BA (Hons) Fine Art Bachelor's degree at Lancaster University

Develop your self-directed art practice and be part of an active creative community in this studio-based module. Supported by lectures, skills workshops, tutorials, and group feedback, this module empowers you to build on your art practice by understanding the relationship between making and thinking across a broad range of materials, media, techniques and methods. Beginning by responding to a series of short project briefs, you will build on your foundational knowledge and skills. You will then choose ‘intensives’ offering core approaches to developing your art practice such as painting, drawing, sculpture and digital art. These practical learning methods will encourage you to engage in a d

A transformational module that introduces you to Fine Art studies at undergraduate level. Focussing on how artists investigate the world through looking, listening, touch, gesture and mark-making, you will explore a range of diverse media such as drawing, painting, video and sound. Through innovative practical workshops, you will develop curiosity, sustained attentiveness and creative enquiry, whilst discovering new materials, techniques and processes. You will learn key photographic and digital skills, essential for documenting and presenting your work. These skills will help you develop new ways of thinking that will broaden your understanding of contemporary fine art and prepare you for t

Providing you with a solid grounding in art history, this module will take you on a journey, from the modernist period to the present day. Beginning with the emergence of Modernism in Europe, you will follow its impact in the United States, China, India, South America and beyond. You will learn about alternative and under-represented histories that challenge mainstream thought, whilst exploring how artists have responded to pressing societal issues such as: Post-colonialism Equal rights Gender identity Digital revolution Environmental crisis These movements will be explored through a range of themes that relate to creative practices such as time, space, light, text and juxtaposition, helping

Every piece of performance, big or small, uses the same foundational ‘raw materials’. Explore these and more as you develop your critical, aesthetic and theatrical vocabulary by examining the formal building blocks of performance, such as the body, space, time, text and media. Through a combination of practical workshops and seminars, you will learn how these building blocks are used to construct a variety of performance forms including: Traditional stage plays Live art Performance art Physical theatre Site-specific or immersive theatre By analysing specific examples of these performance forms, your studies in this module will complement the projects undertaken in Making Theatre I, helping y

What does it mean to study media today? In this module, you’ll be introduced to major debates, theories and thinkers in studying media and culture. You will encounter a diverse range of material from different media, including: television, film, news, advertisements, social media, video games and more. You will explore the intersections between our cultural environment and our identities, aspirations, beliefs and value systems, to develop essential skills in critical thinking and analysis.

Digital media both displaces and complements ‘traditional’ media, in ways that complicate the current media landscape and challenge some of our most fundamental media concepts.?This module explores how this happens through the integration of “old” and “new” media and ongoing transformations in the media industries. We examine how relations between consumers and producers are changing as the boundaries of media cultures are shifting, producing intercultural exchange but also fragmentation and radicalisation.?This module invites students to investigate their everyday digital media use and reflect on the expansion of digital media, its potentials and its pitfalls.

This module explores the role of the arts in building community, identity and confidence. You will engage with a variety of different art forms (such as painting, theatre, fiction, designed artefacts and film) and develop your own voice via collaborative projects such as a podcasts, video essay or presentation. You will also engage in individual critical reflection for example via a blog, journal or research project. This module fosters co-operation, intellectual experimentation and self-assurance.

Develop your self-directed practice and consolidate your confidence in this studio module. With access to a wide range of elective intensives, you will expand your knowledge and skills in a specific area of contemporary art practice as you start to specialise in your chosen area(s). You may choose to specialise in media such as: Painting Drawing Sculpture Sound and video Digital Text Installation To develop your ability to critically reflect on your work, you will have regular tutorials and work with other students to develop the skills and vocabulary to become a strong studio community where peer feedback is supportive and inspiring. All assessments will be in response to your practice.

Building on the relationship between theoretical understanding and artistic practice, this module will introduce you to a broad range of theories and ideas relevant to contemporary art practice and thinking. You will explore ideas such as: New materialism Fourth and fifth-wave feminisms Object-oriented philosophy Posthumanism The Anthropocene Hauntology The relations that exist between art and science Join us as we combine intellectual rigour and curiosity with the freedom to confidently explore your creativity from an increasingly informed position. You will be encouraged to explore different forms of writing that enable you to develop ideas and express yourself in a range of appropriate fo

Imagination, experimentation, creative risk-taking, and transformation are at the heart of this module and fundamental to your development as a practicing artist. You will engage creatively with workshops that encourage experimentation and risk-taking, exploring ideas and processes that extend beyond traditional studio practice including collaborative, site-specific, socially engaged, and curatorial projects. Exploring diverse themes such as the environment and sustainability, global connections and local place, you will dive into the transformative role of art in the wider world. Developing digital skills relevant to these contexts will equip you to create innovative and forward-thinking ap

Develop key techniques for writing fiction and hone the skills you need to write short stories and/or novels. Through workshops, discussions, set reading from a range of contemporary writers and generative writing prompts, you’ll develop confidence in creating character, worldbuilding, establishing narrative voice, experimenting with point of view and constructing engaging structures and plot. You will draw on a range of techniques according to your own interests. In your reflective essay you will consider the various ways short fiction and the novel uniquely deploy these techniques.

Move beyond introductory concepts to explore film theory in depth, examining how films construct meaning through form, representation, and audience engagement. You will critically assess cinema’s relationship with artistic expression and spectatorship, engaging with complex debates that have shaped film scholarship since the medium’s inception. Focusing on advanced theoretical analysis, this module equips you with the conceptual knowledge and critical vocabulary to interpret films using semiotic, psychoanalytic, formalist, philosophical and cognitivist approaches. You will explore key concepts such as cinematic modernism, subjectivity in film perception and cinema’s evolving relationship wit

Our everyday lives are saturated by images of all kinds. This module will introduce you to some key ‘ways of seeing’ our world of images. We will explore questions such as: How are images made, who gets to produce them and, importantly, from whose point of view? How do pictures circulate? How do viewers read and interpret images? Who gets to look and through whose eyes? How do these processes and practices relate to power? We’ll consider these questions in relation to a range of media texts, from photographs and advertisements to television and film.

This module explores how digital technologies, in their multiple forms, figure in our everyday lives and the global societies we live in. This includes social media platforms, search engines, publicly available artificial intelligence chatbots as well as the multitude of apps that mediate every aspect of our lives, from access to news and information to dating, food and consumption, education, and professional life. We will analyse the affordances of digital technologies in connection to questions of power, context, and embodiment. This module will stimulate you to start seeing how media and technology do more than transmitting messages and information. Instead, they have an ontological role

What we call ‘American Literature’ and how we define America and ‘the American experience’ depends on who is writing and to whom. In this module you will encounter many different voices, many conflicting and contrasting views, a diversity of complex experience and a great range of writing in form and style. You will explore such questions as: What role do different literary forms play in narrating the self? How does American writing seek to establish a new way of looking at the world? And how and why does literature help shape forms of protest and new critiques of modernity?

Explore how ideas can be developed into real-world projects with lasting value. Through hands-on collaboration and problem-solving, you will develop innovative projects, learn how to bring ideas to life and explore ways to sustain them. Whether you are working in a team or individually, you will be encouraged to experiment with different approaches to making a difference in artistic, cultural, social and community spaces.

Hone a strong sense of purpose and gain the satisfaction of applying your skills and knowledge to a community, charity or student-led initiative. Your challenge will be to take responsibility for arranging and completing a voluntary or fundraising activity, locally, virtually or during vacation periods at home. You will need to show that you have made a positive difference through this activity. In class, you will be asked to reflect on this experience and explore the wider social impact of the work. In doing so you will build your confidence in your ability to contribute meaningfully to society through your future personal and professional path.

Explore the role of writing in contemporary art, from journals and magazines to online platforms, exhibition catalogues and independent publishing. You will examine the types of writing that thrive in these contexts and learn how to move beyond the traditional academic essay. Approached as both a research tool and a creative practice, this module will enable you to shape your ideas in ways that connect with contemporary art discourse. Engaging with methods such as auto-fiction, figural writing, fiction as method, and allegory, you will gain a deeper understanding of these formats through workshops and tutorials before selecting one to further develop your skills in. The final submission will

This year-long module provides extended space and support for your growth as an artist. Refine your practical skills as you develop and present a professional body of practical work appropriate for a Fine Art degree show. You will be supported through lectures, workshops, tutorials, and peer reviews, all guided by tutors who are practicing artists and writers. You will also build a strong foundation in professional practices and transferable skills essential for a successful career in the arts. Through deepening your understanding of your own practice, the art world, curation, and the transformative power of creativity, you will be prepared to contribute meaningfully to local, national, and

Examining the evolution of film genres in a global context, this module focuses on the ways contemporary filmmakers innovate within established and classic genre traditions. You will analyse key genres (which may include Science Fiction, Horror and Comic Book films), considering their artistic, industrial and technological developments across different cinematic traditions. Through case studies, you will explore how genre conventions adapt to national and transnational influences, addressing topics such as digital effects and world-building, genre hybridity and the role of franchises in global media. The module also considers how streaming platforms, audience reception and fan cultures shape

How has the experience of being part of a media audience transformed in recent years? How do we make sense of being a fan nowadays? In what ways do fan culture and audience community manifest social transformations on both local and global scales? This module aims to provide you with a critical understanding of fandom and audiences in a global and transnational context. The module will focus on issues such as participation, pleasure, performance, and power by investigating fan culture and audience communities of a wide range of transmedia texts in a global perspective. You are encouraged to analyse the multi-layered dynamics between individual fan, fan community, audience participation, medi

Examining a wide range of texts and authors from early periods to the age of the climate crisis, this module will explore the many and various ways in which the non-human world is celebrated, championed and exploited by the literary imagination. You will explore questions such as: What do we mean by the ‘the environment’? What experiences, meanings and values do we take from, or discover in our surroundings? How have writers characterised the environment and in what ways might the literary imagination be significant for contemporary environmental concerns?

This module provides extended time and support for you to explore the role of writing in contemporary art, from journals and magazines to online platforms, exhibition catalogues and independent publishing. You will examine the types of writing that thrive in these contexts and learn how to move beyond the traditional academic essay. Approached as both a research tool and a creative practice, this module will enable you to shape your ideas in ways that connect with contemporary art discourse. Engaging with methods such as auto-fiction, figural writing, fiction as method, and allegory, you will gain a deeper understanding of these formats through workshops and tutorials before selecting one to

This hands-on module uses engaging workshops to explore Experimental Film Production and discover how it challenges mainstream narratives and disrupts traditional modes of spectatorship. Through a combination of critical discussions on selected films and hands-on creative experimentation, this module challenges you to rethink film form beyond conventional storytelling while encouraging you to bring your visions to life through practice. You will study key movements and approaches, starting from the historical avant-gardes – the influence of artistic movements like Dada, Surrealism and Structuralism- to contemporary artists’ moving image. By the end of the module, you will have developed a cr

What will our digital future look like? How could AI transform global societies? What media will we watch, listen to, wear, be tracked by, or collaborate with – whether in smart cities, virtual workplaces, or even in outer space? These are the big questions that this module will explore, addressing how past visions of technological futures inform the speculative digital landscapes we imagine today. This module examines the social, cultural, and political implications of these technologies, addressing issues such as personalisation, surveillance, platform governance, and digital inequalities. You will explore critical debates on issues such as automation, data governance, digital labour, and

In this practical module you will conceptualise, design, and prototype innovative festival experiences that respond to emerging cultural, societal, technological, and environmental trends. Working in a team, you will develop festival concepts that explore innovations in audience engagement, sustainability, accessibility and digital innovation. In collaboration, you will undertake phases of concept development that may include: Researching and ideating a future-facing festival concept Design and branding Creation of visual identities and marketing materials Audience development strategies Understanding market audiences through use of data Technological integration Experimenting with innovativ

What do we understand by queerness? Looking back at earlier interpretations, we imagine how queerness might evolve, how it might be lived, felt and understood in the future. You will explore queer futures from a range of perspectives and viewpoints, while examining both feminist and queer theory, as well as queer media and cultural texts and material relating to areas such as activism, politics and healthcare.

What are the possibilities and pitfalls of community and citizen action, voice and agency? This module uses interdisciplinary case-studies to critically examine collaboration with communities. You will participate in activities such as a mock citizens' assembly, visit local community groups and hear different points of view from a range of guest speakers on concepts like power, race, gender, class, affect and justice.

How might we engage with the implications of environmental transformation locally, nationally and globally? Where do we have agency and capacity to intervene? This module brings together a range of perspectives, historical, political, philosophical and cultural, to explore the nature and severity of the effects of the climate crisis on our world.

What happens when radically different forms of art meet? How do these fused forms change our understanding of the world? We will draw on material from different periods and continents, to explore works of art where, for example, film meets history, poetry meets philosophy, fine art meets sociology, religion meets fiction, and theatre meets politics.