Design History

This Master’s degree is for students who wish to study design history from a theoretical and/or practice perspective. The programme will offer access to artefacts, heritage properties, museums, auction houses and archives as well as our costume and design study collections. The curriculum focuses on research methodologies and ethics, how materials work and transform material culture, design cultures and a work-related project that may utilise experience in an external institution or focus on the design study collection. Further modules will develop research application through seminars on critical thinking and debate. The dissertation will bring together the research and application skills learnt in previous modules. The programme has a range of approaches to the study of design history including the identification, evaluation and application of material culture from the viewpoint of historical and social debates as well as textual, material and/or performative narratives.

Lectures, seminars, tutorials, object analysis workshops and self-directed study will form your learning on this Master’s degree. Your studies will benefit from:

• small, focused group activities • access to expert staff • the opportunity to focus your research on your own specialist area of interest

COSTUME COLLECTION

The Costume Collection contains an extensive collection of clothing from the 1800’s. The collection includes a large number of hats, accessories, dresses, corsets, patterns, and ephemera.

DESIGN STUDY COLLECTION

Our design collections will be the central point for your critical studies. The Northern School of Art has invested in the Design Study Collections as a research focus for many of its undergraduate programmes, and, in this Master’s degree, the collections will be the starting point for much of your research and observation skills. The collection includes textiles, ceramics, jewellery, objets d’art, plastics, and ephemera ranging from the 1820s until the 2000s. Bound copies of The Studio magazine from 1890 to the 1960s offer a unique research opportunity, as does the enviable collection of Japanese kimono, textiles, decorative arts and ephemera.

INDUSTRY LINKS

The Northern School of Art is geographically situated to allow access to some of the country’s important collections. Institutions such as The Bowes Museum, Lotherton Hall, the Royal Navy Museum, the Royal Armouries, and numerous important heritage properties are on our doorstep, which allows access to important objects.

For further information and to discuss the course contact: Alyson Agar

Lecturer (Creative Practitioner) in Contextual Studies and Scholar

01429 858335

The MA Creative Design Enterprise is an exciting and distinctive programme that will allow an innovative approach to the development of projects underpinned with entrepreneurial practice for the creative industries.

Master’s Degree (MA)

1 Year Full-Time