishing is undergoing a slow decline. There are many examples of such small publishers being led by designers.

Merging the traditionally separate roles of content-generator, editor, designer, publisher, printer and distributor reflects contemporary trends in communication design and provides a holistic overview of publishing as discipline. The unit approaches this breadth of publishing as a contiguous practice that can be overseen by an individual or small group and therefore encourages the development of projects outside of the traditional client/designer relationship.

1. apply skills in typography, layout and page structure to a publication design;
2. creatively engage with the material qualities of a publication;
3. generate their own text and pictorial content for a published output;
4. demonstrate skills in publication design, pictorial/textual editing, print production and promotion/distribution;
5. critically assess the cultural value of existing published works;
6. understand the various professional roles within traditional publishing and its associated processes;
7. apply the occupational health and safety requirements of this unit.

100% mixed mode - Progressive assessment is by a series of tasks that contribute to the completion of a major publication project.

On-campus: 4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study hours per week.

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Illustration for Animation explores the role of illustration and related image-making within the animation industry. Students will be exposed to the processes and techniques illustrators use in the production of animatics, the process of turning written narrative into a sequential visual format. Students will become competent in the creation of storyboards, and understand the principles of editing and composition in the construction of an animated narrative.

In this unit students will become familiar with the union of image transition, dialogue, sound effects, music, dissolves, zooms, pans and other production processes used in the construction of animatics. They will also explore character design as a core component of animated story-telling, and how that character is adapted in order to create convincing action, dialogue and emotional expression.

Students will be exposed to the work of leading exponents of the practice, both contemporary and historic, and be able to critically analyse the processes used this work.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Examine the role illustration plays in the animation industry, through the critical analysis of contemporary and historical works.
2. Create a storyboard to translate written narrative into a sequential visual format.
3. Construct an animated narrative using the principles of editing and composition.
4. Employ image transitions, dialogue, sound effects, music, dissolves, zooms, pans and other production processes used in the construction of animatics.
5. Design characters for animated story-telling and apply principles to evoke emotion, action and dialogue.
6. Understand and apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% Mixed mode

4 contact hours plus 8 hours of private study hours per week

See also Unit timetable information

Communication Design Studio 3A will advance to a high level the practical, technical and conceptual skills developed in preceding studios. Having been exposed to a broad range of creative communication processes in the prerequisite units, students will be required to identify an area of specialisation in which to participate in CDS3001. Specialisation areas will be identified upon enrolment into the unit and may include (but will not be limited to) publication design, typography, image, brand, animation, sound and motion, interactivity and others areas that develop as the communication design field continues to broaden.

Within their area of specialisation students will explore the breadth of communication possibilities through a carefully composed program of studio-based projects relevant to their chosen area. These projects, though different in each specialisation, will be comparable in assessment tasks and learning outcomes. Within each studio, students will develop their skills in both the technology and conceptual thinking required of their specialisation to a high level of competency.

Students will be encouraged to approach this unit with the utmost care in their selection of specialisation. General exposure to the areas of specialisation will have occurred throughout the preceding units, but counselling from the unit's chief examiner and the course coordinator will be made available to assist students' selection of their particular area of study.

The projects undertaken in CDS3001 will contribute towards a body of work intended to demonstrate the student's refined level of competence within the communication design field, and assist them to either progress into further study or gain appropriate employment in the communication design arena.

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Engage with the communication design process to plan and manage their design outcome from initial research and concept development to final resolution.
2. Construct communication design solutions utilising the media and processes expected in their specialisation.
3. Produce design solutions that demonstrate a clear understanding of communication conventions, but with an open attitude to inquiry and experimentation.
4. Identify and expertly use the technology appropriate for each design outcome.
5. Critically assess their design solutions in order to improve their final outcome.
6. Articulate an informed rationale for each communication design solution.
7. Understand and apply the occupational health and safety requirements appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

8 contact hours plus 16 hours of private study hours per week.

See also Unit timetable information

Communication Design Studio 3B will advance to a high level the practical, technical and conceptual skills developed in preceding studios. Having been exposed to a broad range of creative communication processes in the prerequisite units, students will be required to identify an area of specialisation in which to participate in CDS3002. Students may choose to continue the same area as that selected in CDS3001 to hone their specialist skills, or opt for a different area in order to broaden their expertise. Specialisation areas will be identified upon enrolment into the unit and may include (but will not be limited to) publication design, typography, image, brand, animation, sound and motion, interactivity and others areas that develop as the communication design field continues to broaden.

Within their area of specialisation students will explore the breadth of communication possibilities through a carefully composed program of studio-based projects relevant to their chosen area. These projects, though different in each specialisation, will be comparable in assessment tasks and learning outcomes. Within each studio, students will develop their skills in both the technology and conceptual thinking required of their specialisation to high level of competency.

Students will be encouraged to approach this unit with the utmost care in their selection of specialisation. General exposure to the areas of specialisation will have occurred throughout the preceding units, but counselling from the unit chief examiner and course coordinator will be made available to assist students' selection of their particular area of study.

The projects undertaken in CDS3002 will contribute towards a body of work intended to demonstrate the student's refined level of competence within the communication design field, and assist them to either progress into further study or gain appropriate employment in the communication design arena.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Engage with the communication design process to plan and manage their design outcome from initial research and concept development to final resolution;
2. Construct communication design solutions utilising the media and processes expected in their specialisation;
3. Produce design solutions that demonstrate a clear understanding of communication conventions, but with an open attitude to enquiry and experimentation;
4. Identify and expertly use the technology appropriate for each design outcome;
5. Critically assess their design solutions in order to improve their final outcome;
6. Create a body of work indicative of their highest level of competency to showcase their abilities to potential employers or aptitude for further education;
7. Understand and apply the occupational health and safety requirements appropriate to the discipline practice.

100% mixed mode

8 contact hours plus 16 hours of private study hours per week.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit is part two of the major project sequence for the honours course, and students are expected to continue with the research initiated in CDS4001, and develop a time frame which details the final visual presentation in consultation with a supervisor and the course coordinator. The project must have appropriate aspects to serve as a vehicle to demonstrate the student's professional understanding and capabilities, as well as appropriate complexity to enable the student to professionally undertake and present it within the time and resource limitations of the unit. All documentation must be completed to a professional standard.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. be able to develop and refine their graphic design project from the conceptual stage undertaken in CDS4001 Major Project (Communication Design) Part 1 through to a visual presentation

   which demonstrates a very high level of capability

2. demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the discipline and its professional practices, with particular reference to the social, cultural and aesthetic aspects of their investigation

3. have a high level of knowledge of the contemporary discourse in communication design and to be able to position their work relative to it

4. be able to debate and/or defend their practice in an informed critical appraisal
5. demonstrate they have cultivated high ambitions to perfect their research and practice in communication design.

Mid semester portfolio:20%

Final portfolio:80%

8 studio hours and 28 independent study hours per week.

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This unit introduces students to the practice and theory of ceramics as a means of contemporary creative expression. It focuses on raising awareness of and providing the means to achieve an initial level of competence within the ceramics discipline, while imparting a sound conceptual and technical basis for continuing study in that discipline. The safe handling of materials and equipment is emphasized as an essential part of all studio practice.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate competence in basic design principles and be able to apply them in the practice of the Ceramics discipline
2. understand a variety of production methods used in the studio environment, have an appreciation of the nature of various media, their properties and uses, and be able to work with materials and techniques in an imaginative and engaging manner
3. have formed an understanding of relevant terminology commonly used in the Ceramics discipline
4. show they can initiate, develop and express personal aesthetic solutions in the medium of choice
5. demonstrate an understanding of the synthesis between concept, design solution, process and Ceramics production
6. be able to present their work to an audience with theoretical and historical rationale
7. have an appreciation and understanding of the required organisation and management of individual workspaces and consideration of others in the studio environment
8. have formed a growing awareness of the contemporary and historical context of the chosen Ceramics discipline and the role of the artist/designer in the community
9. possess the knowledge and ability to achieve safe working practices in the activities of the Ceramics studio.

Folio of studio work:100%, of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester.

12 hours per week, including four hours of taught studio and eight hours of personal study and studio practice

See also Unit timetable information

This unit gives students the opportunity to further develop the ideas concepts, materials and processes begun in the corresponding Ceramics 1A unit. Students will begin to establish an individual and self directed practice within the broad parameters of the ceramics discipline. Methods and materials specific to the ceramics studio discipline will be demonstrated and practiced. Students will be encouraged to develop appropriate links between these methods and other means of creative self-expression. Set projects will require students to develop technical skills hand in hand with their understanding of concepts of current relevance.

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

1. have acquired a more discerning and critical awareness in relation to design, selection of materials, working techniques, and conceptual development associated with set exercises and self-generated projects
2. have increased technical and aesthetic fluency, and begin to initiate, develop and express personal aesthetic solutions in the medium of choice
3. demonstrate an initial grasp of the importance of research to art practice
4. be able to present their work in critique sessions with growing confidence as to its theoretical and historical rationale
5. gain confidence in their ability to communicate (in oral, written and visual form) responses to contemporary issues of both technical and conceptual relevance
6. understand and apply the principles of occupational health and safety practices in the Ceramics studio, and be able to collaborate and co-operate safety and productively within the studio environment.

Folio of studio work:100%, of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester.

12 hours per week, including four hours of taught studio and eight hours of personal study and studio practice

See also Unit timetable information

The Ceramics 3A unit provides a rigorous program to broaden students' awareness of concepts and techniques across a range of approaches, and encourages them to seek appropriate solutions. Continued research and investigation of materials and processes fosters the acquisition of technical language, and influences appropriate choices to realize concepts within the context of a developing personal visual language. Set projects still occur but the emphasis is on self-motivated approaches. Teaching methods therefore tend to concentrate on individual tuition and group critique. Emphasis is placed on students' continued capacity to critically assess their own work as well as that of their peers.

On successful completion of this unit, student should be able to:

1. develop a questioning awareness of practical aesthetic and technical systems or theories and the skills related to them
2. possess considerable manipulative skills in their chosen area of self expression
3. have enhanced perceptual skills and critical sensibility necessary for the development of a personal visual language
4. develop their own conceptual and expressive strengths in relation to historical and current visual art practices
5. be familiar with current issues in at least one discipline of ceramics and recognise the potential to produce works within the framework of contemporary culture
6. be able to apply the elements and principles of design to a broad range of design studio situations and objectively analyse and synthesise design options within a ceramics context
7. demonstrate effective communication skills and be able to share their work through well-researched class papers and competent critiques of the work of oneself and of other artists
8. understand and practise the rules of occupational health and safety in force in the ceramics studio, and be able to collaborate and co-operate safely and productively within the studio environment.

Folio of studio work:100%, of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester.

12 hours per week, including four hours of taught studio and eight hours of personal study and studio practice.

See also Unit timetable information

In each Ceramics 4A unit students become increasingly responsible for the delivery of their major study program, with emphasis placed on independent investigation, and the development of the creative and expressive potential inherent in students' work. This, combined with staff consultation, starts to determine students' focuses for future ceramics studio work. The emphasis shifts away from set projects towards self-motivated practice and research through which students articulate their conceptual and expressive strengths. Studio practice is still exploratory but with better grasp of theoretical issues relevant to students' practices.

On successful completion of this unit, student should:

1. have extended both their skills in art making and their vocabulary of materials and Ceramics studio processes
2. be able to select and develop a methodology for realizing a self-directed practice, and the commitment to rigorous work practice
3. have developed levels of experimentation and investigation within their work, moving towards a focus on specific themes and technologies
4. continue developing their own technical, iconographic and conceptual concerns, and have an understanding of the critical, conceptual and theoretical issues surrounding contemporary Ceramics
5. demonstrate a capability for managing a project from idea, to selection of appropriate materials and processes, to drawing up a time-line and to presentation of the finished work
6. have developed a capacity for self-appraisal of their own work, and provide constructive critique of the work of others, and be able to articulate this through oral presentations and written documentation
7. understand and practice the rules of occupational health and safety in force in the Ceramics studio, and be able to collaborate and co-operate safely and productively within the studio environment.

Folio of studio work:100%, of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester.

12 hours per week, including four hours of taught studio and eight hours of personal study and studio practice

See also Unit timetable information

This Ceramics 3B unit extends the rigorous program to broaden students' awareness of concepts and techniques across a range of approaches, and further encourage them to seek appropriate solutions. Continued research and investigation of materials and processes fosters the acquisition of technical language, and influences appropriate choices to realise concepts within the context of a developing personal visual language. The emphasis is more on self-motivated approaches than on set projects. Teaching methods therefore tend to concentrate on individual tuition and group critique. This unit continues to focus on the nexus between art making and the cultural and social contexts of art.

On succesfull competion of this unit, student will:

1. develop further their awareness of practical aesthetic and technical systems or theories and the skills related to them
2. possess superior manipulative skills in their chosen area of self expression
3. have increased their perceptual skills and critical sensibility necessary for the development of a personal visual language
4. develop further their own conceptual and expressive strengths in relation to historical and current visual art practices
5. be more familiar with current issues in Ceramics and recognise the potential to produce works within the framework of contemporary culture
6. be more capable of applying elements and principles of design to an increased range of studio situations and objectively analyse and synthesise design options within a Ceramics context
7. demonstrate effective communication skills and be able to share their work through well-researched class papers and competent critiques of the work of oneself and of other artists
8. understand and practice the rules of occupational health and safety in force in the Ceramics studio, and be able to collaborate and co-operate safely and productively within the studio environment.

Folio of studio work:100%, of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester.

12 hours per week, including four hours of taught studio and eight hours of personal study and studio practice.

See also Unit timetable information

In each Ceramics 4B unit students become more responsible for the delivery of their major study program, with emphasis placed on increasingly independent investigation, and the further development of the creative and expressive potential inherent in students' work. This, combined with staff consultation, continues to determine students' focuses for future ceramics studio work. Self-motivated practice and research through which students articulate their conceptual and expressive strengths is increasingly utilised. Studio practice is less exploratory and with better grasp of theoretical issues relevant to students' practices.

On successful completion of this unit, student should:

1. have further extended both their skills in art making and their vocabulary of materials and Ceramics studio processes
2. be more able to select and develop a methodology for realizing a self-directed practice, and be more committed to rigorous work practice
3. have further developed levels of experimentation and investigation within their work, moving towards a focus on specific themes and technologies
4. have further developed their own technical, iconographic and conceptual concerns, and have a greater understanding of the critical, conceptual and theoretical issues surrounding contemporary Ceramics
5. demonstrate an advanced capability for managing a project from initial idea, to presentation of the finished work
6. have developed a increased capacity for the constructive appraisal of their own work, and that of others, and be able to articulate this through oral presentations and written documentation
7. have increased understanding and practice the rules of occupational health and safety in force in the Ceramics studio, and be able to collaborate and co-operate safely and productively within the studio environment.

Folio of studio work: 100% of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester

12 hours per week, including four hours of taught studio and 8 hours of personal study and studio practice

See also Unit timetable information

This level 3 ceramics unit finely hones the skills acquired over the previous two years. At this stage of the course, students should demonstrate a high level of technical competence, facilitating work in their chosen field. Imagination combined with advanced conceptual lucidity, a prowess and innovation in material manipulation should be manifest at this stage of students' practice. Students develop an individual program in conjunction with the lecturer that reflects their personal direction and evolving ceramics practice. The program focuses on clear articulation of concepts.

On successful completion of this unit, student should be able to:

1. be strongly self-motivated, and able to construct independently a program of work with a coherent direction which imaginatively addresses their own concerns
2. be able to produce works that display conviction, confidence and control in the handling of concepts and materials, and be able to isolate areas of their work that require further research and sustain a directed inquiry into these
3. understand how to apply existing materials and technologies in new contexts
4. be able to imaginatively and constructively criticise their own work and the work of others, and show an ability to make informed aesthetic judgements about the character and quality of such work
5. be able to position their evaluations within the historical and contemporary context of Ceramics and intelligently express these observations
6. be able to discuss productively, stylistic and semiotic issues relevant to current theory and practice
7. understand and practise the rules of occupational health and safety in force in the Ceramics studio, and be able to collaborate and co-operate safely and productively within the studio environment with observance of the Occupational Health Safety and Environment regulations and policies of the studio.

Folio of studio work:100%, of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester.

24 hours per week, including 8 hours of taught studio and 16 hours of personal study and studio practice.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit is the culmination of the ceramics undergraduate program, and provides a stimulating and supportive environment. Students continue to work autonomously within an individually approved program of study as lecturers encourage the self-motivation, self-appraisal and professional responsibility required of the practising artist. A coordinator supervises the program and gives guidance as it is required and at the request of the students. Students continue to critically appraise their work and consolidate all conceptual, aesthetic and technical issues that relate to the individual direction of their ceramics work.

On successful completion of this unit, student should:

1. be able to demonstrate advanced skills and critical strategies in creativity, and be able to work independently with developed self-reliance
2. be able to produce a coherent body of ceramic work with both high technical standards and theoretical credibility in the framework of contemporary critical discourse
3. possess a strong faculty and methodology for critical inquiry, enabling them to question and discuss lucidly the issues relevant to current theory and practice in Ceramics and in broader art and design practice
4. approach contemporary Ceramics practice and aesthetics with challenge and vigour, and be able to establish a personalised and informed discourse within the context of Ceramics practice
5. achieve a professional presentation and documentation of works in the final submission of. their folio
6. understand and practise the rules of occupational health and safety in force in the Ceramics studio, and be able to collaborate and co-operate safely and productively within the studio environment with observance of the Occupational Health Safety and Environment regulations and policies of the studio.

Folio of studio work: 100%, of which at least 20% will be assessed before mid-semester

24 hours per week, including 8 hours of taught studio and 16 hours of personal study and studio practice

See also Unit timetable information

This unit explores the nature of design by introducing the characteristics of space, objects or images as appropriate, as part of a designer's repertoire of knowledge and understanding. Basic design studies provide the framework for the development of a language of design. The understanding of the role of the designer for the enhancement of the human experience is developed by observation, critical enquiry, interpretation, communication and the creation of visual forms. Design is presented as a creative, analytical and synthesising process with social, cultural and artistic implications.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. recognise, analyse and apply the elements and principles of design
2. understand the nature of the design process and apply methodical steps in their own projects
3. have the ability to undertake basic analysis and respond to a straight-forward brief
4. understand the multidisciplinary nature of many design activities
5. understand selected colour theories
6. develop capabilities to communicate research outcomes, design concepts and solutions
7. appreciate the relationship between design, industry and art
8. observe and employ occupational health and safety appropriate to studio practice.

100% mixed mode

12 hours per week, including One 1-hour lecture and 3 studio hours plus 8 independent study hours

See also Unit timetable information

This unit places the more abstract concepts and studies undertaken in Design Studio 1 in the context of design practice to meet human needs. The project work uses simplified professional projects to ensure students start to consider all aspects of design problems. The projects involve the use of brief, analysis of requirements, design problem solving methods, synthesis of design resolutions and communication of design solutions. The primary concern in the subject is for the student to be able to overcome the project constraints in order to integrate the range of requirements and issues, and achieve a holistic design that addresses human needs.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. analyse a simple design brief
2. understand the range of technical factors and cultural issues that must be considered for a meaningful and satisfying outcome of requirements
3. explore and evaluate design options
4. apply problem solving methods, synthesise design resolutions and communicate solutions using models, presentation and technical drawings
5. achieve an integrated holistic design at a basic level that addresses human needs
6. observe and employ occupational health and safety appropriate to studio practice.

One minor project: 20% Two major projects: 80%

4 studio hours plus 8 hours independent study weekly

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The interdisciplinary studio environment, provides through team-based project activities and problem-based learning, the application of knowledge and techniques from the students individual design disciplines, whilst solving a complex multi-faceted design problem. Offshore context requires students to respond in a conscious and critical manner to the local environment, and to exercise entrepreneurial skills to research.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. operate constructively as part of a team
2. contribute as a discipline-specific designer within an interdisciplinary design context
3. support and assist other design specialists
4. develop observation, research and information gathering skills conducted in an unfamiliar cultural context
5. conduct critical enquiry and provide summative reviews of self and peers.

Exercises and projects: 90%

Attendance and participation: 10%

8 studio hours and 14 hours of independent study per week.

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This unit develops practical design research, investigation, conceptual development, communication, presentation and practice capabilities. The focus is on design research and design management of multi and inter disciplinary projects, in which a range of design factors are considered and methodologies employed to coordinate their analysis and to achieve a holistic design integration that addresses human needs. Projects will be set in a variety of contexts.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. undertake a design project at a conceptual level involving the resolution of user requirements, technical issues, aesthetics, and the communication of the design with presentation drawings and models, technical drawings and specifications
2. evaluate the effectiveness of the methodologies they are applying, and explain the reasoning behind their choice of methodology, media, design options and solutions
3. understand the role of design as a discipline as well as a professional practice in a particular field
4. consider critically the imagery in their designs, and its aesthetic and symbolic resonances
5. understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

Minor project: 20%, two Major projects: 2 x 40% each

12 hours per week, including 4 studio hours and 8 hours of independent study

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This unit further develops design research, investigation, concept development, communication, presentation and practice capabilities achieved in DGN2003 Interdisciplinary design studio 3. It focuses on expanding the details of user, technical and construction requirements. In addition, the social context of design is extensively considered, including cultural and ethical expectations. Projects will be set in a variety of contexts. A critical view toward designing is fostered throughout.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate a high level of practical design research, design process and design communication
2. demonstrate a practical understanding of user, technical and construction factors
3. demonstrate an awareness of social, cultural, environmental and gender issues
4. produce design solutions which resolve identified issues with aesthetic integrity
5. defend their designs on practical, symbolic, aesthetic and ethical grounds
6. understand and apply the principles of occupational health and safety practices in the studio.

Minor project (20%)

Two major projects (40% each)

12 hours per week including 4 studio hours and 8 independent study hours

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Design Practice as Research provides a platform for students to apply a range of skills and aptitudes towards practice-based research in design. Through an individualised course of study under the guidance of personal research mentors, participants will undertake projects using appropriate methodologies that demonstrate an independent point of view on the social, cultural, technological, and communicative aspects of design. The unit will enhance the combined creative and analytical methods of students as preparation for undertaking practice-based research while also promoting how processes of research and development can make an advanced contribution to contemporary design practice. The unit provides a unique opportunity for establishing interdisciplinary approaches to design research and the intersection of theory and practice. On occasion, these studies may be undertaken as part of an immersive research studio conducted as part of special projects and study abroad experiences.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Identify and describe aspects of design research;
2. Critically analyse and evaluate dimensions of design (as cultural practice, studio research, applied research);
3. Compare and utilise methods and strategies involved in practice-based design research (including disciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary);
4. Demonstrate skills for investigating, producing and communicating design research processes and outcomes;
5. Plan and produce a project with a high degree of independence, originality, accountability and (if relevant) collaboration with other parties and stakeholders;
6. Communicate in an effective manner for the stated purpose, intended audience and designated context of the project;
7. Understand and apply the occupational health and safety requirements appropriate to the discipline practice.

Research brief (25%)

Interim research report (25%)

Final research and report (50%)

The unit will be delivered through on campus and block modes; overall study plan is based on equivalence of 144 hours (12 hours per week x 12-week semester), composed of supervision and contact hours (48 hours, or 4 hours per week) plus independent study (96 hours, or 8 hours per week).

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Multi-faceted and multidisciplinary projects. Studies of the contemporary discourse in spaces, objects and images. Their embodiment as habitats, artefacts and communications. Related social theory. Students articulate and test their individual design philosophies in studio discussion.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. articulate a personal aesthetic that responds to contemporary discourse in design
2. undertake design projects with a high degree of integration of all project factors
3. competently resolve the technical and/or structural requirements of the design
4. specify the production scenario for the design
5. communicate the design with high quality presentations and specifications
6. observe and employ occupational health and safety principles appropriate to studio practice

Projects: 80% + Oral and written presentations: 20%

8 studio/seminar hours and 16 hours of independent study per week

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A major project selected by the student in consultation with the course coordinator. The topic will serve as a vehicle to demonstrate the student's understanding and capabilities. Project planning and research is an important aspect of the unit.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. undertake a major project with effective resolution of technical detail at a level sufficient to brief specialists
2. develop a brief; analyse client and user requirements; research and resolve technical requirements; specify materials, finishes; and construction concepts
3. communicate and present the project design to client and constructors
4. explain analytically the cultural sources of the inspiration for the design
5. express persuasively the aesthetic and symbolic values embedded in the design
6. relate the design to historical and contemporary precedents, not only for the sake of explaining its technical and cultural virtues but for potential refinements and the development of vision in their future career
7. observe and employ occupational health and safety practices appropriate to studio practice

Project research, planning, design: 80% + Project report: 20%

8 studio hours and 16 hours of independent study per week

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Digital Humanities in action provides a distinctive, transdisciplinary opportunity for students to synthesise critical discourse with practice-based application in ways that are characteristic to the field of Digital Humanities (DH). Through active learning, students will be challenged to advance their practical, technical and conceptual skills developed in preceding DH (and other disciplinary) studies towards a complex multi-faceted design research project. The design studio will provide the framework for students to apply their critical understanding and creative skills to problem-based scenarios. The practice-based opportunities provided by the studio will be supplemented by complementary theoretical and design thinking content and methods. Students will be required to undertake a project that demonstrates suitable application of knowledge and techniques drawn from their identified stream of specialisation (in digital media, information and society, digital cultural heritage). Students will be expected to respond in a critical, ethical and reflective manner, while exercising creative, entrepreneurial and independent research skills. Critical discourse will be agile and responsive to contemporary issues arising at the socio-cultural interface of DH scholarship. The resulting project work will demonstrate both conceptual and technical application relevant to their knowledge domain (Arts, Information Technology, or Art Design and Architecture) to a high level of competence and literacy. The nature of the studio environment provides a unique opportunity for encouraging interdisciplinary approaches to practice and research. On occasion, these studies may be undertaken as part of an immersive research studio conducted as part of special projects and study abroad experiences.

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Engage with practice-based processes to coordinate project outcomes from initial research and concept development to final resolution and evaluation;
2. Apply an appropriate range of discipline knowledge and interdisciplinary processes to generate prototype solutions to complex problems;
3. Exercise judgment involving a combination of creative, design led, critically informed and self-reflective considerations as part of an iterative process of producing new or novel understandings, interpretations and applications;
4. Apply design processes and methods with an open attitude to inquiry and experimentation;
5. Apply strategic and cognitive knowledge, problem-solving and communication skills that demonstrate capacity to generate, plan, produce, and critique a self-directed project;
6. Plan and produce a project to a high standard with a degree of independence, originality, accountability and (if relevant) collaboration with other parties and stakeholders;
7. Communicate in a manner that is effective for the stated purpose, intended audience and designated context of the project;
8. Understand and apply the occupational health and safety requirements appropriate to the discipline practice.

Project concept and development (20%)

Project work and practice (60%)

Project communication and analysis (20%)

8 contact hours plus 16 hours of independent study. NB. On occasion, the unit may be delivered in intensive, block mode.

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Digital humanities

This unit is the first part of a major design project. It provides an opportunity to research issues, undertake conceptual designs and develop refinements on the basis of the advanced attainment achieved at the end of the Bachelor of Design course. In most instances the project is proposed by the student at the beginning of the semester in consultation with the lecturer, and approved by the lecturer and course coordinator.

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

1. Demonstrate a capability to research and explore the full range of issues to be considered in a design project
2. Be able to practice design to a high standard of professional competency
3. Be able to relate their work to contemporary discourse and seek to extend its boundaries through their design work
4. Be able to defend their chosen direction in the major project against informed criticism
5. Have a base of sound knowledge, understanding and capability to undertake their major project
6. Be capable of organising, developing and planning methodologies associated with the major project which will help to successfully determine a viable outcome.

Mid-semester portfolio: 20% + Final portfolio: 80%

6 formal studio hours and 18 hours of independent study per week

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This unit is the second part of the major project sequence for the honours course, where students are expected to continue with the research initiated in DGN4001Not offered in 2018, and develop a time frame which details the final visual presentation in consultation with a supervisor and the course coordinator.

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

1. be able to develop and refine their design project from the conceptual stage undertaken in DGN4001Not offered in 2018 Major Project (Design) Part 1 through to a visual presentation which demonstrates a very high level of capability
2. demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the discipline and its professional practices, with particular reference to the social, cultural and aesthetic aspects of their investigation
3. have a high level of knowledge of the contemporary discourse in design and visual communication and to be able to position their work relative to it
4. be able to debate and/or defend their practice in an informed critical appraisal
5. demonstrate they have cultivated high ambitions to perfect their practice of design.

Mid-semester portfolio: 20% + Final portfolio: 80%

6 formal studio hours and 30 hours of independent study per week

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This unit encourages the creative, open and innovative use of computer-mediated art and design. Students are introduced to the various software options (including drawing, painting, and image-editing software) and peripheral devices for digital acquisition, storage and output. Demonstrations and lectures are given on the techniques and capabilities of vector and pixel-based applications for both print and screen-based outcomes.

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

1. have a basic practical and critical understanding of digital imaging and its links with other media
2. be able to access the Faculty computing resources, including access facilities with a clear understanding of appropriate health and safety studio procedures and implement these procedures within their work practice
3. competently operate a computer, familiarizing themselves with operation system basics and file management
4. be able to use peripheral devices (ie. scanners, printers) to acquire, compose and output images
5. use image editing software to skilfully create, adapt, edit, manipulate and compose images
6. be able to apply digital imaging techniques towards the realisation of conceptualised, communicative works
7. have the foundation necessary to undertake further units in digital imaging with a view towards either specialisation or application of the media within other studio disciplines.

100% mixed mode

12 hours per week, comprising: 3 taught hours (1 lecture plus 2 hour tutorial) and 9 independent study hours.

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This unit introduces students to principles of web design. File formats, colour modes, image resolution and bit depth, and preparation of images for on-line delivery. The development, status and potential of delivering information and graphics over digital networks using computers. Variations on network types including Internet and Intranets. Protocols, set-up and file formats commonly used. Motion graphics and on-line delivery of multimedia documents are also covered.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Be able to prepare multimedia documents suited to on-line delivery
2. Be able to identify the different technologies for web design, including mark-up languages, interactive multimedia formats, video/sound streaming, and database systems
3. Understand web page construction and principles, file and site management, and web design for accessibility and usability
4. Be able to use text, images, animation, sound and digital video as multimedia elements in electronic documents
5. Be familiar with colour mode and resolution requirements for a range of electronic media
6. Be aware of a variety of file formats, and be able to optimise a media file for a particular application
7. Be able to understand the role of web design in multimedia.

Major projects (50%)

Exercises (50%)

12 hours per week, including: 1 lecture hour, 2 studio hours and 9 hours of independent study

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This unit introduces students to the methods and processes involved in creating 3D elements, objects and spaces using a computer software. The key areas of modelling, lighting and rendering will be examined, and various modes of output demonstrated. Different applications of CGI (computer generated imagery), such as motion graphics, character animation and virtual environments are discussed. 3D models will be used to generate simple animation.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. Have an understanding of the principles of designing objects and spaces in three dimensions and their translation into computer-based design methodologies
2. Be able to use 3D imaging software to create environments and objects
3. Be able to apply surface qualities, lighting, textures, and imported graphic files to elements in a three dimensional composition
4. Explore the range of options and controls available through 3D imaging and modelling software applications
5. Understand and manipulate camera properties and viewer perspectives
6. Recognize the various applications of 3D design and visualisation across multimedia, interior architecture and industrial design practices.

Major projects (50%)

Exercises (30%)

Journal (20%)

1 lecture hour, 3 studio hours, 8 study hours

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On completion of this unit students should be able to: understand the principles and application of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and drafting for interior architecture; apply computing principles for space planning, technical documentation, information management, and construction-related research in relation to interior architectural design and technical problems; generate graphic communications and computer technical drawings detailing the construction of interior architecture; understand interactive visualisation methods for the representation of interior architecture; analyse a range of different types of digital architecture practice, and apply this knowledge to creative work.

On successful completion of this unit students should:

1. understand the principles and application of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and drafting for interior architecture
2. be able to apply computing principles for space planning, technical documentation, information management, and construction-related research in relation to interior architectural design and technical problems
3. be able to generate graphic communications and computer technical drawings detailing the construction of interior architecture
4. understand interactive visualisation methods for the representation of interior architecture
5. be able to analyse a range of different types of digital architecture practice,and apply this knowledge to creative work
6. observe and employ occupational health and safety appropriate to studio practice.

Exercises: 30% + Project: 60% + Journal: 10%

12 hours per week, comprising: 3 taught hours (1 one hour lecture plus 2 tutorial hours) and 9 independent study hours

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This unit introduces students to digital imaging within art and design studio practices. It builds sequentially upon the skills and knowledge of digital processes by providing a focus upon creative image production for a range of digital media applications. Students explore the creation, manipulation, composition and output of digital images with increasing confidence and proficiency across a range of options and controls available through vector and pixel-based software applications and use of peripheral devices. Demonstrations and lectures are given on the creation of digital images with an increased conceptual understanding of representational issues, visual language and communication.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. skillfully and insightfully create, edit, manipulate, compose and output digital images
2. explore the range of options and controls available through vector and pixel-based software applications and use peripheral devices with increasing confidence and proficiency
3. produce creative digital images with an increased conceptual understanding of representational issues, visual language and communication
4. demonstrate increased technical understanding of demands required across the development, acquisition, creation and production of digital media
5. display an increasingly personalised artistic expression and sophisticated creative digital imaging approach which can be pursued at an advanced stage in subsequent digital imaging studios
6. understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety and environment appropriate to this unit of study, particularly those applying to use of computing equipment, access to facilities, and the environment of healthy and safe studio practices.

Exercises (30%)

Project (60%)

Journal (10%)

12 hours per week including: One 1 hour lecture and 2 tutorial hours and 9 independent study hours per week

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Digital humanities

This unit introduces students to digital audio and video production. It develops sequentially upon the skills and knowledge of digital imaging by providing a focus on the principles of digital a/v design and industry-standard software applications. Students are introduced to scripting, storyboarding, film and narrative conventions common to cinema. In order to explore audio recording, video capture and nonlinear editing, students are introduced to the tools and features of video cameras and editing software. Demonstrations and lectures are given on planning and collaborative management, types of media sources and output considerations associated with digital audio/video production.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. understand design conventions and narrative concepts common to cinema
2. identify tools and features of digital video cameras and digital audio and video software
3. utilise script and storyboard to illustrate concepts
4. plan and manage an audio recording session
5. plan and manage a video capture session
6. acquire footage, incorporate graphics and manage a variety of media sources into a video sequence
7. explore nonlinear editing techniques, including editing effects, transition and wipes
8. collaboratively contribute to planning and management of a digital audio/video production
9. address appropriate output considerations for the assembly and preparation a digital video/audio production
10. understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

Exercises (30%)

Project (60%)

Journal (10%)

12 hours per week including: one 1 hr lecture plus 2 hours tutorial hours and 9 independent study hours per week

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This unit introduces students to 3D modelling within art & design studio practices. It builds sequentially upon the skills and knowledge of 3D design and imaging by providing a focus upon the practice and potential of 3D computer-generated modelling for product design. Students explore the creation, manipulation, composition and output of digital 3-dimensional elements with increasing confidence and proficiency across a range of options and controls available through polygon and NURBS-based software applications and the understanding of production issues associated with their output (ie. rendering, rapid-prototyping, multimedia etc.)

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. skillfully and insightfully create, edit, manipulate, compose and output digital 3-Dimensional elements (ie. photorealistic renderings, surface models)
2. explore the range of options and controls available through polygon and NURBS-based software applications and production issues associated with output (ie. rendering, rapid-prototyping, multimedia, etc) with increasing confidence and proficiency
3. produce 3D models with an increased design intention and creative application
4. demonstrate increased technical understanding of demands required across the development, application, creation and production of 3D computer-generated models
5. display an increasingly personalized expression and sophisticated creative 3D design approach which can be pursued at an advanced stage in subsequent 3D imaging studios
6. observe and employ occupational health and safety principles and rules appropriate to studio practice.

Exercises (30%)

Project (60%)

Journal (10%)

12 hours per week, including 4 contact hours (1 hr lecture plus 3 hours tutorial) and 8 independent study hours.

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This unit introduces students to design for 'New Media'. It builds sequentially upon the skills and knowledge of multimedia imaging by providing a focus upon interactive multimedia and authoring. Students are introduced to a conceptual approach to interactivity, non-linear narrative, navigation, and graphical user interface controls. Technically, students will experiment with various software to develop content for multimedia applications. Students will develop skills in planning and organising content for multimedia publication.

On successful completion of the unit, students will:

1. recognise the conceptual and technical demands of producing multimedia content
2. creatively approach communication with 'new media'
3. define, develop, plan and organise content for multimedia publication (ie. develop skills in storyboarding, flowcharting)
4. apply and experiment with various software to develop, edit and compile asset materials for multimedia publication
5. explore the concepts of interactivity, non-linear narrative, navigation, and graphical user interface controls
6. apply a range of digital imaging, scripting and organisational techniques and concepts to project work
7. develop and produce a multimedia project negotiating aspects of interface design, media, animation and interactivity
8. work in a variety of roles required in the development and production of multimedia
9. understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

Exercises: 30%. Project: 60%. Journal: 10%.

12 hours per week including: one 1 hour lecture plus two tutorial hours and 9 independent study hours per week

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This unit introduces students to time-based imaging for 3D design and imaging. It develops sequentially upon the skills and knowledge of 3D imaging by providing a focus upon advanced asset creation and animation. Students are introduced to the range of options and controls available through 3D imaging and modeling software applications, towards skillfully creating, manipulating and animating 3D objects, manipulating camera properties and viewer perspectives. Demonstrations and lectures are given on conceiving, designing and producing animation sequences for inclusion into multimedia presentations with consideration for delivery methods and the merits of different media types and formats.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. design and develop defined 3D models with application for animation
2. skilfully create and manipulate 3D objects within a changing environment utilising light and atmospheric conditions
3. explore the range of options and controls available through 3D imaging and modeling software applications
4. experiment with surface qualities to enhance the 3D appearance of the created object
5. understand and manipulate camera properties and viewer perspectives
6. prepare animation sequences for inclusion into multimedia presentations with consideration for delivery methods and the merits of media types and formats
7. understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety appropriate to the unit of study.

Exercises: 30%. Project: 60%. Journal: 10%

12 hours per week including: one 1 hour lecture plus 2 tutorial hours and 9 independent study hours per week

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This unit introduces students to electronic design for print outcomes. It develops sequentially upon the skills and knowledge of digital imaging by providing a focus upon the fundamental principles of graphic design and page layout. Students are introduced to the relationship of various software applications for electronic publishing to the design, efficient management of text, image assets and the preparation of files for presentation of digital artwork to a bureau required for the production of printed material. Demonstrations and lectures are given on visual communication and the graphic design of publication projects that emulate advertising industry standards.

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

1. recognise the basic set-up and components of a graphics workstation and peripheral devices and display an understanding of industry-standard publishing software
2. understand the relationship of various software applications for electronic publishing to the design and production of printed material
3. be able to manage a variety of digital assets associated with an electronic publication (ie. translating and importing native image/graphic files created in other digital imaging applications, format text files, colour management, use typographic style sheets and document specifications)
4. demonstrate efficient organisation of text, image assets and the preparation and files for presentation of digital artwork to a bureau
5. apply visual communication, graphic design and page layout skills to publication projects that emulate advertising industry standards
6. understand and be able to apply the rules of occupational health and safety environment appropriate to this unit of study, particularly those applying to use of computing equipment, access to facilities, and the employment of healthy and safety studio practices.

Exercise: 30%. Project: 60%. Journal: 10%.

12 hours per week, including: one 1 hour lecture plus 2 tutorial hours and 9 independent study hours per week

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This unit provides students with basic 3D documentation and digital manipulation skills particular to applications in the built environment and develops students' understanding of computer-based design for virtual architecture. It builds sequentially upon the skills and knowledge of 2D digital architectural documentation processes by providing a focus upon spatial modeling and rendering principles and their applications. Emphasis is placed on developing students capabilities at generating virtual architectural representations, in static and animated form. This unit is undertaken as an area of specialisation within the interior architecture degree.

On successful completion of this unit students should:

1. understand the principles and application of computer-based modelling and rendering for interior architecture
2. be able to apply computing principles for 3D visualisation, technical documentation, information management, and presentation in relation to interior architectural design problems
3. be able to generate still and animated communications and computer-generated renderings describing the construction methods and ambient qualities of interior architecture
4. understand interactive visualisastion methods for the representation of interior architecture
5. be able to analyse a range of different types of digital architecture presentation techniques,and apply this knowledge to creative work
6. observe and employ occupational health and safety appropriate to studio practice.

Exercise: 30% + Project: 60% + Journal: 10%

12 hours per week, comprising: 3 taught hours (1 one hour lecture plus 2 tutorial hours) and 9 independent study hours

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