Creative Media Practice (2013 entry)

MA, 1 year full time/2 years part time

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Subject overview

In the Department of Media and Film at Sussex:

  • we offer exceptional opportunities for graduate study, with innovative taught MA degrees and a range of supervision for MPhil and PhD research in theory and practice
  • we have a thriving research culture in media theory and practice, with around 50 research students working alongside faculty each year
  • we are rated joint 8th in the UK for research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). 100 percent of our research was rated as recognised internationally
  • we are ranked in the top 10 places to study in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2013, in the top 15 in the UK in The Sunday Times University Guide 2012 and The Complete University Guide 2014, in the top 25 in the UK in The Guardian University Guide 2014, and in the top 100 in the world for communication and media studies in the QS World University Rankings 2013
  • we offer opportunities to make practical creative projects alongside conceptual and theoretical study
  • we have dedicated state-of-the-art digital production facilities and links to the thriving creative and media scene in Brighton

Programme outline

This MA is associated with the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts and encourages new thinking about narratives across a broad spectrum of creative media. Led by award-winning media artists as well as critical theorists, this course offers you the opportunity to explore critically informed creative practice across digital media, photography and a range of aural and visual forms. Relationships between media practices and theories are investigated through a combination of lectures, seminars and hands-on workshops. Your cross-disciplinary practice is supported by faculty and peers working in related media practices, as well as guest masterclasses taught by leading artists and industry professionals.

This MA begins with an overview of media forms and approaches. You will:

  • work together with other students to explore uses of narrative in sound, image and digital and physical spaces
  • develop your own personal project through workshops aimed at helping you to structure your work, identify your audience and budget
  • plan and create a professionally completed piece in the medium of your choice.

We continue to develop and update our modules for 2013 entry to ensure you have the best student experience. In addition to the course structure below, you may find it helpful to refer to the 2012 modules tab.

Autumn term: you take the core module Expanded Media Practice, involving practical work in various media alongside the study of narrative and other structures. In addition, you choose one option from a list that may include Documenting the Real • Gender and Representation • Independent Project I • Media Theory and Research • New Developments in Digital Media • Theory and Practice of Interactive Media. 

Spring term: you take the core module Research and Development for Creative Practice and one option from a list that may include Curating Film Culture • Independent Project II • Media Audiences • Media Technology and Everyday Life • Media Theory and Research II • Queering Popular Culture • Latin American Cinema • Musical Multimedia • New Moving Screens • Rethinking European Cinema • Science, Communication and Culture • Space and Representation • Video Documentary in Contemporary History. 

You may substitute one module from another arts and humanities degree with the approval of the course convenor and the module tutor. 

Summer term: with the guidance of your supervisor you complete a major work in your chosen media, along with a critical essay. 

Assessment 

Assessment is by practical media work as well as a process workbook, and critique. The final assessment is a major media work plus an essay. 

Back to module list

Activist Media Practice

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Social movements have historically struggled to get their message reported clearly, accurately and effectively through the lens of mainstream media. This has lead to the rise of alternative media practices and strategies to break through or unsettle the corporate and state-run media systems around the world. In order to challenge hegemonic discourses, activist media seeks to circumvent and dismantle traditional media's communicative strategies either through a disruptive aesthetic or through a reconfigured mode of civic engagement. Whether through radical leaflets, pirate radio, graffiti, protest music, performance art, activist videos, political documentaries, or social media and the internet, today's media landscape has evolved into a range of complex transnational networks that can be activated by independent counter-hegemonic media practices and expressions.

This module asks you to learn about various forms of cultural resistance (through readings, screenings, lectures and discussions) in order to to formulate an effective form of activist media provocation. This piece of activist media may take the form of a video, a website, site-specific performance, series of photographs, media prank, etc. You will also be asked to write a reflective essay that contextualises the finished piece within the conceptual debates of the module.

Documenting the Real

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module enables you to develop your own practice through exercises and projects informed by a exploration of the history and contemporary evolution of the documentary in national and international contexts. You will examine and evaluate key theoretical formulations of the genre, with particular reference to questions of realism, representation, documentary's truth claims, ethics, and the impact of technological and industrial change on modes of production, distribution and consumption. you will interrogate concepts of documentary form through practical work with a view to enabling you to articulate a critical and creative approach to the relationship between practice and theory. The term culimates in a substantial project and accompanying critique which build on the experimentation and conceptual reading undertaken through the module.

Expanded Media: Forms and Practices

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module looks at what happens when media forms overlap and interact. What new forms are created? What histories can be drawn upon? How does collaboration inform creative practice?

Through the exploration of global concepts such as (but not limited to) narrative (and anti-narrative),  time and space,  dreams, and  memory, you  will experiment and collaborate in ways that reflect the formal and thematic implications of the concepts discussed. Topics may include: theorisations on hybrid forms; expanded cinema; history of collaborative practice and experimentation; interactivity; notions of the avant-garde; synesthesia; site-specific media installations; and immersive technology.

Media, Technology and Everyday Life

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

On this module you will explore historical and contemporary examples of technological innovation within the public and private spaces of the everyday. You will considers major theoretical approaches to the study of media technology and ask how a variety of new media forms – including television, radio, mobile communications, the internet and computers - are socially shaped, re-shaped, and experienced, and how everyday life itself might be theorised and/in relation to media. By the end of the module, you will have developed a critical awareness of your own relationship to media and information technologies, and be able to relate your experience to wider empirical evidence and historical and theoretical perspectives.

New Developments in Digital Media 1b

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module critically surveys developments in the expanding field of new media.  You will explore the dynamics driving digital convergence, viewed as an industrial, political, social, economic and technological process. You will ask what drives convergence between previously discrete industries, technologies, contents, and what limits convergence processes. You will also explore key developments in the field of new media, including phenomena such as social networks, pervasive and locative technologies, new forms of knowledge organisation and gathering. This version of the module is theoretical; seminars explore the areas outlined above through critical reading, seminar discussion and presentation, and you will also write a 5000-word term paper.

Photography: Documentary, Landscape, Politics

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module introduces you to a wide range of work in the documentary and landscape genres, both historical and contemporary, but with an emphasis on `conceptual documentary' and contemporary politicised landscape photography. You will also focus on the problematics of documentary and photojournalism, such as ethical issues and questions of efficacy, and the use of text and sound in documentary publications, gallery installations and websites.

The module will be taught through tutor-led discussion in seminars, and regular `group crits' of student work-in-progress in the lab. Early on in the module you will conceive and research your own idea for a photographic project, and start producing images for class viewing. The module will equip you with the necessary production & critical skills to continue working independently on your projects during the Easter vacation before the assessment deadline in early Summer.

Research and Development for Creative Practice

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The module focuses on the methods, processes and research techniques involved in the development of creative media projects from initial concept to distribution, with close analyses of how the different stages of a project are related, planned, and connected to other media.

You will learn how to identify original sources and subjects with a view to creating a distinctive style and approach through practical exercises and the creation of a test or pilot project. The module will aid you in the development of the tools required to conceptually frame your media practice and help you communicate clearly and critically. During the module you will be given time to explore media projects in a variety of media and to consider the implications of those projects for your own work. You will be asked to study and discuss a number of different methods for the critical appraisal and theorisation of creative media projects across genres and will be expected to show initiative in undertaking a wide range of research to help develop your ideas and skills.

At the end of the module, you will produce a pilot project work-plan, critical essay, and journal demonstrating how you have thought through your ideas, what has emerged from the discussion and in-class critiques, and how you will put these ideas into production for your self-directed project.

Theory and Practice of Interactive Media

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

Digital technologies are re-wiring established media cultures, transforming traditional media systems (television, cinema) and introducing new media networks (internet, mobile devices). This module explores aspects of this techno-cultural transformation, through both a practical exploration of the form and by considering critical debates exploring the power, force, significance and form of a series of new media texts, artefacts and systems. The module situates practices related to these forms in a media studies/cultural studies perspective and with reference to multi-disciplinary debates.

The module consists of a series of theory orientated seminars and project based workshops that are designed to give you a practical introduction to a range of software authoring tools widely used within the media. Early sections of the course are taught through discrete group-based tasks. During the latter stages of the module, you produce your own short terms papers and creative projects investigating an aspect of a new media artefact or system.

The module will equip you with the necessary production skills and theoretical frameworks to schedule and deliver these projects. This grounding will provide you with basic authoring skills, will give you the capacity to develop your skills further through individual study, and will also equip them to think critically about the forms and contents of contemporary media systems.

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Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in an appropriate discipline. We also welcome applicants who do not have this academic qualification who are able to demonstrate in their application that they have relevant professional/creative skills and experience.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A on the Overseas qualifications.

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Visas and immigration

Find out more about Visas and immigration.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Additional admissions information

Due to the creative nature of this course, the selection process requires applicants to submit a portfolio containing two or more pieces of practical media-based work submitted either on a single CD/DVD or uploaded to a personal website with URL supplied to the University. The portfolio will be used to select successful applicants. If you do not have existing practical experience, one of our other degrees might be better suited to you.

If you are a non-EU student and your qualifications (including English language) do not yet meet our entry requirements for admission directly to this degree, we offer a Pre-Masters entry route. For more information, refer to Pre-Masters.

For more information about the admissions process at Sussex

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk 

Fees and funding

Fees

Home UK/EU students: £7,3001
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £7,3002
Overseas students: £14,1003

1 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
2 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
3 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

To find out about your fee status, living expenses and other costs, visit further financial information.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

To find out more about funding and part-time work, visit further financial information.

Sussex Graduate Scholarship (2013)

Region: UK, Europe (Non UK), International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 16 August 2013

Open to final year Sussex students who graduate with a 1st or 2:1 degree and who are offered a F/T place on an eligible Masters course in 2013.

Faculty interests

Our internationally respected research explores questions around the materialities, technologies and politics of cultural forms and formations. Researchers work on, across and through a range of media: film, television, radio, photography, and ‘new’ and interactive forms. 

They specialise within three interlocking themes: 

Cultural histories/cultural politics 

Research is focused on histories of journalism and the public sphere and the relationships between cultures, technological change and social and political change. It also encompasses an analysis of the construction of national identities and borders, and their institutionalised histories and marginalised others. 

Media technology, form and experience 

The relationships between technology, form and experience are explored through studies of techno-cultural innovation, sense perception, and embodied experience. A key aspect, which builds on expertise in the Department, is the development of new critical frameworks for the exploration of new media forms and practices as they emerge in everyday life. 

The politics of representation 

The Department of Media and Film has long been a centre of excellence for research on gender, sexuality and representation. We continue to build on this through a concern with the images and narratives of popular culture, and the ways in which these construct identities and play on pleasures, fears and desires. 

Individual research interests are briefly described below.

Dr Caroline Bassett New media technologies, most recently working on narrative and new media. Published widely on new media and gender. 

Dr Michael Bull Works extensively on the nature of auditory experience. Specialises in the work of The Frankfurt School. 

Wilma de Jong Researcher, scriptwriter, director and producer. Media and activism, independent production, documentary and news. 

Andrew Duff Production tutor. Specialises in exploring reactive and interactive multimedia, experimental digital and analogue audio. 

Melanie Friend Documentary photographer. Representations of conflict and trauma, asylum detention in the UK. 

Lee Gooding Senior production tutor. Has produced a range of programmes for a number of organisations. 

Adrian Goycoolea Film-maker addressing issues of identity, exploring the intersections of personal memory with social and political histories. 

Dr Ben Highmore The culture of daily life. Author of A Passion for Cultural Studies (2009); Ordinary Lives (2009). 

Dr Gholam Khiabany Academic leader of the journalism degrees. 

Dee Kilkelly Production tutor. Co-runs APT new media, a collective responsible for art events and club nights in and around Brighton. 

Mary Agnes Krell Media artist whose work spans performance, digital media and narrative practices. 

Dr Kate Lacey Gender, media and the public sphere. Has published widely on radio history and theory. Current work focuses on listening publics. 

Andy Medhurst Post-war British popular culture; media representations of masculinity and homosexuality. 

Dr Monika Metykova Lecturer in media communications/journalism studies. 

Dr Sharif Mowlabocus Digital cultures, gender, sexuality and representation. Author of Gaydar Culture (2010). 

Professor Sally R Munt Queer studies, cultural studies, identity and emotion. Co-author of Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places (2010). 

Dr Kate O’Riordan Cultural studies of science and technology. Author of Human Cloning and the Media: from Science Fiction to Science Practice (2008); The Genome Incorporated (2010). 

Dr Martin Spinelli Produces award-winning literary and experimental radio projects. Interests include radio art and sound poetry, and cultural studies. 

Lizzie Thynne Film-maker who has exhibited widely in broadcast, festival and gallery contexts. Interests include auto/biography and surrealism. 

Janice Winship Published on women’s magazines, advertising and consumption in the 20th century. 

Kirk Woolford Media artist who engages in practice-led research to explore concepts that defy textual representation. 

Careers and profiles

This MA provides an opportunity for students from diverse backgrounds to take advantage of Sussex’s unique interdisciplinary history and practices. Some of our graduates pursue careers as independent artists, producers or directors through the support of local organisations such as the Brighton Festival, Lighthouse, South East Dance, Photo Biennial, etc. Other graduates have gone on to work with digital media, television, advertising and video game productions in Brighton and London.

For more information, visit Careers and alumni.

School and contacts

School of Media, Film and Music

The School of Media, Film and Music combines rigorous critical and historical studies of media, film, music and culture with opportunities for creative practice in a range of musical forms and the media of photography, film, radio, and interactive digital imaging.

School of Media, Film and Music,
University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RG, UK
T +44 (0)1273 873481
E mfm@sussex.ac.uk
School of Media, Film and Music

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