External summary

Sculpture at ECA has a longstanding reputation for providing high quality, specialist education and encouraging individuality. Mixing traditional methods with experimental exploration, Sculpture delivers an imaginative, innovative and adaptable education where the experience of learning and the artefact created are of high quality. The overarching ethos is based on a sound understanding of sculptural values with a broad spatial, material and critical awareness being established through the command of practical and intellectual approaches pertinent to contemporary art practice.

The programme is designed to both promote and challenge traditional and experimental methods of visualising and making, and risk taking and is encouraged to discover new areas of exploration. The placement, location and context of work is considered vital and students use spaces inside and outside the studios and college to site and present work.

Our purpose-built studios are adaptable, serving both as working studios and project and exhibition spaces. The workshops and foundry provide excellent accommodation for working in wood, metal, mould-making, casting and carving and there are facilities for working with sound, digital imaging and video editing.

The programme’s philosophy is developed around the resources and expertise and establishes key practical skills while encouraging students to explore the possibilities opened up by new forms of sculptural practice. Our students will form the landscape of contemporary sculpture in the near future.

Main aims:

• developing confident, enquiring, resilient students who can research and articulate their practice, and question their position and that of painting within the wider context of contemporary visual culture.
• developing your creative, technical and intellectual ability through projects, installations and exhibitions.

Educational aims of programme

• To encourage creative production.
• To support and encourage individual creative practice through a range of Contemporary Art approaches.
• To introduce students to the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary artistic production.
• To introduce students to a range of visual research methodologies.
• To allow students to be fully aware of the contemporary world and the historical context in which they are working.
• To provide a supportive studio environment.
• To introduce and involve students in the dialectical nature of artistic production.
• To support the research activities of staff to ensure students are taught in relation to contemporary practice.
• To research and archive contemporary/historical Fine Art pedagogies.
• To develop links with national and international likeminded institutions and organisations.

A Visual Culture strand provides a multidisciplinary contextual study programme across all art degrees at ECA, involving the imaginative research, analysis and communication of issues raised by the visual aspects of culture. Students will engage in a critical and creative dialogue with the work of their peers and gain an understanding of the nature of today’s diverse visual cultures. You will study the artistic, intellectual, social and professional contexts that shape creative practice in visual arts and learn how to best communicate this knowledge in a range of written, oral, visual and practical forms.

Programme outcomes: Knowledge and understanding

By fully engaging with the degree programme, graduates will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of:

• Clear and defined relationship between personal practice and contemporary cultural production.
• Detailed appreciation of contemporary Art.
• Transdisciplinarity of contemporary art and its nature to go beyond common medium boundaries.
• Significant awareness of the international context for contemporary visual production.
• A focussed use of a range of materials/medium/strategies in relation to individual practice.
• Application of critical visual analysis to key examples of contemporary art practice.
• Employ critical thinking in methods of presentation and installation of individual practice.
• Critical analysis of appropriateness of methods/materials/strategies within personal Art practice.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in research and enquiry

• Use critical evaluation to appropriately present individual and coherent work.
• Critical analysis of a wide range of research material
• The synthesis of explorative research and making to establish an individual visual language.
• Evaluate focused personal approaches informed by relevant elements of contemporary art practice.
• Independent ability to solve critical issues.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal and intellectual autonomy

• Significant responsibility to provide a critical basis for meaningful and enduring praxis.
• Resourcefulness and creative in working process from conception to execution
• Developed personal practice viewed in relation to a national and international communal culture.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in communication

• Critically evaluate working process from idea through to execution.
• Defined ability to present, contextualised work, to an informed audience.
• Critically identify, and develop, appropriate methods for presenting personal practice.
• Critically develop interaction strategies for audiences.
• Establish an appropriate and coherent dossier of contemporary Art research.
• Significant engagement in collective cultural production.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal effectiveness

• Evidence of quantification of materials and costing for professional practice.
• Where relevant utilise the most appropriate technologies that effectively communicate working methods and ideas at an advanced level.
• Demonstrate significant responsibility for the selection and employment of appropriate subject specific learning strategies.

Programme outcomes: Technical/practical skills

• Synthesis of individual ideas with a considered range of contemporary Art.
• Document and present individual Intermedia practice in the most appropriate format.
• Utilise and critically evaluate contemporary approaches to installations.
• Contextualise individual practice through discussion and material production.
• Develop and present an idiosyncratic approach to visual research.

Programme structure and features

Year 1

Each of our four-year BA (Hons) degrees in art shares common elements of study during the early part of Year 1. Subsequently you will develop your specialist study of Sculpture in relation to the wider field of contemporary art practice. You have a 20 credit elective course that will complete your credits for the year.

Year 2

You will be encouraged to engage with and explore your ideas through visual thinking, drawing and research. Through participating in exhibitions, project spaces and group crits you will establish tactics for presenting, evaluating and discussing work with your peers and other audiences, building a foundation for a professional practice. You have a 20 credit elective course that will complete your credits for the year.

Year 3

As your study progresses you will engage in experimentation and risk-taking to expand your own personal visual language. You will be supported and challenged to grow your understanding of suitable approaches to articulating your ideas, through personal and collaborative initiatives and experimentation. You will also clearly identify and define conceptual areas of your work through personal exploration, demonstrated by extensive research activity. This year you will be able to apply for international exchange programme and take part in a range of external projects.

Year 4

The body of work you produce will be underpinned by a highly self-motivated attitude to the planning and production of your research and practice. This work will demonstrate the ability to analyse, resolve and implement the means by which your ideas are best communicated to an audience.

Exit Awards

Exit after successful completion of Year 1: Certificate of Higher Education.
Exit after successful completion of Years 1 and 2: Diploma of Higher Education.
Exit after successful completion of Years 1-3: Bachelor of Arts.

Teaching and learning methods and strategies

A common structure across all ECA School of Art UG programmes (Intermedia, Painting, Photography, Sculpture) allows students to articulate through a mixture of subject specific and cross-disciplinary learning and teaching approaches. The BA (Honours) programme elements are:

• Subject-specific project-based study: A key feature of early stages of study. These elements of the programme define the areas of study, allowing for an in-depth knowledge of specific disciplines and approaches to particular media whilst introducing important material and philosophical practices and discussions.
• Individual tutorials: All students from years 1 through to 4 will be assigned a personal tutor. These regular timetabled meetings are conversational one on one sessions. As studio practice-based discussions they focus upon the students work addressing what has just been made, in light of what has been made previously, towards establishing what might occur in the future.
• Group-tutorials: Students regularly participate within group studio-based tutorials both within their own subject area and across the different subjects. These group situations are distinct in that participants may not know or be familiar with the debates surrounding the presented work. In these situations observations and discussion is more immediate and group tutorials aim to complement the emerging discussions within individual tutorials.
• Subject-specific seminars: A short series of year- and subject-specific seminars are organized throughout semesters one and two. These look to expand the methodologies of the subjects offered.
• Project spaces: All students regularly present work for peer group scrutiny and discussion. The project space is when all elements of study are synthesized towards the presentation of an artwork to be discussed by an audience.
• Study visits: Through each stage in the BA study visits are organized to compliment different aspects of studio work and visual research. In year 1 study visits are used for orientation and relate directly to studio project. In year 2 visits are broader and are intended to contextualize studio specialisms. In year 3 the study visit is often international to provide a vital external dynamic to art making, and in year 4 study visits are more mindful of students life after college, for example artists studio networks.

Facilities

Each student has an individual workspace through Years 2 - 4 and this is supplemented by three distinct bookable installation spaces.

Students are supported with excellent facilities for video editing, web design and desktop publishing. These are complemented by the College’s Printmaking and Wood Workshops and other construction facilities.

Assessment methods and strategies

Progress is continuously monitored and students receive individual tutorial reviews and formative assessment throughout the year. Regular timetabled meetings are conversational one on one sessions. These practice-based discussions focus upon the student’s work, addressing what has just been made in light of what has been made previously, towards establishing what might occur in the future. (See also section 13 above assessment methods and feedback are fundamentally interconnected with teaching and learning strategies in this practice-based subject.)

All coursework and assignments are formally assessed towards the end of each session and a pass must be achieved in all subjects, including Visual and Cultural Studies, before progressing to the next level.

In Year 4, coursework is formally reviewed once, midway through the session.

Career opportunities

Many graduates go on to postgraduate study or to work as contemporary artists, holding a mixture of residencies, commissions and freelance work. Many also apply for postgraduate study.

Other items

The School of Art is housed in the main building of the Edinburgh College of Art built in 1906. As a purpose built art school it houses dedicated studio and seminar space with workshops in wood, metal, printmaking, casting, photography. Further to these facilities the college also has a suit of Macs suitable for use with the full creative suite, and final cut pro. Along with the School of Art technicians the School also has three graduate studio assistants in Digital Media, Photography, and Printmaking.

The School of Art offers honours level awards degree awards in four areas of study; Intermedia Art, Painting, Photography, and Sculpture. The BA is a 4-year intensive studio based programme designed in preparation for a career in art. Students work closely with personal, and subject specific tutors, to support a customized and idiosyncratic approach to creative endeavour.