Course Title: Collaborative Practice 1a

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Collaborative Practice 1a

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
COMM2178	City Campus	Undergraduate	340H Art	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006, Sem 1 2007

Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Kevin White

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 2517

Course Coordinator Email:kevin.white@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: Bld 2.B.9

Course Coordinator Availability: Via Appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Course Description

This course will encourage students to critically explore interdisciplinary arts practice by engaging in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. An examination of contemporary currents in media, visual and sonic arts practice from the 1990s to the present date will be linked with professional projects and opportunities that are expected to be presented in a public context. Students will be encouraged to develop critical relationships with external organizations, artists and exhibition opportunities within the framework of the course. Students working on projects will be encouraged to work in an interdisciplinary and collaborative framework, and will be expected to present their work in the public sphere unless otherwise negotiated. As such, the course will engender expertise in the intersection between critical thinking, interdisciplinary and collaborative practice, and professional project management and presentation skills.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

To instruct students to:

1. be conversant with the practical issues and discourse currently underpinning media, visual and sonic arts practice and culture in Australia and internationally.
2. develop a high level of critical awareness, both of their own artistic practice, and the cultural and practical context that frames arts practice.
3. significantly contribute to the pre-production and production of a collaborative and interdisciplinary arts project or an individual project.
4. negotiate and engage in the development of the public presentation and/or delivery of a finished project
5. develop the production management skills and collaborative expertise required for the successful completion of interdisciplinary and collaborative projects;
6. be aware of the varied presentation and funding opportunities available both within and outside RMIT.

Overview of Learning Activities

The workshops cover a range of practical, theoretical and cultural perspectives that contextualise contemporary media, visual and sonic arts practice and discourses in Australia and internationally. A diverse range of projects including film, video, digital media, photography, performance, sound, wall based, installation, performance and object based works will be explored, and produced by students, to facilitate a contextualised understanding of contemporary arts practice. Components of the taught program will directly respond to student projects and events that are generated in this course, and the processes that underpin arts production and presentation. As such, this course will facilitate a practical working relationship between students and arts and cultural organisations. Students enrolling in the course will have the opportunity to work on an external project facilitated through the workshop and in consultation with the lecturer; or student initiated projects, which must be delivered as a workshop-based event that is presented in a public context.

The workshops are facilitated through a program of production meetings, tutorials, reviews, lectures, specialist speakers and visits to project sites, venues, galleries and related events. Lectures will be based around the production of projects, which may cover all mediums and disciplines and culminate in VJ, online and sound events, cinema screenings, magazines, exhibitions, mixed media installations, technologically meditated performances, site or venue specific projects etc.

Lecture topics include:

• What is a collaborative arts practice?
• Abstraction
• Sci-art
• Sites
• Site Visits
• Interdisciplinary projects
• Budgets, timelines and funding
• City

Overview of Learning Resources

Students will have access to a variety of digital imaging, office programs, production based technology and software in the Computer Lab, but will not be instructed in the use of this technology.

Overview of Assessment

Assessment Tasks and Value
Students will have the opportunity to focus their study around a specific project. Projects may take the form of technologically mediated or mixed media events, exhibitions, performances or installations, web, CD ROM or DVD projects, sound, time object or wall based works,

Video projects and/or screenings, site specific projects, publications and curatorial projects or a combination of the above. The public presentation of projects is a desired outcome of this workshop.

Students are expected to work on a minimum total of one project per year. Students will have the opportunity to focus their study around a specific project. For the student event at the end of second semester, and for the course facilitated project, students will be assigned project management roles to enable the realization of production, project, publicity, marketing and administrative tasks.

Submission of Assessment Tasks

By the sixth week of the first semester, students will be expected in groups, or individually, to submit a project description, a conceptual and technical synopsis of the project, project roles and tasks, the anticipated outcome, the proposed site or venue if relevant, and a production schedule complete with timeline. Proposals must be clearly defined, and all work will be undertaken in close communication with the lecturer and relevant academic and technical staff.

Students will also be expected to submit a report at the end of the semester demonstrating their working methods and contribution to the collaborative projects. Similarly, students working on solo projects will be expected to submit a report at the end of the semester detailing their working methods and the progress of the project.

Students will attend workshop reviews held throughout the semester to present their work for group feedback and to see/listen to other students work.

First semester: Project proposal (20%), production and project management work (50%), workshop reviews (20%).
Project report (10%)

Assessment Criteria

Your grades are based on the lecturer’s expectation that you will:

Proposal:

Write an individual, or make a major contribution to a group project proposal which fully outlines:

• What your project is
• A conceptual and technical synopsis of the project

• When and where your project will be presented

• How your project will be produced and presented
• What each member of the production team will contribute to the production and presentation of the project
• A production and presentation timeline for the project

Production and project management

Undertake production and project management roles to enable the realization of production, project, publicity, marketing and administrative tasks.

Review

Attend and present work either individually or in groups, at the end of semester review.

Project report

Write an individual report at the end of semester which discusses:

• their contribution to the production and presentation requirements of their project
• their evaluation of the project
• how the project has progressed over the semester
• how their project meets their proposed timeline
Course Grades Available

H: High Distinction; D: Distinction; C: Credit; P: Pass; N: Fail.