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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Art

Undergraduate Course: Going Public (ARTX10076)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits40 ECTS Credits20
SummaryContemporary art today can exist in multiple spaces and reach multiple publics. Studying on the course Going Public, will provide you with the opportunity to develop a project that engages with a public for art, of your choosing, in a site and form, of your choosing. In developing this project, you will also develop core professional skill sets for operating post-college in the contemporary art world.
Course description Going Public, will run in semesters 1 and 2, and will afford students the opportunity to develop artworks for a range of publics in different contexts and sites. Students will be asked to select an option for producing work from the following headings: gallery, public art, community, publication, curatorial and interdisciplinary. Students will be required to determine the best medium for representing their project, utilising a range of materials and media. It will be expected that their choices will relate to their self-directed learning pathways they have followed during years 3 and 4 of study at ECA (while current discipline specific areas will be removed in the BAFA, it is still expected that students will broadly continue to produce work which mirrors some of the 'old departments' - painting, sculpture, intermedia and photography).

Key staff working in the identified areas (gallery, public art, community, publication, curatorial and interdisciplinary) alongside professionals working in associated ECA 'hub' organisations in Edinburgh, will present talks on their research and practice each year to students at the start of term (in three seven-hour sessions, compromising a talk, workshop and independent study activities). External visits to organisations and galleries whose activities mirror those of Going Public students will be organised (for example Jupitar Artland for those interested in public Art, Artlink for those engaging in community-based practice etc. etc.).

The use of ECA project spaces will be an integral, core component of this course. Students will be required to produce work to a professional manner, install within a limited period and receive feedback from tutors and their peers. Project Space sessions in weeks 4-10 in semesters 1 + 2 will function as testing and trial spaces for students and as an opportunity to develop their professional logistical and presentation skills. Formative feedback from peers and two staff at each project space, will help students to identify and resolve artistic and logistical issues ahead of the final display of their projects to the public. The end point of the Going Public course will be the Graduate Exhibition, where students will present their projects to the public in the ECA building. This final exhibition will be assessed by ECA staff.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Self-determine and define a project for public consumption.
  2. Demonstrate in the exhibiting of your work, knowledge and understanding of the key conceptual, material and ethical issues pertaining to the public presentation and dissemination of art
  3. Apply their knowledge to critically analyse core questions in their chosen area.
  4. Use a wide range of the principal professional skills, techniques, practices and materials associated in the development and presentation of their project.
Reading List
Ammer, Manuela, Achim Hochdörfer and David Joselit. (2015) Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age: Gesture and Spectacle, Eccentric Figuration, Social Networks. Prestel

Borchardt-Hume, Achim, Theaster Gates, Carol Becker and Lisa Yun Lee (2015). Theaster Gates. London: Phaidon.

Bishop, Claire. (2012) Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso

Kester, Grant. (2013). Conversation pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Steyerl, Hito. (2017). Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War. Verso.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Research and enquiry
Independent research: to be confident in the self determination of an investigation within contemporary art.
Knowledge integration and application: respond to major developments in current and emergent debates and ideas within contemporary art.

Personal and intellectual autonomy
Creativity and inventive thinking: initiate an individual perspective on practice regarding contemporary art.
Independent learning and development: understand the significance of the work of other contemporary artists in relation to other artists, contexts, and ideas.

Personal effectiveness
Planning, organising and time management: self-management, including planning and developing skills, in research and communication to meet course deadlines.

Communication
Verbal communication and presentation: communicate ideas and information in visual, oral and written forms about current ideas and debates in contemporary art.
KeywordsPublics,Sustainability,Engagement,Audiences
Contacts
Course organiserMr John Beagles
Tel: (0131 6)51 5909
Email: j.beagles@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMx Hannah Pennie Morrison
Tel: (0131 6)51 5763
Email: Hannah.PM@ed.ac.uk
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