Postgraduate Course: Resolving Critical Making (DESI11205)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 60 |
ECTS Credits | 30 |
| Summary | This course is the culmination of your MA Craft programme and, within that, your chosen disciplinary specialism(s) in your chosen craft practice: ceramics, glass, textiles and/or jewellery and silversmithing. This course follows on directly from the Exploring Critical Making and Developing Critical Making courses. This course will enable you to refine and critically reflect upon your craft practice and demonstrate your ability to resolve, prepare and present your final project(s) in a variety of professional contexts and formats. You will explore the wider dissemination and promotion of your critical craft practice to peers, public and professional audiences. This course will help you to resolve your critically engaged making and thinking through your craft practice. |
| Course description |
Through this course, you will expand upon your current craft practice within and beyond the expanded field of craft in the context of the post-digital age. This course will enable you to resolve and expose your work, enabling you to critically reflect upon the innovative material-led practices and methods you have explored, developed and resolved during your MA Craft studies. You will evaluate how you have addressed a range of responsible and conscious approaches to materials and making in your work to create a range of sustainable, socially responsible outcomes. You will resolve your craft practice through the lens of critical making. The final outcome of the course will be to resolve and expose (a) self-directed final project(s). Learning how to make work that can withstand critique is integral to this course, which will be delivered within a critical environment driven by both staff and peer review, which will help you evaluate the contribution you have made to your chosen craft discipline(s). You will resolve and consolidate your making skills, through critical self-analysis and reflective appraisal.
Your final project may take the form of a new process, artefact(s) or new series of work(s) or collection. You may also choose to present an exhibition, a conference with a publication, a research website, a collected series of articles/essays or an online podcast series. You will exercise autonomy, initiative, and innovation in organisation through your self-directed project(s) and apply a range of presentation and exposition strategies. You will professionally document, archive and determine the means of individually promoting your craft practice to a range of audiences within and beyond the field of craft. In the final part of the course, you will gather invaluable feedback by presenting your projects to both staff and students. You will conduct user testing, social probes, object handling and/or feedback sessions (as relevant). Research methods such as a reflective journal, sketchbook, a technical notebook and a project book will continue to be used to document your process. You will complete a range of professional practice tasks and activities that will place you in the contemporary craft context. This final project will consist of a series of practical coursework submissions, a final portfolio of work, a project book and a reflective studio blog documenting the final stages which will make up the final outcomes of this course.
Weekly teaching sessions will include 1:1 supervisory meetings with a designated supervisor (30 mins per week). A short series of weekly seminars will be delivered in the first half of the course (1 hour per week - in weeks 1-5). Through group crits, feedback sessions and open studio debate, you will actively seek input and feedback at this final stage. You will create a written position paper that defines and resolves your understanding of craft, to critically position and situate yourself as a critical craft practitioner.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | The nature of this studio course is that materials will be consumed and used in the development of your prototypes, models, and visualisations (including printing). For this course, it is expected that you might spend an average of £50, but these costs fluctuate significantly depending upon individual projects and your choice of materials involved with the project. At ECA we promote the reuse and recycling of materials, students are actively encouraged to access the free-use hub where possible or appropriate to their projects. We also would like to note that success in the course is not linked to expenditure; novel or sustainable approaches to material use will be commended. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Block 5 (Sem 2) and beyond |
| Course Start Date |
27/04/2026 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
600
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5,
Dissertation/Project Supervision Hours 5,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 4,
Summative Assessment Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 12,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
570 )
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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 4 components of assessment.
Component 1: A draft project brief (1000-1100 words) and draft project statement (500-600 words), Week 6 (10%).
Component 2: A reflective journal, Week 6 (10%).
Component 3: A final project statement (500-600 words) and a reflective journal (studio blog: weeks 6-11), August Exam diet (20%).
Component 4: A final portfolio of work and project book (24 A3 pages), August Exam diet (60%)
Component 1will require the student to create an illustrated draft project brief (1000-1100 words) that sets out the aims and objectives of the final project and its methodological approach and a draft position paper. This assessment will be assessed against LO1.
Component 2 will require the student to create a reflective journal that reflects on the studio activity to date (consisting of 5 studio blog posts - 100-200 words each, from weeks 1-5). This assessment will be assessed against LO3.
Component 3 will require the student to submit a final project statement (500-600 words) on the project that identifies the context of their situated craft practice. A reflective journal will be submitted alongside this to reflect on the studio and course activity (consisting of 6 studio blog posts - 100-200 words each, from weeks 6-11). Assessed against LO3.
Component 4 will require the student to submit a final portfolio of work that demonstrates the outcomes of their final project as well as a project book (24 A3 pages). The final project may take the form of a new process, artefact(s) or new series of work(s) or collection. They may also choose to present an exhibition, a conference with a publication, a research website, a collected series of articles/essays or an online podcast series. Assessed equally against LO1 and LO2. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback:
Feedback is regularly communicated through the course. This takes several forms, including verbally through group sessions and crits where work and ideas are discussed with both peers and tutor. A formative feedback event will take place in week 5 and will feed into components 1 and 2. A further formative feedback event will take place in week 10 and will feed into components 3 and 4.
Summative feedback:
The summative feedback for components 1 and 2 will feed directly into components 3 and 4.
Students will receive individual written feedback and grades on their summative submissions, which will be provided via LEARN VLE as per university regulations.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Resolve and complete to an appropriate professional standard an independent inquiry into critical making that demonstrates an integrated relationship between critical craft theory and practice.
- Present and disseminate their work persuasively within an appropriate professional context.
- Evaluate and critically reflect upon their work, positioning themselves within and beyond their specialist field of craft practice.
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Reading List
Adamson, Glenn (2018) The Craft Reader, London: Bloomsbury.
Busek, Maria Elena (2011) Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Dormer, Peter (1997) The Culture of Craft (Studies in Design and Material Culture), Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Gray, Carole & Malins, Julian Gray, (2004) Visualizing your research, London: Routledge Press.
Harrod, Tanya (2018) Documents of Contemporary Art: Craft, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students on the course possess and/or wish to develop a number of key attributes, mindsets and skills, both on personal and a professional level.
University of Edinburgh Graduate Attributes: Mindsets
Aspiration and personal development: Students will draw on their own initiative and previous experience of craft practice to expand and fulfil their potential as future craft practitioners. They will develop a confident and critically reflective approach, which will see them take personal responsibility for pursuing their goals and seeking out opportunities to help them grow their own professional craft practice.
Outlook & engagement: Students will become engaged with the context of craft practice, through both local and national communities, whilst also connecting and situating their practice within the wider international craft context. This mindset will influence and lead them to explore, develop and finally resolve an outlook that positively and critically engages with these contexts and communities. Whilst encouraging them to consider the impact of their work, and to carefully consider the implications of their craft practice on others.
University of Edinburgh Graduate Attributes: Skill groups
Personal and intellectual autonomy: Students will use their personal and intellectual autonomy to critically evaluate ideas, evidence, and experiences from an open-minded and reasoned perspective, becoming situated in the field of contemporary craft.
Communication: Students will be able to synthesise and share complex ideas around their work through a broad range of communication methods and selected platforms. They will find ways to disseminate and resolve their work in ways that are appropriate to reach a variety of audiences, communities, and constituencies. |
| Keywords | craft,practice,critical making,resolution,dissemination,consolidation,exposition |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kee Ryong Choi
Tel: (0131 6)51 5816
Email: kchoi@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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