Gavin Melles wrote:
> BUT I'd like to get myself (in as short a time and as cost effectively as possible) a postgrad dip or masters in design without a heavy residency requirement
I have my doubts about this project.
I have once supervised a part-time Masters student in Design who was
studying mainly in another country and did not have a classic art and
design background.
However he brought a number of assets with him. He was a very highly
qualified engineer leading the design and development of complex
special-purpose ships so he had a great deal of skill and insight in
3-dimensional design, albeit with a different perspective from our "Art
School" designers. He also had a loit of facility with the 3-D CAD tools
that he used in most of his project work for us.
He also accepted that he had to undertake his own programme of
visualisation skills learning since we didn't have anything to offer
somebody in his situation, he enrolled in a Open College of the Arts
distance drawing course. However this is a high risk strategy because
the whole point of craft skills learning is that it is a social
activity, our student got away with it because he had a natural aptitude
for visual thinking and a very keen ability to observe.
He was very successful in his MA, producing as his final project an
imaginative and very well-considered design for a footbridge in response
to an architectural design competition. However I don't think we taught
him very much about designing, we just helped him focus his formidable
practical and intellectual talents in a slightly different direction.
The most important thing was that he didn't need the qualification
(already had a PhD and a top job), he just wanted to engage with
something new and stimulating - a perfect scholar.
My suggestion to Gavin is that he looks around his immediate environment
and asks what he can take advantage of to advance his thinking, we
generally use undergraduate project modules to give discipline-switching
postgraduates a chance to develop disciplinary experience and skills and
I assume that you can do that for free in your home university. That may
not feel like progress if you are focused on a postgrad qualification
but if you want to understand your students and their experience it will
be a very good start.
best wishes from Sheffield
Chris
*********************
Professor Chris Rust
Head of Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University, S11 8UZ, UK
+44 114 225 2706
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www.chrisrust.net
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