Postgraduate Course: Art: Studio (ARTX11056)
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 | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | Studio guides and supports students in honing the focus of their Art practice through thematic seminars, practice-led research in the studio and workshops, reflection with tutors and peer-to-peer discussion. The course facilitates opportunities to refine and develop technical skills, to test the presentation and documentation of artwork and learn through experimentation and active enquiry rather than pre-determining outcomes. |
| Course description |
This course is designed to help you refine your studio practice through an experimental enquiry-based approach to making art, within a communal studio environment. You are guided and supported towards the development of a portfolio of visual documentation and a contextual statement. The teaching invites reflection on your practice through examination of precedents and conventions in Contemporary Art. You will be based in a dedicated postgraduate studio where you will have daily access to space for experimentation and development of work. You will be introduced to the range of technical resources and art processes supported at ECA and will have the opportunity to independently select and book practical workshop sessions to support your specialist focus.
In the Week 1, students and staff introduce themselves and their practice to the whole cohort. For the first half of the course, the focus is on developing work in the studio through experimentation, reflection and analysis. This is supported by a framework of technical and critical sessions: induction to relevant workshop areas plus four lecture-based seminars (weeks 2-5) in which we critically discuss studio practice. You will work on a collective staging of work-in-progress in week 6/7. Towards the end of the course, you will share documentation of your work in a live presentation for group feedback. This prepares you for the final collation of work in a digital portfolio, to be submitted for assessment. You will have three 1-1 tutorials at appropriate intervals, to further guide and support the development of your practice and portfolio development.
Between weekly meetings, it is vital that you spend intensive time working independently in the studio, developing technical expertise in relevant workshops, documenting your practice and engaging in analytical reflection to refine the focus of your enquiry. To enrich your ideas and outcomes it is expected that you will engage with wider resources, for example the University libraries and research collections as well as visiting the many free galleries in Edinburgh to examine precedents in Art.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Students are recommended to budget a minimum of £50.00 for general basic materials. However, depending on your project's focus, you may optionally choose to incur costs associated with realising aspects of your work. Such costs are not compulsory and would depend on the nature of your project. Students may be expected to support the cost of local or national travel to local galleries and museums via public transportation for research. We would advise budgeting an additional £50 for this travel per year. |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Lecture Hours 4,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 40,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 44,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
301 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 1 assessment components. The component must be passed,
1) Digital Portfolio [25-30 pages, 1750 words max], 100%, December exam diet, assessed against Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3.
Further information:
The digital portfolio will include primarily images of your work as it has developed during the course, supported by a written statement, typically one page/500 words, and 3 x tutorial logs (250 words each). Additional written information can be included where required beside specific images - up to a maximum of 500 words in total).
Support for the development of the digital portfolio is provided through guidance on Learn, the formative learning opportunities, and access to appropriate technical resources.
The resubmission arrangements for this course are as follows:
Students will submit to the original assessment brief.
Digital Portfolio [25-30 pages, 1750 words max], 100%, assessed against Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3.
Students will receive further resubmission information as per University regulations as necessary. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback
Students receive formative feedback verbally from the tutors in 1-1 tutorials (3 in total); in a group crit (during the exhibition staging, week 6/7); in group presentations (in advance of assessment submission). Students are also guided in writing up self-assessment feedback in relation to the Learning Outcomes for the exhibition and documentation. Peer-to-peer feedback is also exchanged in the group crit and presentations, in the collaborative process of staging work as well as more informally through regular dialogue and debate in the studio.
Summative Feedback
Written summative feedback is provided on the final portfolio by the studio tutor via Learn.
Students have the opportunity to discuss this feedback with the Programme Director or other appropriate tutor at the start of the following semester to support feedforward.
Summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Engage effective modes of production to support a focused, self-directed practical enquiry through experimentation, testing and contextual research;
- Evaluate experimentation and outcomes through active response to feedback, written reflection and integrated analysis of a range of relevant contextual resources;
- Present an organised and edited trajectory of experimentation and outcomes that demonstrates a coherent enquiry and consideration of precedents in the production and staging of Contemporary Art.
|
Reading List
Diaz, Eva. The Experimenters: Chance and Design at Black Mountain College. University o Chicago Press, 2014.
Fisher, Elizabeth, Fortnum Rebecca. On Not Knowing: How Artists Think. Black Dog Publishing, 2013.
Khan, Nora N. Khan. AI Art and the Stakes for Art Criticism. Lund Humphries, 2026.
Kraus, Rosalind. Perpetual Inventory. MIT Press, 2013.
Steyerl, Hito, Nowotny, Sheikh, Stefan Simon, Raunig, Gerald (editor), Ray, Gene (editor). Art and Contemporary Critical Practice: Reinventing Institutional Critique. MayFly Books, 2009.
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Curiosity: The course focus on discovery through experimentation rather than pre-determination encourages students to continuously explore and learn through active enquiry; to ask searching questions and adopt different perspectives as outcomes arise.
Individuality: Independently directed experimentation in the studios and workshops supported by critical feedback will help you to hone existing skills and focus personal interests towards enhancement of and individual and original practice.
Collaboration: Working on the group staging event with the cohort will help you to hone your collaboration skills across a diverse group and to navigate group decisions and challenges.
Reflection: Writing about your practice will help you in recognising your strengths and values in relation to your own practice as well as fostering greater confidence to make informed judgements of the work of others.
Communication: While staging your work and producing the portfolio will refine your presentation skills, participating in group seminars and crits will help you to hone your ability to verbally articulate and debate ideas in the moment. |
| Keywords | Critical practice,Contemporary Art,Studio Experimentation,Active Learning,Research-led practice |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Christine Ellison
Tel:
Email: cellison@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
|
|
University Homepage