Lighting plays an integral role in creating successful interior and exterior environments: good lighting is capable of separating areas, suggesting circulation, manipulating mood and creating atmosphere within a space. The correct use of light is a complex process not only in managing the desired effect but also the detailing issues regarding location, fixings and the management of power and control.
You will develop a critical understanding of the design of spaces incorporating lighting design and develop knowledge of how to develop and specify lighting within a built environment.

You will apply principles of lighting design that satisfies basic human requirements to create architectural and spatial design schemes. This will include the identification of light sources (both natural and artificial) and specification of lighting equipment. You will consider human factors along with issues relating to installation and power supply, including control schedules.

Hand drawing and CAD modelling will be used alongside physical modelling to prototype and communicate concepts, locations, layout, and details for installation. Costing and budget constraints will also be considered.

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This is an interdisciplinary module that will require you to place your own subject specialism within the broad context of design for culture and heritage.

Through this module you will develop your understanding of the core aspects of design for Heritage and Culture through exhibition design, site specific interpretive installations, spatial appreciation, lighting, motion graphics for immersive environments and graphic communication. User journeys, engagements, interactions and experiences will form the foundation of explorative studies where prototype designs will aim to change visitor relationship to heritage and culture.

The module introduces you to a variety of design strategies used by designers to address thematically driven project briefs in a variety of physical contexts.

Studio-based design projects form the core of the module. Within the projects you will critically explore current themes in areas of heritage and culture and you will look towards forecasting and designing for future potentialities. In developing design proposals, you are required to undertake thematic, contextual and material research and to illustrate how your design solutions provide for enhanced user experience and interaction in a defined heritage and cultural role.

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You will apply principles of light art and projection to architectural and spatial design schemes. This will include the specification of hardware and software for light art installations and interpretation of proposed locations. You will consider human factors along with technical issues (installation, power supply, control schedules). Physical and CAD modelling will be used to prototype and communicate location and layout, and details for installation. Costing and budget constraints are also included.

Further information

This module will embed learning within a framework of live design practice. You will work collaboratively alongside staff and other students on a range of live research and knowledge exchange projects with external clients. In negotiation with teaching staff, you will also have the option of undertaking a self-generated design project for an external client if the appropriate learning outcomes can be achieved.

This module will require you to take responsibility for your own work, work to professional standards and to work autonomously within a larger design team and client body that may include several other professions. You will need to demonstrate leadership whilst managing complex open-ended technical design problems.

At the beginning of the module, you will negotiate an Individual Learning Agreement with the teaching staff to define the learning to be undertaken, how it will satisfy the requirements of post-graduate (Level 11) study and how these activities will address the learning outcomes of the module. You will keep a learning journal throughout the module to document and critically reflect on your learning.

In summary of the module, you will produce a multimedia portfolio that documents the range of professional knowledge, skills and critical reflection that you have gained and applied in this module. This documentary portfolio will be supported by a written reflective report where you will critically analyse and appraise the quality of your own work within the context of the professional environment you were working within.

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This module gives you the opportunity to align and apply your creative practice to a live practice-based research project or opportunity for entrepreneurial practice. Projects and opportunities may arise from the ongoing practice and research within the university, or may be initiated by yourself. In either case, you will be required to work with appropriate external clients and/or partners.

You will work to professional standards with socially responsible practices to generate and deliver useable creative outputs. You must demonstrate integrity, leadership and good personal communication skills, whilst managing complex open-ended problems in a socio-economic and/or technical context.

At the beginning of the module, you will negotiate an Individual Learning Agreement with the programme team to define the learning to be undertaken, and to determine how these activities will enable you to meet the learning outcomes of the module. You will keep a learning journal throughout the module. At the end of the module you will produce a creative portfolio that evidences professional knowledge and skills and critical reflection. This will be supported by a written reflective report where you will critically analyse and appraise your own work within the context of the professional environment you have been working within.

Further information

This module is designed to develop your knowledge and skills required to undertake an advanced range of research methods appropriate to contemporary creative practice in design and lens media, from ethnography and interviews to phenomenology and critical performance. You will explore advanced research paradigms for creative practice which include critical, participative and performative-oriented research approaches and methods. You will develop and refine your skills in creative research methods, analysis of creative and practice-based research precedents, and critical interpretation in relation to contemporary creative practice. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources you will learn to critically explore and evaluate design or lens media research practices. The knowledge acquired throughout the module will support you in the formulation of a sophisticated, reflective and fully referenced creative practice proposal. The module will cover research methods that will enable you to ask, learn, look and try things during the early exploratory stages of the creative process. This will be evidenced by multiple outputs: research presentations, film, installations and written work.

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