Research and Design Practices

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

120 Hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This seminar subject is designed to enrich the designer’s understanding of research approaches in the context of their own and others’ design projects. The subject also focuses on different forms of inquiry and concepts of arts practice as research, and research into the arts, discussion and presentation of research by current practitioners/researchers, and detailed information sessions on library databases and resources, research grant applications, and human ethics processes. Students examine research approaches in the larger context of social, cultural and post modernist perspectives.

On completing this subject students will be able to:

• exhibit a high degree of specialist knowledge in a design specialisation for the performing arts;
• demonstrate an ability to interpret and analyse design for performance in the context of professional practice, and within both a broader cultural field and a body of contemporary and classical ideas;
• demonstrate the capacity to develop and design theoretical frameworks and research processes appropriate to design projects, including those involving new forms;
• demonstrate skills in the gathering and organisation of research materials;
• demonstrate an understanding of human ethics and the effective use of library databases and other resources;
• effectively document the creative process.

Individual oral presentation followed by submission in written form (equivalent to 2,000 words) 40%, due mid-semester

1 x written tasks (3000 words) 60%, due end of semester

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completing this subject students will be able to:
• demonstrate the capacity to evaluate and synthesise data and other information;
• demonstrate an ability to access data and other information from a range of sources;
• demonstrate an advanced ability to discourse on artistic practice in the context of wider aesthetic, social and historical domains;
• demonstrate an ability to apply relevant research processes to specific cultural practice;
• demonstrate the ability to communicate in oral and written form;
• demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking.