Design as a Knowledge-Based Process (BARC0015)

Design as a Knowledge-Based Process provides the basis for students to consider their role as practitioner by introducing theories of design as a knowledge or evidence-based process. It provides a range of concepts that suggests how the nature of the design process itself may become the object of research, and develops skills of critical reflection by examining these via discussion and debate. Students are asked to think reflectively about what they do as practitioners by being asked to consider design as a knowledge domain with a particular knowledge base - rather than simply in terms of a tacit community of practice.

This module introduces theories of design as a knowledge- or evidence-based process and provides a range of concepts that suggest how the nature of design may itself become the object of research. The course explores contrasting perspectives in architecture, theories of scientific knowledge, linguistics, social theory and theories of technology, via student debate on issues of design practice, the nature of collaboration, machine intelligence and creativity. As a whole, the module is intended to get students thinking reflectively about what they do as practitioners, by asking them to consider design as a knowledge domain with a particular knowledge base – rather than simply in terms of a tacit community of practice.

This module is divided into two complementary components: the first comprises a series of lecture/seminars and the second comprises group tutorials in academic craftsmanship. The seminars are intended to stimulate a critical, philosophically grounded approach to design, while the group tutorials provide an opportunity to hone key skills in postgraduate academic research.

Russian cinema has borne important witness to the turbulent and traumatic events of the last 100+ years, reflecting, more than other national cinemas, key...

Russian and Soviet Cinema: History, Ideology, Society (SERS0014)

Russian cinema has borne important witness to the turbulent and traumatic events of the last 100+ years, reflecting, more than other national cinemas, key ideological and social shifts. This module examines the way in which Russian cinema has represented, interrogated and responded to historical, ideological and social change. Ranging from the pre-Revolutionary period to the post-Soviet present, it explores 17 films that illustrate and explore some of the major changes that have taken place in Russia since the release of the first Russian feature film in 1908, including: social developments in the late-Tsarist period, the Revolution and subsequent Civil War, the Stalinist thirties, the Khrushchev thaw, the Brezhnevite stagnation, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the immense upheaval and social changes of recent years. This module also considers the cinematic evolution of Russian film during this period, examining such issues as: the first filmmakers’ attempts to differentiate film from theatre by creating a specifically cinematic language, the uses of melodrama, the development of montage, the fraught relationship between Soviet and American cinema, the coming of sound in the 1930s, Socialist Realism, the introduction of new genres, such as the musical, the war film and the gangster film, the representation of identity that is Soviet, but not Russian, the emergence and development of post-Soviet auteur cinema, and the arrival of new young filmmakers.