Costume Design for Performance

Content

Beyond the understanding of performance and the role of character creation through costume, the study of Costume Design at MA level allows you to locate your practice within the wider realms of contemporary culture and art, as well as within the relevant dramatic, social and philological contexts.

The relationship between drawing, practical realisation and performance, is central to the way design is approached: ideas are developed on paper and through movement, as well as through pattern cutting, textile printing, dyeing and surface manipulation. Practical experimentation is achieved through access to the extensive technical facilities available within the college, expanding knowledge of the uses of CAD, tailoring, print, knit and embroidery within costume. The costume studio is well equiped to enable students to develop their ideas into realisation, and expert technical support is provided for students on a weekly basis.

Structure

All units will include contact with professionals and practitioners, such as designers, performers, writers, directors and specialists cutters and makers.

Unit one, The Performer in Time and Space, enables you to explore in depth specific areas of live performance, including theatre, dance and opera, through a speculative and developmental investigation of worlds of characters and moments of performance. This units includes a performance laboratory, using lighting and movement, in a professional theatre space.

Costume on Film focuses on costume for performance viewed through the camera lens, contextualising the practice of costume design for film and television within a broad cultural and artistic perspective. The presentation of character on the screen is explored in depth through both conceptual development and final realised design images. As part of this unit the students prepare a short film to experiment with the narrative potential of costume on film.

The Creative and Technical Exploration unit allows practical experimentation and development of ideas through specialist workshops, and realisation of final pieces for performance.

The course culminates with the Masters Project, which offers an opportunity to create collaborative work either with UK or international partners, and is proposed and negotiated by the student. A part of this project is the final public presentation which can take the form of a performance, an installation or a short screening.

Time Required - work/study balance

Postgraduate study is based on a balance between taught contact in seminars, lectures and tutorials and time spent on independent research and study. Part time students are expected to devote two days per week to study. In the first stage of the course, course units are held on one day and one evening per week.

Dedication: 30 months, part time (8 terms).

Career Prospects

MA Costume for Performance graduates have begin to practice as designers in both devised and text based performance, sometimes taking the collaborative performance work initiated during the course further. As a result their work has been seen not only in London and on tour, but in major national and international festivals, including Prague Quadrennial, Spill Festival and Edinburgh Fringe.

Graduates have also found employment as assistant designers and costume supervisors, whilst others, whose technical dexterity has proven a particular strength, have began to forge a path for themselves as experts in specific technical areas of costume, such as, pattern cutting, surface textiles, print and dye or fabricated, sculptural costumes.

The course also prepares students for work with contemporary visual artists. Graduates have found work with artists, whose work borders on performance, such as Lucy Orta, or involves textile and surface manipulation, like Tracy Emin.

Master's graduates have an acknowledged advantage in the employment market, obtaining work in a wide range of vocational and academic fields related to costume. Graduates will be in a position to gain employment as innovators within the fields of costume design. The MA also provides an excellent preparation for higher level research degrees (MPhil or PhD), with an increasing number of graduates undertaking research in fashion related subjects, in practice or theory.