Design: Expanded Practice (Taught)

This course is a radical post-disciplinary programme for practitioners who want to push the boundaries of what design can be and do.

• During the Masters we work with you to transform your practice as a critical and social undertaking.

• By challenging the role and norms of traditional design towards an emerging type of ‘advanced design’, unshackled from the history of specialisms and entrenched methods, you will become part of a community of practice. You'll be encouraged to actively contribute to a deep understanding of how design is set to address and affect change within contemporary society.

• Whatever your background or previous degree we expect you to examine your own practice. This might be in a traditional field of design such as graphic design, product design, fashion design or interior design. Other fields such as teaching, social science, humanities, curating, engineering, science and business are also considered practices and are welcomed on the programme.

• The MA is structured around thematic areas of investigation (Studios) which situates you – the practitioner – in a particular field of study and reference.

Studio structure
The Studio offering will be tailored each year to the skills/expertise of applicants and in response to the changing nature of the design field and the world around us. Studios have included:

• Communication & Experience

• Fashions & Embodiment

• Speculation & Techniques

• Interactions & Experiments

• Spaces & Participation

• Culture & Ecologies

The Studios take a post-disciplinary approach to practice, where tools, techniques, media and methods are appropriated and adopted in response to the demands of a project. The Studios will help build collaborative and material skills through project- based learning where collective investigation is carried out alongside both faculty and visiting experts.

Each Studio is encouraged to build an identity within the programme – supporting diverse practice, building a rich identity, and attracting a broad range of applicants.