Curious about studying Art and Design with Creative Technologies - BA (Hons)at Birmingham City University? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Margaret Street
Full Time
Sep 2027
3 Year
Maker? Thinker? Futurist? Coder? Performer? Technologist? Conservationist? Designer? Interested? Our new hybrid BA (Hons) is a course for the future, where you will explore the intersection of art and design to create your career in the evolving creative industries. Many innovative creative studios now define themselves as interdisciplinary, a word which defines the fluid movement across the fields of art, design and technology. Rather than specialising in a particular creative discipline, our cutting-edge course reflects how these studios practice by exploring the intersection between art and design, with the implementation of new creative digital technologies. Our course will prepare you to be ready for employment within the creative industries by providing you with long-term creative skills to map out your creative future. With you at the centre, we will explore the intersections of art and design, providing a space where you can understand, develop and create a career in the evolving creative industries. You will develop the necessary self-awareness to question, make, play and create with others.
Professional Placement YearThis course offers an optional professional placement year. This allows you to spend a whole year with an employer, following successful completion of your second year, and is a great way to find out more about your chosen career. Some students even return to the same employers after completing their studies. If you choose to pursue a placement year, you will need to find a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will be able to draw on the University’s extensive network of local, regional, and national employers, and the support of our Careers teams. If you are able to secure a placement, you can request to be transferred to the placement version of the course. Please note that fees are payable during your placement year, equivalent to 20% of the total full-time course fee for that year.
Creative TechnologiesAll students will be introduced to the fundamentals of interdisciplinary art and design practice as well as creative technologies, which forms the core ethos of this course. Creative technologies will give you the opportunity to focus specifically to develop your digital skills through a breadth of technological approaches.
This module introduces critical thinking and building self-awareness to create a community. Through group discussions and debate you will be supported to develop learning strategies. You will be introduced to creative design thinking, verbal and visual communication tools, and core writing skills. You will look at a body of thoughts from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.
This module explores the connectivity of materials, and how materials collaborate with each other. You will collaboratively test, experiment and prototype, by exploring: fusion; confusions; knotting; welding; embedding; joints; and breaking things. You will look at a body of materials and their applications from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.
This module explores the fundamentals of, and interconnective relationship between, different contemporary creative digital technologies. You will collaboratively experiment, test and embrace digital technologies, by exploring: coding; digital modelling; digital drawing; projection; filming; editing; VR/AR; sound; and, light. You will look at a body of technologies and their applications from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.
This module focuses on narrative, the different ways narratives can be created, and the possible exploration of: movement; performance (of materials or a person); presentation; spoken word; animation; costume; or set. You will look at a body of performance from across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.
This module focuses on making, using found materials in the natural environment. The module will explore a range of possible themes, including: natural materials; foraging; growing; building; stone carving; nesting; thatching; collecting; or observing. You will look at natural materials and their application across the world, capturing a global, diverse range of voices.
This module is a round-up of the year, revisiting and building on what has been done to date. You and your peers will self-organise to look out to the wider community of Birmingham and collaboratively identify, develop and design speculative proposals. The module, and the year, will culminate with an outward-facing exhibition.
This module provides an opportunity for you to apply your knowledge and skills to an external, professional brief. The brief will be set by a local external client, user, community or audience, in consultation with the staff team, and it could be a ‘real life’ problem to be solved, or a simulation. It is an opportunity for you to engage in a professional manner, within the supportive infrastructure of the University. Where appropriate, the project may involve interdisciplinary collaboration with students from other courses. In this way, it reflects the collaborative, flexible nature of employment within the creative industries.
This module explores real-world challenge-based learning, through a nationally located live brief, set by an external client, partner, user, community or audience. The module will have an employability focus, an emphasis on building professional communication skills, and you will expand your knowledge of interdisciplinary design practice across the creative industries.
This module focuses on real-world challenge-based learning, through a globally located live brief, set by an external client, partner user, community, audience or institution. Building on the skills developed in the previous modules throughout year two, this module has a global perspective, and an emphasis on Global Citizenship, understanding different cultures, knowledge and working practices.
The purpose of this module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically informed research project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. You will be guided towards choosing a research topic, which is relevant to your discipline and in which your lecturers have expertise.
In this module you will investigate the wider creative industries, locally, nationally and globally, to better understand what your potential future pathway might look like. In response to a series of supporting lectures from a range of industry experts, you will develop your professional identity by constructing a range of appropriate self-promotional materials.
This module will be tailored to your individual strengths, research areas and career aspirations. You will follow your own pathways, navigating your own way through the thought, material and digital considerations. You will philosophically and physically start to build your own individual Lab. This could be achieved individually or in collaboration with other students or an external partner, using an external live brief or a speculative brief.
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