Course Title: Reflective Practice

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Reflective Practice

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
COMM2159	City Campus	Postgraduate	345H Media and Communication	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006

Course Coordinator: Antoni Jach

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 3526

Course Coordinator Email:antoni.jach@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

It is expected that commencing students will have a first degree and will have existing expertise in their intended artistic discipline.

Course Description

Students from all of the streams of the program will be expected to reflect upon their own artistic practice within a scholarly and theoretical framework guided by their lecturers and tutors. Students will be asked to reflect upon their own artistic practice in the light of dominant cultural and theoretical constructs (such as postmodernism).

The lectures will raise a number of key conceptual issues relating to cinema, television, photography, multimedia and writing.

Students in the course will be expected to offer a critique of their own and other students’ artwork. Students will be expected to read widely and think deeply about issues relating to the creation, theoretical positioning, potential exhibition/screening and/or potential publication of their artwork.

Students will be expected to continue with their art practice throughout the semester and read widely (see the reading list) in order to stimulate and promote creative reflection.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course concentrates on developing students’ oral communication skills and their academic writing skills. The course lays a foundation for students to
successfully complete courses in their specific discipline area in the second and third semesters of the program.

At the successful completion of this course students should be able to:
1. Identify and discuss key concepts and major issues relating to cinema, television, multimedia, photography and writing.
2. Identify strengths and weaknesses within their own artwork practice.
3. Demonstrate an ability to research.
4. Identify the appropriate theoretical context for their own art practice.

Overview of Learning Activities

Key concepts and their application will be explained and illustrated in lectures. In addition, students will have the opportunity to discuss these key concepts in the tutorials.

Overview of Learning Resources

It is important that students read both of the set texts in the first month of the course so that they have an overview of some of the key conceptual ideas relating to artistic practice in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In addition the following book — Postmodernism: a reader, by Thomas Docherty — is highly recommended for students who wish to pursue an investigation of theoretical writing relating to art practice in greater depth than can be provided in the set texts.

Students are encouraged to contact the School of Creative Media’s liaison librarian who may be able to assist them with their research needs. Also students are encouraged to make full use of RMIT’s libraries (including the electronic and audiovisual resources).

Overview of Assessment

Students will have the opportunity to have drafts reviewed before they submit their assessment items. The feedback at the draft stage will be verbal feedback only. Students will also have the opportunity to have individual consultations with their tutors in order to discuss problems they are having with their assessment items. The Assessment Tasks Timeline shows the timetable for the drafting process.