Undergraduate Course: Sites and Situations (ARTX10073)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will expand your knowledge and understanding of the impact of placing work in the public realm through presentations to an external audience. Through participation in an external project, the course will enable you to articulate engagement issues within contemporary art practice. The course will help you to reflect on, and develop, a response to the specific site or situation that you are working within. |
| Course description |
Sites and Situations introduces ways to research, reflect, problem-solve, and create resolved works of art in response to a particular site or situation. This course will expand your understanding of how context is critical to the development, presentation and reading of an artwork. You will work individually and as part of a team whilst engaging with an external organisation, by enrolling on one external project from a variety on offer that are organised by tutors. You will learn how artists work with external partners and contexts, and you will be exposed to the range of professional opportunities that exist through residencies and site-specific, or site-responsive, projects, and commissions. You will produce a finely tuned artwork for presenting to a public audience through continuous reflection, practical experiments, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Towards the end of the project, participation in teamwork will ensure that your group creates a self-organised, public facing event or exhibition in an external setting.
Teaching activities are spread throughout two semesters and will take place every 2-4 weeks in order that you are given ample time to develop concepts and production methods. These include external project site visits, discussions, presentations, tutorials, and input from external partners, as well as whole group talks and workshops. With your tutor, you will have the opportunity to observe in detail a particular site or situation and reflect on the material, contextual, ethical, cultural, social, historical, and environmental aspects associated with it. You will be taught how to use appropriate research methods and how to turn observations into concepts for an artwork, whether that be an image, and object, a performance, an intervention, a sound piece, or any other type of work that is deemed appropriate. You will learn how to articulate your findings and original ideas, initially through the production of a proposal and finally through presenting the work in a real-life situation. By the end of the course, you will be able to identify, and use, appropriate methods and strategies in the creation, presentation, and documentation of an artwork within a specific context.
The possibility for you to develop an individual project exists through consultation with the tutor and Course Organiser.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | Students MUST also take:
Art in Practice 3 (ARTX10072)
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| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2025 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components
1. Artist's Proposal (350-450 words + 3 images min) 30%, due in weeks 2-3, semester 2
2. Artist's Report (400-500 words + 10 images max) 70%, due in May assessment period
1. The Artist's Proposal should take the form of a pdf document submitted on Learn.
The research and rationale for the proposed artwork need to be clearly explained in the document. The document should include at least three visualisations of the proposed artwork with explanatory text.
Work submitted for the Artist's Proposal will be assessed against Learning Outcome 1.
2. The Artist's Report should take the form of a pdf document submitted on Learn.
The artwork and exhibition or event need to be represented with appropriate images (a maximum of 10 in total). The pdf document should include a reflective statement of the project undertaken. Details of individual or group contributions for the final project should be articulated.
Work submitted for the Artist's Report will be assessed against Learning Outcomes 2 and 3. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback
Regular verbal feedback will be given during all group and individual tutorials by the tutor, and by other students in group sessions.
Artist's Proposal formative presentation (weeks 9-10, semester 1)
The formative presentation will be based on the production of a proposal that will include evidence of research, a rationale and a visualisation of the proposed artwork to be presented in the site or situation the student is working within. This will be presented to the tutor and other students in the external project group. Students will receive feedback and feedforward from the tutor and other students in the group during the presentation session. This will aid the further development of the Artist's Proposal for summative assessment in weeks 2-3 of semester 2 and the work that will feature in the Artist's Report for summative assessment in the May assessment period.
Summative feedback
Artist's Proposal for exhibited artwork: short written feedback on the proposal will be provided by the tutor. Feedforward for the refinement of the work that will feature in the Artist's Report will also be given. This summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations.
Artist's Report: written feedback will be provided by the tutor according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate awareness of the concepts and issues that relate to creating a site-responsive artwork in the public realm.
- Evidence appropriate research and production methods for presenting work to an external audience.
- Contextualise and critically evaluate individual practice in relation to staging an external event.
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Reading List
Dezeuze, Anna. (2012) The 'do-it-yourself' Artwork: Participation from Fluxus to New Media. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Doherty, Claire. (2004) Contemporary Art: From Studio to Situation. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Doherty, Claire. (2009) Situation. London: MIT Press.
Morra, Joanne. (2018) Inside the Freud Museums: History, Memory and Site-Responsive Art. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Putman, James. (2001) Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium, London: Thames & Hudson. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Personal effectiveness
Engagement with the communities and world around them, contributing positively, ethically, and respectfully.
Research and enquiry
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: make connections between intention, process, outcome, context, and methods of dissemination in contemporary art
Communication
Skilled articulation: enhance understanding of context and to engage effectively with others |
| Keywords | context,site,engagement,external organisations,public |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Susan Mowatt
Tel:
Email: s.mowatt@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Nanami Chen
Tel:
Email: ychen7@ed.ac.uk |
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