In their book The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore point out that ‘societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the...

Sequential Art as a Form of Engagement (ELCS0017)

In their book The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore point out that ‘societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication’. This attitude has influenced strongly the perception of sequential art and graphic storytelling that, penalised by their colourful and pictorial format, have been normally connected to simple and escapist contents.

The aim of this module will be to present to students examples of sequential art narratives characterised by a deep social and political engagement. At the same time it will provide them with a methodology for analysing and understanding the narrative processes behind graphic storytelling and how these processes compare and contrast with those of traditional narrative and/or cinema. The module will begin with a brief outline of the history of sequential art. Lectures and seminars will offer approaches to analyse and discuss a large number of themes such as autobiographical elements, social protest, human relationships, environmental concerns and historical events by considering examples from a range of European, American, Middle-Eastern and Japanese graphic novels.

This module will focus on theories and practices of experience design and immersive media. It will discuss the cognitive and psychological aspect of immersive...

Designing for VR/AR - Making the Media IV (CCME0154)

This module will focus on theories and practices of experience design and immersive media. It will discuss the cognitive and psychological aspect of immersive media and encourage students to think about how characteristics of human perception can be exploited and designed for to create powerful experiences. Students will be encouraged to think about serious applications (or example for health or education) to develop VR or AR experiences. The module will introduce games production pipelines from pre-production to post-release providing a comprehensive overview of workflow cycles.

NOTE: this module belongs to: 

 PATHWAY 2: Critical Media with Games – an emphasis on theory, but with a throughline of practical work in game, VR/AR/XR design running through Years 2 and 3. 

PATHWAY 3: Media Practice – an emphasis on design in both Film and Games/VR/AR/XR, with options in critical theory to complement this. This pathway will follow all the practice modules in both film and games up to advanced level, along with selected theory modules. 