Master of Fine Art - Course Outline

This is a forty-five week course, across three semesters for full-time mode, or six semesters for the part-time route. The course comprises a complementary series of modules to form a structured programme.

Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert) stage; 60 credits

Art, Society and Publics 1
40 credits, Module Leader Edwin Janssen

This module will enhance a student's practice through investigation and development within the broader framework and understanding of art's relation to society and publics. It will contribute to all aspects of the student's practice-based research, encouraging personal insight and generating further development and the potential for change, investigated through exposure to the discourse surrounding (engaged) art-practices, art publishing, curation, public engagement, dissemination and impact. In addition to the production of art, students will investigate process and context considering the engagement of a range of communities (professional to academic and new communities), and involving new audiences. Supported by diverse and relevant learning & teaching and peer-learning approaches.

Artistic Research & Writing
20 credits, Module Leader Professor Tracy Mackenna

This module will develop a student's understanding and knowledge of, and skill in, research methods and processes relevant to contemporary art practice and their own creative-academic investigation, focusing on outputs in a range of written and textual formats. Studio practice, artistic research and writing components are seen as complimentary and mutually beneficial, and so students will be introduced to methods used in artistic research to develop their skills for production, including the reflection, communication and critical evaluation of their work through expanded notions of (art-)writing. Students will develop the ability to critically engage in writing for different formats to communicate interests and complex ideas in visual and text based formats, to integrate practice, theory and context.

Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) stage; 60 credits

Art, Society and Publics 2
40 credits, Module Leader Professor Tracy Mackenna

This module further develops students' abilities to identify, research, contextualise, reflect and articulate material for practical and intellectual application in their own individual practice within the broader framework and understanding of art's relation to society and publics. It will enable the outcomes of the PGCert modules to develop mutually. There is particular scope to extend and challenge approaches to 'writing' into hybrid territories such as art-writing and 'site writing' and the use of text within physical and digital domains, and through the development of durational and ephemeral forms such as performative writing / writing-in-situ. This module supports the interrelationship of varied forms of art production (e.g artefact, exhibition, durational processes) with textual outputs either academic or artistic writing, each viewed as complementary and rigorous modes for exposing insight and critical thinking and fuelling production.

Futures modules, Placement or Learning, Teaching in Higher Education
20 credits

A dedicated Professional Practice module from the suite entitled Futures offers options through which to develop individual or collaborative practice and public engagement. A placement with an organisation or individual, or a teaching module can be undertaken where postgraduate level students considering employability seek also to investigate and/or crystalize career options and ambitions.

Placement module
20 credits, Module Leader Jackie Malcolm

Students contextualise and practice their specific skills within a professional environment, and experience how these can be applied in either traditional or non-traditional fields. Students gain experience of dealing with complex issues and managing relationships with a range of stakeholders, whilst developing transferrable professional skills. The module outcomes include the attainment of social and negotiation skills required to deal with a range of stakeholders in a professional environment. Students have undertaken placements with the National Health Service, Discovery Centre Dundee, and with artists Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen for StAnza Poetry Festival, amongst others.

Learning, Teaching in Higher Education
20 credits, Module Leader Dr Angela Roger

An opportunity to apply theory and practice through teaching practice at DJCAD under the guidance of the School of Education at the University of Dundee. This module is offered to students who may aim to progress into teaching in their future career and aims to support aspiring teachers in higher education in the construction and maintenance of appropriate learning environments; the planning, preparation, delivery and evaluation of teaching sessions, courses and programmes; and the planning and implementation of appropriate assessment methods. It is grounded in experiential learning and reflective practice.

Masters stage; (60 credits)

Art, Society and Publics 3
60 credits, Module Leader Graham Fagen

This module forms the final stage of the MFA course. It allows the learning outcomes of all previous modules to come together, co-locating all aspects of practice based research and the production of a substantial body of work. Practice and theory, production and output can fully converge, necessary for the successful completion of a substantial and complementary body of work. A clear and focused period is dedicated to research, development and the realisation of work, made public through the Dundee Masters Show exhibition or an alternative mode of output such as publication or performance, complemented by an individual statement of practice. Students will be able to apply the appropriate skills to produce art and to communicate the outcomes of their integrated practice and research, and will have developed an informed position regarding production, presentation, communication and the broader critical context for their practice. 

All modules are relevant to future careers as an artist, in art, in creative practices or to academic progress through M.Phil/PhD.