Design Degrees Online

Whether an artist chooses to work with traditional materials — such as plaster, clay, stone, metal, or wood — or more contemporary materials like found objects, electronic media, or one’s own body — the ability to communicate ideas and impulses requires sensitivity and skill.

Creating a successful sculpture involves a series of related decisions — literally layered one on top of another — that involve issues of craft, spatial orchestration, scale relationships, material interactions and tolerances, the eventual site of a work, and even the audience it invites. Ultimately, some intangible idea has been given form, and some previously dormant material has been given voice.

Sculpture, as it is practiced today, is a broadly defined medium. Montserrat’s sculpture faculty embrace a variety of attitudes and areas of expertise, and our courses provide a range of conceptual and technical information. Montserrat’s goal is to train, prepare, and enrich sculpture students, to allow them to flourish and create works of lasting physical, conceptual, and visual power.

Course Content

The course is primarily studio based with access to model making facilities, a sophisticated computer provision and the on-site theatre. In addition there is a ten-week period of field study within the profession linked to the student’s particular area of interest. A formal lecture/seminar programme runs throughout the course including masterclasses from a variety of practitioners introducing themes and concerns which inform contemporary scenographic practice. Visits and group presentations supplement the programme.

The PGCert is a conversion course for students who have studied subjects other than theatre design at first degree level or who do not otherwise meet the entry requirements for the PGDip. The PGCert includes introductory units in Scenography, Comparative Design Cultures and associated technologies. An alternative unit to Comparative Design Cultures, called Communicating a Culture, has been especially developed for international students.

The PGDip examines the nature of scenography as a series of fundamental concerns including performance structures, performance space and audience. The study and visual orchestration of these elements through the development of compositional skills and the investigation of pre-production systems for performance planning forms the basis of studio practice. Theoretical and practical units in Theatre of the Word, Theatre of Motion, Embodiment of Character and Intermedia Design are introduced and developed alongside critical analysis of contemporary scenographic practice and the use of new technologies.
Study Commitment (Part-Time)

There are two types of attendance, one on a regular basis and the other negotiated by the student and specified in a learning contract.

Regular part-time study is one day per week attendance, supplemented by one day of the student’s own time. Study by learning contract is arranged according to the requirements of the course and the time the student has available to study. Through the learning contract, students can vary their workload over the period of registration. The learning contract can also include workplace learning arranged in consultation with the applicant’s employer.
Assessment

Modules at both PGCert and PGDip level are assessed by course work presented in various forms. All assessments must be passed in order to progress from one level to the next. In addition to these assessments, a proposal for MA study is required which is acceptable to the Examination Board. All routes require MA examination by exhibition.