Undergraduate Course: Art in Practice 1 (ARTX08090)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | Art in Practice 1 is a studio-based course which will introduce students to art practices in a contemporary, multi-media context. Through a series of thematic projects, students will learn a range of approaches to the research, development and translation of their ideas through experimenting with various materials and processes to resolve and present work for an audience. Students will be supported through regular tutorials with experienced artists and practitioners and through practical introductions to technical facilities across ECA. Students will be encouraged to form a vibrant studio culture with their peers, to experiment, critically reflect, and question what their own art practice might be. |
| Course description |
Art in Practice 1 introduces ways to research, explore, and resolve practices of contemporary art.
Over two semesters, students will undertake a series of themed projects, each one introduced with a lecture presenting and articulating diverse, relevant examples from recent and contemporary art practices. Making art is fundamentally a social activity allowing students to meet their peers and tutors, to share ideas and make work together. Each project brief will set certain tasks, remaining open enough to allow unique, personal responses. This will enable- students to develop their ideas in unexpected and ambitious ways.
The studio will be an important focal point of this course as a place for the production and critical discussion of work. To support students' studio work, the course will include practical introductions to a broad range of technical facilities and skills available across ECA. Throughout the course students will discuss their work with a range of tutors, all of whom offer different expertise and a wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge. This teaching contact will occur over one and a half days per week and consist of hour-long small group tutorials, hour-long whole cohort lectures, and whole morning small group workshop inductions and activities; there will also be two external gallery visits lasting two hours each and opportunities for students to exhibit their practice in ECA. These points of engagement will be split evenly across both semesters with the period of assessment at the beginning at the end of semester 2.
Through these activities students will be introduced to practice-based and practice-led research methods, relevant contemporary artistic practices, reflective practice methods, and strategies for developing their individual art practice. Students will also consider and explore methods for engaging with audiences.
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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 Context 1 (ARTX08091)
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| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course is only available to students on a Degree Programme in the School of Art.
*Please note that Art in Context is only a Co-Requisite for students on the BA Fine Art (Hons). Students on the MA Fine Art (Hons) do not take Art in Context 1.
To fully participate in this course students are recommended to budget a minimum of £50.00 for general art materials such as sketchbooks, pens, pencils, paper.
Basic materials specific to courses activities will be provided.
This Course requires additional costs to be met by the Student. Course Organisers will support you in meeting intended learning outcomes while keeping material costs to a minimum, however, depending on your project focus within the course, you may optionally choose to incur costs associated with realising aspects of your work. Such costs are not compulsory and depend on the nature of your chosen individual project work.
Equipment and software: Most equipment and software required will be provided by the School, but student will be expected to provide some specialist equipment including [e.g. headphones, SD cards] if working with digital media. work. |
| Additional Costs | To fully participate in this course students are recommended to budget a minimum of £50.00 for general art materials such as sketchbooks, pens, pencils, paper.
Basic materials specific to courses activities will be provided.
This Course requires additional costs to be met by the Student. Course Organisers will support you in meeting intended learning outcomes while keeping material costs to a minimum, however, depending on your project focus within the course, you may optionally choose to incur costs associated with realising aspects of your work. Such costs are not compulsory and depend on the nature of your chosen individual project work.
Equipment and software: Most equipment and software required will be provided by the School, but student will be expected to provide some specialist equipment including [e.g. headphones, SD cards] if working with digital media. work. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Lecture Hours 12,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 36,
External Visit Hours 4,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 4,
Formative Assessment Hours 3,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
312 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
SUMMATIVE Assessment
Portfolio of Practice (100%) submitted at the end of the course and evidencing all Learning Outcomes.
All Learning Outcomes must be passed to pass the course.
SUMMATIVE Assessment details
The Year 1 Portfolio of Practice involves the submission of a portfolio of studio experimentation and/or resolved work alongside a reflective log.
Resit info
The resubmission assessment is the same as the original submission for this course. |
| Feedback |
Verbal feedback is provided during a formative studio review at the start of semester 2. This review involves presentation of notebook material, drawings, objects, photography, documentation of work resolved, or in-progress. Verbal feedback will be provided to aid feed forward and development towards the summative assessment.
Summative Feedback
You will be provided with individual written feedback and grades on the summative submission. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Research: Evidence an understanding of artistic research methods by employing primary and secondary research approaches to the given project themes.
- Explore: Utilise a range of processes and technical skills to investigate creative ideas.
- Resolve: Produce and document bodies of resolved work, experimenting with a range of approaches to presentation of their practice.
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Reading List
Boon, M. & Levine, G. (2018) PRACTICE (eds.) Marcus Boon and Gabriel Levine. London: Whitechapel Gallery.
Hoffmann, J. (2012) THE STUDIO (ed.) Jens Hoffmann. London: Whitechapel Gallery.
Noe, A. (2016) Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature. New York: Hill and Wang.
Steeds, L. (2014) EXHIBITION (ed.) Lucy Steeds. London: Whitechapel Gallery.
Stiles, K. & Selz, P. (2012) Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A sourcebook of artists writings (ed.) by Kristine Stiles 2nd ed., revised and expanded. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Research & Enquiry
Graduates will demonstrate proficiency in undertaking independent research that investigates and articulates ideas emerging within contemporary art practices. This will necessitate that our graduates can handle and navigate the complexity of sources, information and issues contemporary art practices engage with.
Within Art in Practice 1 research and enquiry will involve our students' employing materials, media, techniques, methods, technologies, and tools associated with contemporary art practices to evaluate the concerns of the discipline and create ways of imaginatively and skillfully responding to them through art making.
2. Personal and Intellectual Autonomy
Graduates will develop awareness of and connect between the intentions, processes, outcomes, contexts, and methods of dissemination within contemporary art practice.
Graduates will need to seek and value open feedback and the personal resilience necessary to deal with the setbacks and failures inherent in contemporary art practices.
This course will entail enhancing their capacity to be critically self-aware and self-reflective to aid them in recognise and address ethical dilemmas and social responsibilities associated with the field of contemporary art practice.
3. Personal Effectiveness
On this course graduates will learn to work independently to meet course deadlines while developing their knowledge of technical processes relevant to contemporary art practice to meet said deadlines.
This course will necessitate that they develop skills in planning, organisation and time management related to the development and resolution of outcomes. This planning will include managing workloads while accommodating the change and uncertainty inherent in creative processes of making and developing the capacity to adapt emotions, thoughts and behaviours to these unfamiliar, uncertain, and diverse contexts and obstacles.
Crucial to this development will be the graduate's ability to select and use materials, processes, and environments pertinent to the practice of contemporary art. This may include applying interpersonal social skills to work collaboratively and collectively with peers.
4. Communication
Graduates of Art in Practice 1 will learn to use communication styles and approaches appropriate to contemporary art practice to present their work physically and verbally to others within the professional discipline.
They will articulate their ideas to audiences using visual, oral, and written forms which connect the conception of their ideas to the processes of making and the subsequent outcomes.
Students will develop interpersonal listening and questioning skills that allow them to be both sensitive and persuasive cross-cultural communicators who can empathise with others while hosting complex and difficult discussions in a range of public contexts relevant to the practice and dissemination of contemporary art practice. |
| Keywords | art,art practice,contemporary art,making,exhibition,exhibiting |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Torsten Lauschmann
Tel:
Email: tlauschm@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Rian Matsui
Tel:
Email: rmatsui@ed.ac.uk |
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