BA (Hons) Fashion and Design History Bachelor's degree at the University of Brighton

This module introduces key concepts of creative encounters and exchanges across cultures in the history of art and design, fashion and visual culture. You will learn about the ways in which the movement of people, materials and ideas across geographies, spaces and periods have an impact on the production, reproduction and appropriation of art and design.

This module builds on Local and Global: Concepts and Ideas in Cross-Cultural Histories of Art and Design and introduces you to key themes and topics on global histories of art, design, fashion and visual culture. You will explore debates on collecting, exhibitions and displays, and develop an understanding of colonial, postcolonial histories and theories through object and image studies.

In this module you will explore aspects of Brighton and Hove that are significant to the history of art and design locally, and in some cases more broadly, through the introduction of key sites, themes and resources, for example, the Royal Pavilion and Museums; the historical development of local identities in subcultures and sexualities; and Brighton on film. These topics are complemented by a seminar series that will equip you with the skills and tools needed to study history of art and design

This module introduces concepts and trans-historical studies in art and design. You will explore key historical and theoretical ideas and approaches in art, design, fashion and visual culture, such as: the relationship between the artist's life and the artwork; art, craft and activism; designer and modernity; postmodern portrait of the artist/designer; black identity; and the art historical myths of genius artist.

This module builds on Artist, Designer and the Prosumer: Theories and Debates. You will develop your understanding of key theories and debates through the detailed study of different approaches and practices in art and design. The topics cover key historical and contemporary practices and approaches in art, design, fashion and visual culture, such as: artist curator, cultures of craft, professionalisation, feminist art, DIY fashion and the photographer and the prosumer. You will choose case stud

You will explore the changing histories and cultural values of different materials, examining how they are produced and consumed. You will gain an appreciation of the materials' characteristics, historic and contemporary meanings and the environmental implications of their production and use. The module will enable you to focus on one or more materials – for example, cotton, concrete, plastics, metal, clay – and introduces UN Sustainable Development Goal for responsible consumption and productio

This module focuses on exploring the histories of fashion, design and space using primary sources. You will examine a variety of nineteenth and twentieth century images, objects and texts from around the world to discover what they tell us about how fashion, design and space were portrayed, perceived and experienced during this transformative period. You will investigate topics and themes such as consumption, migration, domesticity, materiality, colonialism and taste.

This module will develop your knowledge of key concepts and theories relating to the human body and the built environment that inform debates on spaces and bodies in art history, visual culture, fashion and design history. You will explore topics including public and private spaces; diaspora and migration; appearance and beauty; ableism and disability; and performance and performativity.

This module prepares you for your final year dissertation. It introduces resources, analytical tools, methods and critical approaches appropriate for independent research and professional practices. Site visits to archives, libraries and museums will introduce you to primary resources and their interpretation, as well as the practices of professions associated with these sites.

Where do fashion, design and politics coincide? From the aesthetics of protest to bodies as billboards, this module examines how fashion and design can be used to communicate dissent. Through historical case studies and present-day practices, from subvertising to craftivism, you will look at how bodies, clothes and objects have been caught up in crime and controversy, dominance and dissent, persuasion and punishment.

You will examine the critical contexts for historical processes of making as an approach to exploring the materials and materiality of dress, art or design. The module draws on local collections – such as the University of Brighton Dress and Textile History Teaching Collection and the Special Collections at St Peters House Library – and specialist expertise. It culminates with you recreating an item of historical dress.

This module will develop your understanding of major developments in visual culture, art and design through a guided group study trip to a European city. During seminars, you will learn about key historical developments, the activities of artists and designers, and major museum collections that relate to the city in question.

This module examines the critical contexts for contemporary and historical exhibition making as well as the practical requirements and professional expectations of the form. It draws on local collections, such as the Special Collections at St Peters House Library and the Teaching Collection, and specialist expertise from across academic, curatorial and library staff. The module culminates in small group public displays at sites across campus.

You will explore written forms about, in and as art, visual culture, design and fashion. The module presents a range of visual and verbal, textile and textual examples as objects for examination and as points of departure for creative practice. Through a series of structured experiments in form and content, you will develop a portfolio of writings using techniques explored in the module, alongside a contextual account of your production.

This module offers a specialist focus on the history and contemporary practice of museums, with an emphasis on exploring the complex dynamics between images, objects, institutions and texts. Museums, Material Culture, Representation will focus on the contentious and revolutionary display and interpretation of world cultures since the 1980s and into the future.

Digital handheld cameras and the selfies they produce have become a defining form of visual culture in the twenty-first century and in this module you will ask questions about the production and circulation of these self-portraits. You will read texts that analyse different aspects of selfie culture in the present and examine how these arguments can be developed in relation to a variety of photographic forms from the nineteenth century to the present.

This module investigates the major players in Asian Modernist art and design, their practices and networks. It examines the ways in which Asian artists and designers have understood, appropriated and adapted ideas of modernism and the ways in which they manifested these visually and materially. You will compare the similarities and differences in the development of modernism in each locale, considering distinctive historical, social and political contexts in the 20th century.

The ideological conflict known as the Cold War was reflected in, and partly fought through, culture. In this module, you'll investigate how design, fashion, the fine arts, exhibitions, consumer culture, popular culture, film and architecture functioned in the Cold War. You will explore the social and political aspects of cultural forms both within and between the blocs dominated by the Soviet Union and USA and from wider global viewpoints.

This module is based on a placement in local museums, galleries, archives, heritage organisations or creative services. It provides experience and insight into arts and heritage working practices if you are considering the pursuit of a career in this field and wish to deepen your understanding of cultural institutions and agencies.

This option offers a specialist focus on the staging and screening of fashion and design in different geographical locations in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and incorporates theoretical ideas, contextual research and primary sources. You will examine a range of objects, images and texts related to stage and film productions to explore issues of performance, race, gender and class.

This module explores networks of production and consumption in fashion and design, focusing on ethics and sustainability. It continues the course engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goal for responsible consumption and production.