Fine Art with Foundation Year - BA (Hons)

Teesside University

You combine theory and practice to examine the challenges facing contemporary societies, and undertake small-scale projects that explore social, political and ecological changes around us. You develop the aims and forms in negotiation with module tutors. The outcome could be a collaborative project that explores the process of making work in a wider context such as: shopping centres, schools, outdoor parks, and other social settings.

You develop your understanding of building a career in the creative industries through key skills in creative leadership, collaborative entrepreneurship and sustainability. You start with a theoretical introduction to these concepts and then work collaboratively on a group project to establish a creative business. You present your project and submit an individual reflective portfolio on your research and project experiences.

You broaden your knowledge of art making processes and develop a self-initiated project that investigates ways to form a distinct artistic voice. You are encouraged to experiment and explore art making as a process of enquiry alongside the production of objects, while discussions and group critiques develop your critical thinking skills.

You investigate a range of contemporary social, environmental, technological and ethical issues that inform all types of art and design practice. You broaden your awareness of using creativity as a form of contemporary social discussion ? exploring issues through the development, production and presentation of potential future scenarios.

You are introduced to a range of materials and skills workshops where you explore techniques and strategies to art making and developing a studio practice. Assignment briefs encourage you to explore different ideas and perspectives, sometimes using specialist equipment.

You focus on studio making through a deeper investigation into contemporary art practices. You begin to probe why certain decisions are made and how to contextualise your own artwork while examining contemporary practices. Realisation of an independent artistic agency and a deeper knowledge of art practice is demonstrated through a new body of work. The body of work demonstrates an expertise in making and resolving artworks to a more finished state.

You are introduced to the opportunities available in the creative industries sector, how to start a career path and vital employability skills including networking and digital presence. You learn about the structure of the sector and how it operates locally, nationally and globally, debating the role of policy and the importance of sustainability.

Using the MIMA collection, you question the role of collecting and responding to historical narratives of artmaking. Through conversations with the MIMA curatorial team and sessions in the MIMA classroom, you examine ideas of display, mediation and presentation. You question the ways in which narrative, interpretation and experiences beyond the gallery can help the curatorial experience and consider the categorisation of objects both materially and contextually.

You have the option to spend one year in industry learning and developing your skills. We encourage and support you with applying for a placement, job hunting and networking. You gain experience favoured by graduate recruiters and develop your technical skillset. You also obtain the transferable skills required in any professional environment, including communication, negotiation, teamwork, leadership, organisation, confidence, self-reliance, problem-solving, being able to work under pressure, and commercial awareness.

You examine approaches to written and visual communication that present key ideas and concepts underpinning a practice-based research project. You establish and investigate a research question through relevant research methods ? the outcome is a critical text and small artifact, to demonstrate appropriate skills in academic and reflective writing as well as practice-based research methods. The essay and artifact, not limited to any specific medium or research area, must demonstrate a progression in focus and explore relevant artists and ideas to current debates in contemporary art theory and practice. The written element must also consider the placement and curatorial context of the artifact.

You build upon and consolidate your practice through the development and management of a project. You test out ideas to help determine the trajectory of your future practice in preparation towards the final major project.

This module is the culmination of all your previous learning, bringing a body of work to a point of professional resolution to showcase to a public audience through the degree show. This is achieved through the creation of a body of work that draws together the practical and theoretical concerns that underpin an advanced understanding of your studio practice and explores innovative and appropriate ways in which this new work is presented and engages with a wider audience.

You develop your design and drawing styles, essential for the creative development of interesting and innovative visual solutions. You are guided through a range of techniques and encouraged to push your ideas and designs in alternative directions, expanding your creative thinking and developing your ideas in new ways. You produce a range of visual images and worksheets to develop your drawing and image-making styles and process. Throughout the module, you are encouraged to experiment with a variety of drawing and mark-making media and techniques. You are also encouraged to make connections between seemingly unrelated beginnings and outcomes with briefs that allow creative freedom and broad interpretation.

You gain an historical and contextual overview of the history of art, animation, film and games. Aimed at technical, arts, games and animation students, this module equips you with an introductory level of understanding in the context of your chosen field of study. Through a series of lectures and seminars, you engage in research and discussion based on your chosen areas of art, animation and game history. You learn how to effectively seek out appropriate academic sources on which to base and construct these discussions in seminars and in writing.

You gain confidence in creating rudimentary images using traditional tools such as pencil and charcoal. The teaching enables you to develop your drawing technique and approach, and helps you produce images that effectively communicate simple ideas. With a range of traditional materials, you are encouraged to experiment with different approaches to drawing. You learn methods and techniques to improve your observational skills in relation to still life drawing. You also look at other formal elements including tone, proportion, perspective and basic human anatomy.

You are guided through the production of a small-scale individual project, defined in part by you with guidance from your tutor. The foundation project guides you to a more autonomous working approach developing your project management skills and consolidating other skills already learnt in other modules. You develop original ideas and concepts for the pre-production of an appropriate project in your chosen field of study. This may take the form of a game design document, modest game prototype, animation or game pre-production, concept art or another appropriate form related to the games, animation and film industries.

You learn some of the basic principles of 3D computer modelling, lighting and texturing. You use 3D software to produce a simple 3D model that will be textured and rendered with basic lighting. Through guided tutorial tasks, you learn some of the first principles of 3D modelling with the view to creating a small collection of elementary assets for computer games and animation. You create simple textures in appropriate software, such as Photoshop, and consider basic CG lighting.

You are introduced to problem solving, using simple tools and techniques. You develop your logical thinking and problem solving abilities. From recognising and defining problems to selecting an approach to problem solving or decision making, to evaluating the difference between the current and the desired state. You may use recreational problems, like games and puzzles, to convey the important concepts and provide a more limited context to work within.