BA (Hons) Interaction Design Arts

Content

BA (Hons) Interaction Design Arts is a multidisciplinary design course, working with multiple mediums to craft purposeful communication and experience. Students are encouraged to actively play as they pursue projects through a core methodology of research, testing and iterative prototyping.

This is a practice-led course that explores the communicative potential of physical experience. Focusing on the relationships between people, designed objects and experiences, students will work with interaction, narrative and moving image, alongside processes such as design prototyping, film-making, coding and physical computing.

You will develop a personal perspective from which to answer complex design problems, embracing approaches such as critical design and exploring design for social change.

Working within the philosophy of 'high-tech, low-tech and no-tech', students are encouraged to pursue projects that put people at the centre of their design and arts practice. As well as developing personal work, students have the opportunity to regularly collaborate with local communities on long-term human-centred projects.

Our specialist studios are constructed as a designer’s playground that will nurture and encourage creativity and learning, through the formation of a community of practice. There is also access to traditional media such as letterpress, printmaking and photography.

Drawing on a tradition of dynamism, exploration, prototyping and experimentation, students of BA (Hons) Interaction Design Arts are taught that the only boundaries are those set by the imagination and that creative ideas hold sway over technology. Students on the course understand that design impacts the world at large and that they have a responsibility for the wider issues of sustainability and social inclusiveness.

You will graduate from your studies able to approach industry with the confidence of being able to negotiate many specialisms across the full media spectrum. You'll leave with a wide range of technical, intellectual and design skills that will ensure that you're ready to work in this challenging and exciting area of contemporary design.

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Monday 24 September – Friday 7 December 2018

Monday 7 January – Friday 15 March 2019

Monday 15 April – Friday 21 June 2019

Course units

In common with all courses at the University of the Arts London, this course is credit rated. The course is 3 years, levels 4-6. Each year requires you to achieve 120 credit points. To be awarded the BA (Hons) Interaction Design Arts qualification, you need to accumulate a total of 360 credits.

Units summary:

• Introduction to Interaction Design Arts (20 credits) - Through academic reflection, writing and practical workshops, this unit will equip you with essential skills that will give you the confidence to navigate through the course and College and to help you begin to develop a personal approach to your work.

• Exploration and Play (40 credits) - Focuses on learning and discovery through practical activities and projects. It introduces core design principles and explores play as a method of research, experimentation and design.

• Contextual and Theoretical Studies 1 (20 credits) - Through academic writing, lectures and seminars, this unit introduces you to histories, theories and debates in relation to information and interface design and visual and material culture.

• High Tech, Low Tech, No Tech (40 credits) - Introduces you to design through materials, prototypes and diegetics. This media-agnostic unit invites you to consider technologically and materially appropriate design solutions to studio projects.

Units summary:

• Desire Lines and Affordance (40 credits) - This unit is intensive and designed to introduce you to subject specific processes and techniques involved in interaction and design. It deals with design in the lived environment; how people and users interact with the world around them and encourages you to reach beyond the studio for research and inspiration.
• Contextual and Theoretical Studies 2 (20 credits) - Through academic writing, lectures and seminars in this unit, you will have the opportunity to further contextualise various aspects of art and design theory in its broadest sense, by focusing on specific options.
• Collaborative Unit (20 credits) - Through collaborative projects set by your tutors, this unit offers you the opportunity to work collaboratively with students from other courses and disciplines across the College and more widely with collaborators externally.
• Expanded Cinema and Physical Computing (40 credits) - This unit is designed to further aid and develop the work and concepts introduced in the previous unit. The unit encourages you to experiment and push new media and technologies to their limits. The unit is also highly spatial and technical, looking at programming, sensors and computing in a real-world context.

The Diploma in Professional Studies is an optional placement year in industry between the second and third year of the course. It is a managed year of professional experience largely undertaken in the design profession in a variety of national and international locations. Successful candidates are selected on a competitive basis from academic performance and studentship, successful completion of the DPS bridging studies and by portfolio and proposal. Please view the Diploma in Professional Studies Programme Specification (PDF - 120KB) for more details.

Units summary:

Route A:

• Major Studio Project (60 credits) - The Major Studio Project is undertaken by all third year students and generally consists of three individual briefs, which you chose. It is the culmination of the course and provides you with the opportunity to utilise all of your practical, critical and analytical skills in the realisation of projects related to the development of your individual portfolio.
• Minor Studio Project (20 credits) - The Minor Studio Project is self-initiated; emphasising research and the identification of appropriate intellectual and practical methodologies to support your outcomes.
• Contextual and Theoretical Studies 3 (40 credits) - This unit is the culmination of the Contextual and Theoretical Studies component of the course. It provides you with the opportunity to utilise all your knowledge and analytical skills related to visual theory, in the realisation of a self-determined extended piece of writing of 8,000-10,000 words.

or Route B:

• Major Studio Project (60 credits) - The Major Studio Project is undertaken by all third year students and generally consists of three individual briefs, which you chose. It is the culmination of the course and provides you with the opportunity to utilise all your practical, critical and analytical skills in the realisation of projects related to the development of your individual portfolio.
• Minor Studio Project (20 credits) x2 - The Minor Studio Project is self-initiated; emphasising research and the identification of appropriate intellectual and practical methodologies to support your outcomes. One Minor Studio Project is undertaken by all third year students. If you decide to do the Route B (CTS 3 unit of 5000 words instead of 10000), you will do two of these Minor Studio Projects.
• Contextual and Theoretical Studies 3 (20 credits) - This unit is the culmination of the Contextual and Theoretical Studies component of the course, and provides you with the opportunity to utilise all your knowledge and analytical skills related to visual theory in the realisation of a self-determined extended piece of writing of 4,000-5,000 words.

The information outlined is an indicative structure of the course. Whilst we will aim to deliver the course as described on this page, there may be situations where it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, for example, because of regulatory requirements or operational efficiencies, before or after enrolment. If this occurs, we will communicate all major changes to all applicants and students who have either applied or enrolled on the course.

Please note that due to staff research agreements or availability, not all of the optional modules listed may be available every year.

In addition, the provision of course options which depend upon the availability of specialist teaching, or on a placement at another institution, cannot be guaranteed. Please check this element of the course with the course team before making a decision to apply.

We will update this webpage from time to time with new information as it becomes available. In the meantime, if you have any questions, use our online course enquiry form.

‌BA Interaction Design Arts Programme Specification 2017/18 (PDF - 501KB)

Staff Course Leader

Joel Karamath

Tobias Revell

Dr. Mark Ingham, Dr. Ian Horton