This module enables you to create a critical, historical and theoretical framework within which to investigate and understand practices of creativity in relation to art, design and culture.
The module explores the connections between creativity and social and cultural change by focusing on a variety of case studies both historical and contemporary. It will place emphasis on the ways in which significant moments in cultural history, and the creative products and solutions that emerge from them, have been shaped by the input of multiple stakeholders who inhabit a variety of positions from artists and designers, to muses, theoreticians, patrons and engineers.
Alongside, you will also consider how both producers and consumers can play a role in instigating and influencing such change.
You will be introduced to the context of creative industries, classifying them and exploring what makes them distinctive and arguably idiosyncratic. Their development will be traced alongside the creation of intellectual property and protection legal frameworks. The economics of cultural production will lead into how digital innovations are disrupting existing models and value propositions. Running through the module will be the view that firms in the CCI can benefit from strategic thinking.
With a close focus on analysis of key case studies, a series of lectures, hacks, seminars, workshops, and tutorials will support your own emerging research interests and encourage the development of your historical knowledge, critical thinking and research skills.
The module thus helps you to make sense of the concerns emerging in your own disciplines and to take a critical and analytical view of your own ideas, motivations and interests and how these views can translate into commercial project work.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
This module will integrate subject content and research skills through lectures, seminars tutorials, screenings and visits. Hands-on workshops and seminars will assist students to not only understand theoretical and historical concepts, but also to apply them to understand the processes and stakeholders involved in creative practices. The module will actively engage with visual and physical material and the art of curation. Seminars will also enable students to discuss key readings, and connect themes to their particular interests. Where possible, study visits, guest speakers hacks and screenings will be scheduled throughout the module. Canvas will be used to support face-to-face teaching activity through the provision of online resources and to aid students' learning outside of scheduled activities.
Themes will be explored through a series of lectures and seminars accompanied by guided groupwork. Case studies and news articles will be used to ground theory in the activities of the firms in the sector. Guest lectures from practitioners will provide an opportunity to link theory to practice and help guide the students in their choice of degree path once the common first year is complete.
The module will make use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Canvas for communication and dissemination of information between students and staff as well as making online learning materials available to all.
All courses based in the Kingston School of Art offer students free access to the online video tutorial platform Lynda.com. This provides a wide range of subjects to choose from, many with downloadable exercise files, including software tutorials covering photography, graphics, web design, audio and music, CAD and Microsoft Office software, as well as courses on Business and Management skills. Some of these are embedded in the curriculum and offer additional self-paced learning, others may be taken at will by students wishing to broaden their employability skills in other areas.
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Lectures, seminars, workshops, screenings and tutorials Study groups | 192 |
| Guided independent study | Reading, preparation and assignments | 408 |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 600 | |
Assessment for this module is by a piece of sustained critical writing (approximately 1,500 words) on their blog, (which will be assessed formatively) responding to a brief but developed in relation to students' individual research area of interest, and a research portfolio (including some or all of the following: reviews; critical discussion of case studies; textual analyses; reflective writing; lecture notes; critical writing) which will be assessed summatively.
The research portfolio will respond to themes introduced in the lectures and be developed during workshops where there will also be opportunities for informal presentations, reviews and formative feedback. Feedback for the research portfolio will also assist students in identifying an area of research to be developed in their future essays.
As part of the summative assessment students will also communicate their project through a reflective multi-media blog and a short pitch.
Feedback and feed forward will be provided for elements of the research portfolio, as these are initiated as part of scheduled teaching activities.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| 1) Demonstrate knowledge of histories and theories relating to creativity in relation to art, design and culture and how these will inform their practice | Reflective multimedia blog Research portfolio |
| 2) Recognize the different disciplinary positions and stakeholders that drive creativity and social, and cultural change | Reflective multimedia blog Research portfolio |
| 3) Articulate and apply the ideas of a range of key critical and theoretical positions in relation to creativity | Reflective multimedia blog and pitch |
| 4) Articulate their own experiences as practitioners and researchers in relation to historical and contemporary concerns | Reflective multimedia blog Research portfolio |
| 5) Define and classify the creative and cultural industries | Research portfolio and pitch |
| 6) Identify and describe different types of strategies followed by a firm in the CCI | Reflective multimedia blog |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Research portfolio and 1,500 blog plus media content and 10 min pitch | Coursework | 100% |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It IS a requirement that the element of assessment is passed in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.
Works cited are indicative of the scope of the reading required. Module leaders will select and where needed further enhance and focus it.
Adorno, T.W., (2004). Aesthetic Theory. A&C Black.
Bourdieu, P. and Johnson, R., (1993). The field of cultural production: Essays on art and literature. Columbia University Press.
Gander, J. (2017). Strategic Analysis: A Creative and Cultural Industries Perspective. Mastering Management in the Creative and Cultural Industries. Routledge: London
Hartley, et al. (2013). Key Concepts in the Creative Industries. Sage: London
Houghton, R. (2012). Blogging for Creatives: ILEX: Lewes
Kaufman, J.C. and Baer, J. eds., (2005). Creativity across domains: Faces of the muse. Psychology Press.
Pope, R., (2005). Creativity: Theory, history, practice. Psychology Press.
Bihanic, D., (2015). Empowering Users through Design: interdisciplinary studies and combined approaches for technological products and services. Springer
Caves, R. (2000). Creative Industries: contracts between commerce and creativity. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Cho, J. D. (2012). Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community, Chronicle Books: San Francisco.
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2007). The Cultural Industries. Sage: London.
Howkins, J. (2007). The Creative Economy. Penguin: London.
Hartley, J. (2005) Creative Industries. Blackwell: London.
Jones, et al, (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries. OUP: Oxford
Freeman, M., (1993). Finding the muse: A sociopsychological inquiry into the conditions of artistic creativity. Cambridge University Press.
Harris, A., (2014). The creative turn: Toward a new aesthetic imaginary (Vol. 6). Springer Science & Business.
Harris, J.P., (2001). The new art history: A critical introduction. Psychology Press.
Horkheimer, M., (1982). Critical theory (p. 188). New York, NY: Continuum.
Jasper, J.M., (2008). The art of moral protest: Culture, biography, and creativity in social movements. University of Chicago Press.
Malpass, M., (2017). Critical Design in Context: History, Theory, and Practices. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Negus, K. and Pickering, M., (2000). Creativity and cultural production. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 6(2), pp.259-282.
Ray, L. and Sayer, A. eds., (1999). Culture and economy after the cultural turn. Sage.
Rodenbeck, J.F., (2011). Radical prototypes: Allan Kaprow and the invention of happenings. Massachusetts: Mit Press.
Vermaas, P.E., Kroes, P., Light, A. and Moore, S.A., (2008). Philosophy and design. From Engineering to Architecture.