You will enrol on 3 mandatory units, 3 core units and then may select elective units. You must take a minimum of 12 credits and a maximum of 16 credits.
Our shared units allow for collaboration and community across Central Saint Martins, London College of Communication and London College of Fashion
Credit value: 2 credits
Tutor contact: 20 hours
Self-directed study: 20 hours
Lead Tutor: Samantha Kemmy
The aim of Understanding Contemporary Cultures (UCC) is to introduce you to key concepts, debates and ideas present in contemporary culture today. We will do this together through in-class discussion, group activities and independent research. All of these activities will support your learning and prepare you to work independently on your assignments.
During this unit you will research key concepts, debates and terminology related to cultural and social theory, focused around three key critical themes:
You will be introduced you to a range of knowledges, perspectives and ideas surrounding:
As a group, we will approach these themes in an active and participatory way that will involve undertaking independent preparation each week and engaging with in class group activities. You are encouraged to maintain a questioning mindset and engage with each other and your tutor during each session.
By engaging with scholarly perspectives from critical and social theory you will be supported to think through fashion in a critical and evidenced way. This unit will help you to make critical connections in your own professional practice and experience of the fashion industry. Most importantly, you will develop key analytical and research skills that will support you to critically engage with the fashion and creative industries.
Lead Tutor: Michael Czerwinski
The aim of London Cultural Studies (LCS) is to orientate yourself, and explore aspects of London’s diverse culture, and creative landscape. As one of three mandatory units, you will meet and engage with all students across the UAL Study Abroad programme from CSM, LCC and LCF to build networks, and creative communities.
With LCS you will take creative risks, start conversations with people to find out about their lives, form new opinions, and energise your research methods with these newfound skills acting as city explorers and investigators.
We encourage you to explore all London has to offer from inspirational, historical, knowledgeable, and ‘alternative’ perspectives. You will learn about subcultures, genres, trends, as well as safely navigating yourself within a cultural capital city.
Lectures and conversations with your tutor and classmates will discuss the idiosyncratic behaviours, cultural attitudes and curious customs that make a city unique. As well as London, you’ll learn and draw wider inspiration from the sense of ‘Britishness’, always encouraged to think, listen, and speak critically.
Most LCS classes are predominantly field trips. You will do several visits, guided walks, and tours, going behind-the-scenes of unfamiliar spaces and areas to gain personal and fresh insight of this historically complex, challenging, creative city.
You will develop a personal body of research and experiences, which you will take forward as a memento of your time in London, to embed new ideas, values, and disruptive actions into your own creative practice, and beyond.
Lead Tutor: Laura Lightbody
The aim of Creative Histories (CH) will focus on how you can make a change for social purpose*, by examining creative outputs and practice from historical, sociological, and cultural perspectives. As one of three mandatory units, you will meet and engage with all students across the UAL Study Abroad programme from CSM, LCC and LCF to build networks, and creative communities.
In this project you will orientate yourselves in small teams, to collaborate and develop your proposition and presentation skills. In pairs you will pitch a speculative exhibition proposal delivered as a Pecha Kucha visual presentation.
By being an active researcher, acknowledging what has come before you, you will explore and examine a wide cross section of relevant and / or unexpected areas of interest. This will eventually act as the foundation of this unit, to make positive and impactful social change.
You will participate in a series of online lectures as well as guided visits, exhibitions in museums and art galleries around London, cultural centres and dynamic geographic landmarks each week. You will note take, annotate, and sketch in a research journal to document ideas and contextualise what creativity and culture means to you. This sketchbook will also connect to your London Cultural Studies research. Being critical is key.
Knowledge of the past allows for a considered understanding of why things are the way they are today, which in turn informs an intuition with which to predict future trends, cultural awareness and zeitgeist.
*Read more here about how UAL defines social purpose within creative practice.
Lead Tutor: Lynsey Fox
In your Introduction to Media Communication unit, will explore the varied, ever changing media landscape and discuss how it impacts our daily lives. The media in its many forms continues to have huge cultural and social influence. This unit will allow you to develop a critical understanding of new and existing media technologies. The practical unit will cover multiple aspects of the media including the printed press, zines, social media, podcasts, influencers, broadcast television, and future technologies. Each session will discuss the history of the topic and explore its cultural impact. Engaging sessions will involve group conversations, debates, and practical tasks.
The unit will also include a field trip and there will be engaging reading, listening, and viewing lists to support your learning. Upon completion of this unit, you will be able to confidently research a subject and present clear and thorough findings in an engaging way. The unit is designed to complement the other core units, Creative and Technical Skills, and Brand Storytelling.
Weekly topics, research and discussions will include:
Lead Tutor: Claire Lambert
Storytelling is at the heart of everything we do. From ideation to execution, your Brand Storytelling unit will look at the fundamentals of storytelling and how brands utilise this to engage with their intended audiences. Case studies from brands across all industries including consumer, charity, media, third sector, and celebrity will be up for discussion.
The unit will also explore the increasing importance of ethics in branded communication and how brands are engaging with their audiences in ethical, authentic and considered ways. In addition, it will also look at how brand storytelling can be used to raise awareness and engage audiences in social justice issues.
One session will be fully dedicated to the concept role of ‘subvertisment’ and how established branded messaging can be challenged.
This will be a practical unit where students will explore new and emergent commercial communication approaches through digital, experiential, social and traditional print media formats.
You will engage in topics around understanding your audience, tone of voice, creative writing, ideation, planning, and 360-degree campaigns. The unit is designed to complement the other core units, Introduction to Media Communication and Creative and Technical Skills.
Lead Tutor: Megan St Clair Morgan
This practical unit will introduce you to the foundations of engaging audio and visual content, key skills for all media students. The unit will explore the creative process, and will develop your skills from idea generation through to realisation and execution. It will begin with the essential techniques required for ideation and imagination from brainstorming to creative thinking.
Discussions around audience understanding, tone of voice, and strong messaging will allow you to formulate a clear plan.
You will then be introduced to the core technical skills needed for visual and audio content creation. You will have the opportunity to explore different types of film making; experiment with cuts and shot styles; produce various audio recordings; and develop your editing skills.
The unit introduces and supports you to develop your imaginative capacities as well as your creative skills. You will be expected to work in groups and individually, as both are important in the creative process, and for enabling you to reach your full creative potential. Upon completion of this unit, you will be prepared to create audio and visual assets that respond to a client brief. Examples of weekly topics include,
In this Print and Online Journalism course, you will be introduced to the basic skills and techniques of written journalism, focusing on the conventions of news writing and the creation of concise features. The practical unit is designed to provide a solid grounding in journalistic research, practice and production.
Throughout the unit you will learn about interviewing techniques, news writing, feature writing, carrying out primary and secondary journalistic research, and producing short, structured articles on a range of subjects. Each class will comprise of a lecture and discussion alongside practical tasks to develop your confidence, written skills and journalistic style. You will be able to choose the subjects you wish to write about, allowing your personal interests, values, discussions and enquiries to tailor the unit to your specific investigation and discourse.
Upon completion of this unit, you will be able to confidently research, write, and format appropriate short form articles. Weekly topics and discussions will include fundamentals of journalism, what makes a good story, research, opinion, review and feature writing, there will also be some focus on emerging AI within journalism, photo essays and mixed media.
From discussions with your tutor and peers, you will gain understanding of ethical and professional journalistic standards, which you will be able to hone, transfer and apply to form your own unique communication style.
Lead Tutors: Nida Sajid and Olive Conner
In this unit, we will explore how artistic practices have been used to create social change. From the rebellious histories of music and poetry to the new possibilities of advanced creative technologies and design justice methodologies.
The unit will cover a wide range of activist movements including racial justice, queer liberation, workers’ rights, climate action, indigenous land back efforts and multi-species struggles. You will be encouraged to make connections between these as well as bring in causes you are passionate about to class.
We will survey different worlds of activism each week, moving between the macro movements of populations and the micro acts of prefigurative politics. Each session will focus on a specific theme such as work, home or future, and look at how the theme in question relates to issues of social justice. Each session will also be accompanied by a variety of ‘artivist’ case studies. The sessions will involve a mix of mini lectures, group discussions and hands-on tasks.
The unit will also include field trips to a radical organising hub in East London, an urban hacking headquarters and extracurricular opportunities to connect with local artists and activists.
Collectively, we will develop a practice of critically analysing and creatively embodying protest in all its forms.
Email us
studyabroadoffice@arts.ac.uk
Ready to apply?
@ualstudyabroad
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