This module explores the issues that emerge when dealing with complex, computationally generated data for an intended creative output. We are interested in the...

This module explores the issues that emerge when dealing with complex, computationally generated data for an intended creative output. We are interested in the emergence of complex patterns and behaviours from dynamic systems, such as is often observed at the transition between phases, edges of instability and at the frontier between order and chaos. We wish to exploit its potential for creating rich, organized structures with desirable performance and aesthetic properties. This raises important questions about the role that the human designer will play within these processes.

As this module is studio-based, there is no fixed syllabus. Students are active participants in the formation of the learning experience in this module. Delivery will be via lectures, seminars and practical exercises.

The module focuses on literature written between 1700 and 1789: from the turn of the eighteenth century to the eve of the French Revolution. This period was a...

Economic History and Ideas is a compulsory intermediate (year 2) module for undergraduate Economics programme students and students on Economics track in the...

Economic History and Ideas is a compulsory intermediate (year 2) module for undergraduate Economics programme students and students on Economics track in the new History, Politics and Economics programme. It is a full module unit spanning the autumn and spring terms. The module combines a discussion of modern economic history with analysis of economic theory, so as to provide proper context for the ideas, as they appeared throughout the last two centuries. Each week covers one major topic. About two thirds of the time will be devoted to questions of actual historical economic developments, the remaining one third to history of economic ideas.

Topics include, for example, the interaction between institutions and economic development, the demographic transition, market integration, the causes and consequences of technological change, the emergence of modern schooling, the rise and fall of slavery and serfdom, the Great Depression and others on the economic history side; the birth of economics, the debate over free trade in 19th century Europe, the Malthusian trap, the marginalist revolution, the Keynesian critique and the rise of modern growth theory on the history of thought side.

The module is comparative in its geographic focus: in considering the trends in economic history, we look not only at the success stories of Britain, Holland and the US but also at the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The overarching theme in modern economic history of Eastern and Central Europe is the effort to catch up economically (and, by extension, militarily) with the West. The comparative aspect consists in seeing how policies and activities, employed in the West, succeeded or failed in the East- and Central-European context and how specific developmental features of the region contributed to, or detracted from, the long-term economic development.