Methodologies of Contemporary Art Practices

This course enables students to plan, consolidate and resolve the methodological approaches that underpins the meaning, intent and outcomes of their art practice. The outcomes for this course will be the development and shaping of a personal methodology culminating in the creation of new work. This course supports self-directed independent research with an emphasis on practice-led research*. Through an in-depth analysis of contemporary art practices, students will identify and apply appropriate modes of analysis, evaluation and comparative critical frameworks in order to clearly articulate the strategies and rationale for making their own work. Students benefit directly from academic staff research-led teaching as the course is structured around seminar presentations and responses by a range of guest lectures. Aligning with the SOAD research hubs the course also involves visits to collections and displays at national institutions where different examples of research approaches are tested. *Practice-led research is an approach that allows an artist to identify how their practice creates research, therefore legitimising the knowledge they reveal by endorsing the methodologies, methods and research tools that are characteristic of that discipline.