Taster days provide students with the experience of what life is like studying Art & Design at University. Join us on campus. Take a tour of our facilities, attend an inspirational lecture, work in our studios to respond creatively using a range of visual methods and end the day with a group review. Lecture themes include:

Drawing Emotion and Movement in Animation 

Learn to create a character expressing emotion through their face and their body language in given situations. Animation is about communication and movement and it’s also about simplification and exaggeration. You will learn about emotions, how they manifest in human faces, and how to draw them in an engaging way in a character of your choice.

Everyday Extraordinary

Artists often work with what is around them to tell stories, change people’s experiences and reimagine everyday objects and places. How can we use art to make daily life strange so we can have fresh encounters with the ordinary things that surround us and think differently about the future?

Beauty and Ugliness

What is beauty? Ideas of beauty have been traditionally central to our understanding and appreciation of art; however, this special relationship has become suspicious, tense and strained. This session explores how and why aesthetic values in contemporary photography and art practice have shifted – or been renegotiated- in specific contexts, paying particular attention to alternative pleasures that can be found in concepts such as ugliness, transgression, disorder, abjection and taboo to create a lovely still life from ‘ugly’ or grotesque items provided by us.

The Networked Image, AI and Posthumanism

In After Photography (2009) Fred Ritchen argues, ‘We have entered the digital age. And the digital has entered us. We are no longer the same people we once were. For better and for worse’. This session considers some of the key critical debates relevant to the context of the networked image, AI, and post digital culture, specifically in terms of the relationship between images and reality, and humans and technology. It will explore the changing nature of photography and the role of the viewer in navigating this new landscape of information.

The Theatre of the Face

In 1989 the artist Barbara Kruger famously declared ‘YOUR BODY IS A BATTLEGROUND’. In the context of increasing cultural, technological and scientific reconfigurations of what it is to be human, we also need to reassess the role of portraiture and photographic representations of the body, in our understanding of ourselves and others. This session explores important issues of identity by looking at examples of contemporary photographers often working at the edges of (or beyond) traditions of portraiture, revealing different (and perhaps subversive) ways of capturing subjects through various tactics of performance, masking, or manipulation. Play around with subverting portraiture, Augmented Image generation exercises or photogrammetry?

Products that Changed the World

Product Design has the power to create massive impact in the world. Designers work with people to uncover insights, spot societal trends and find opportunities to harness new and emerging technology. This session showcases examples of amazing, innovative products that have changed the way we live.

 Culture Shock

Participants are introduced to significant fashion cultures & trends, alongside their impacts on consumerism and society. Followed by a hands-on workshop; encouraging students to create informing mood-boards representative of new emerging fashion cultures & trends.

Fashion That’s Solving Problems

Fashion has a long history of being a catalyst for change, both in terms of design and social impact. Through innovative design solutions, fashion has improved our lives with functional and practical solutions. By promoting new ideas and perspectives, fashion encourages us to think differently and embrace change.

This session is an exciting opportunity for future fashion designers to come together and explore new ways of thinking about design and production. By harnessing the power of technology, textiles, and innovative working systems, we can create a more sustainable and socially responsible fashion industry for generations to come.

Sketchbooks: To Be or Not to Be in a Digital Age

This session explores the value of the physical sketchbook in a digital age. We will introduce sketchbook making, techniques to fill a sketchbook in a day, look at students’ examples and discuss the alternatives in a digital age.