Digital Design BA (Hons)

Modules

All modules are assessed by the submission of individual and group coursework, presentations, essays and reports. Course is 95% assessed by coursework.

• Digital media fundamentals
  This module introduces you to the fundamentals of digital media through digital imaging, writing and audio practices. You'll be encouraged to develop a critical awareness of how images carry meaning, explore the relationship between word and image, and discover the expressive power of sound.
• Design for digital media
  This module covers the fundamental principles of visual communication and digital design. Focusing on the application of two-dimensional design, including graphics, drawing and illustration, you'll be presented with specific briefs to stimulate visual thinking, encourage ideas generation, and promote new approaches to the design process.
• New media and digital art
  This module will provide you with an introductory theoretical framework for considering the relationship between art, culture and technology and for developing critical reflection upon new media practices.
• Creative coding
  This module introduces you to the basic principles of programming and its creative application to digital media. It also explores the crucial role that software and coding has as the material foundation of digital culture.
• Convergent media frameworks
  This module introduces you to some of the ways in which convergence in art and media culture is being discussed within academia and how artists and practitioners have worked within, responded to and challenged those definitions. It will introduce you to reading academic argument and analysis alongside exposing you to a range of media artefacts.

• Moving Image practices
  The module explores contemporary moving image practices and introduces you to professional post-production tools used for digital motion graphics, visual effects and compositing . Building on the digital imaging, audio and animation skills acquired at Level 4, you'll be able to experiment with techniques for combining media from a variety of sources to produce hybrid moving image work for screen.
• Designing for interaction
  This module is designed to introduce you to the principles and practices of interactive media production for installation and online and mobile consumption. In particular, you'll be encouraged to adopt a user-oriented approach, examining the primacy of the screen for daily media interactions, and exploring concepts such as interface and interactivity through practical activities and project work.
• Critical theories of digital media
  This module explores the critical and cultural contexts for practice in digital and new media art. You'll be introduced to a range of work by media arts practitioners, and encouraged to explore the relationship between theory and practice in your work. The module considers research as an ongoing component of the creative process, and will help you embed innovative approaches to research and writing into your routines as practitioners.
• Creative brief: digital media
  This module provides you with the opportunity to spend time developing concepts and practical work introduced in the previous semester. You are encouraged to extend your interest in a more focused area of digital and web-based media, laying the foundations for the advanced independent project in the final year. To facilitate this process, you'll be provided with a choice of briefs from which to develop your practical work.
• Collaborative practices
  This module allows students across multiple creative media disciplines to collaboratively address a conceptually framed brief, and to see a project through from initial idea to final production. The module will set project briefs related to contemporary events, situations and issues, and you'll be involved in working collaboratively on all stages in the production of work.
• Researching digital media
  Building on methods learnt during Critical Theories of Digital Media module, this module is designed to prepare you for the demands and expectations of the third year Research Paper, assisting you in identifying a potential area of interest to pursue in the final year.

• Digital media project: prototype The module focuses on the development of practical and theoretical research skills as an initial foundation for the advanced independent project. By the end of the module you'll be able to position your work in a professional context and support the formation of essential working methods to carry into the final semester, and the presentation of your project work.
• Research paper The final year Research Paper Module gives you the opportunity to conduct original research in an area of your degree or field of interest. The Research Paper allows you to use any of the theories, topics and methods encountered on your course. You'll manage your own learning under the guidance of an academic supervisor.
• Professional practice: digital media This module explores the contexts and issues informing professional work in the arts and creative media industries. It focuses on developing and delivering a range of professional skills to support the entry of you in to the world of work, or postgraduate study, through a combination of self-assessment exercises, personal development planning, workshops and guest lectures.
• Digital media project: production
  This module provides a critical framework through which to develop, realise and exhibit a coherent and critically informed advanced final year project. Building upon individual research and experimentation undertaken in Semester 1, you'll have the opportunity to work largely under your own direction to bring your projects to a highly resolved conclusion.

You'll be assessed by experienced tutors and lecturers, who combine their teaching with diverse digital media arts practice spanning industry, freelance and visual arts contexts. Your practical work will be supported by a team of Technical Tutors and will utilise our resources in the Keyworth Arts and Media Centre, housed in LSBU's Keyworth Centre. Here, you will have access to still cameras, HD cameras, field sound recording equipment, and five labs with high-spec computers supporting cutting-edge multimedia and video software.