MA Art and Science

Course summary:

This pioneering course investigates the creative relationships between art and science and how to communicate them.

With access to important collections in London you'll explore the making and presentation of your work and pursue innovative outcomes in practice and research, towards professional engagement in art and science authorship and creative practice.

This course is part of the Art Programme.

Great reasons to apply:

• MA Art and Science has been designed to enable you to pursue your studies whilst also undertaking part-time employment, internships or care responsibilities. You are expected to commit an average of 30 hours per week to your studies; your taught input will normally be scheduled over a maximum of two to three days per week during term time
• Responding to fast-growing interest in interdisciplinary art practice, you'll learn from and build working relationships with artists, scientists, curators and other professional practitioners engaged in research that investigates art and science
• You'll benefit from established links with museums, galleries and institutions - including The Wellcome Trust, Science Museum, British Library, Gordon Museum, Royal Society, Kew Gardens, Arts Catalyst, Tate and CUBE London, among others
• You'll attend lectures and participate in seminars that provide a critical context for your research and practical work complemented by workshops and special access to places of particular interest
• You'll take part in an exhibition or symposium, bringing together staff and peers as well as professional practitioners and critics
• Our graduates are attractive to organisations that value creative thinking and the effective communication of ideas. They also have the potential to develop their interest at research degree level.

Anyone Interested.

Course details:

Synergies in our Fine Art Programme - incorporating BA Fine Art, MA Art and Science, MA Fine Art, MA Photography, MRes Art: Exhibition Studies, MRes Art: Moving Image, and MRes Art: Theory and Philosophy - create a dynamic context for exploring practices and issues within contemporary culture.

This pioneering postgraduate course responds to a fast-emerging territory for interdisciplinary and collaborative art practice. MA Art and Science gives students an opportunity to interrogate the creative relationships between art and science and how they can be communicated. You'll explore different approaches to making and presenting your work with the aim of proposing and realising innovative outcomes in practice and research.

In its extended full-time mode MA Art and Science gives you the flexibility to access London's richly varied opportunities for work and study while maximising your personal and professional development.

MA Art and Science provides an extensive final unit of 120 credits (45 weeks) enabling continuous development and realisation of a significant programme of work. MA Art and Science supports and is shaped by:

• Exploration of the approaches of art and science to enquiry - how scientific ideas may inform and provoke the making of art, and how practices in art and science may correspond
• Development of knowledge of historical and contemporary contexts, practical processes, research methods and writing
• Learning from, and building, working relationships between artists, medics, mathematicians, anatomists, curators and other professional practitioners engaged in research that investigates art and science
• Student projects through the use of established links with institutions in London such as the Welcome Trust, Hunterian Museum, Gordon Museum and Natural History Museum
• Development of current thinking on art and science towards further research

About this course:

• MA Art and Science lasts 60 weeks structured as two consecutive periods of 30 weeks each (i.e. two academic years) in its 'extended full-time mode.'
• MA Art and Science is credit rated at 180 credits, and comprises two units: Unit One (60 credits) and Unit Two (120 credits).
• Students successfully achieving Unit One may exit at this point with the award of Postgraduate Certificate.
• Both units must be passed in order to achieve the MA, but the classification of the award of MA derives from the mark for Unit Two only.

In year one we expect you to commit an average of 40 hours per week. In year two your study is predominantly self-managed but we expect you to commit an average of 20 hours per week. Across the two years, therefore, you're expected to commit an average of 30 hours per week.

Course rationale:

Through their work artists and scientists contribute to a greater understanding of what it is to be human and how we relate to the world around us: both require creative insight in their quest for knowledge and the desire to communicate this.

The relationship between art and science continues to expand the boundaries of understanding and invention, challenging our view of the world. The desire of artists to find ways to understand, represent and reinterpret the world in which they live has resulted in investigation into the phenomena of nature, perception and thought, areas of equal importance in the sciences. Scientists have also defined the nature of their research in ways that address questions of how the measurable can be defined, the invisible envisaged, the senses extended, and perceptions tested. Both artists and scientists seek to develop new ways in which the innovative nature of their discoveries can be made comprehensible and communicated.

This MA offers a structured opportunity to investigate the contemporary and historical context of art and science, embracing the spectrum of interaction, endeavour and the making of forms. The course explores how research and production may have implications for discovery and invention across and within both disciplinary fields and how these may relate socially and culturally.

Together with MA Fine Art and MA Photography, MA Art and Science is situated within the Art Programme. Cross programme lectures and regular installs offer the opportunity for cross course engagement.

Fees & Funding:

Home/EU fee Tuition fees for 2019/20 -

University of the Arts London (UAL) is Europe’s largest specialist art and design university. Its unique creative community is made up of six renowned Colleges, each with its own world-class reputation: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts.

UAL is the world’s sixth best University for Art and Design in the QS World University Rankings 2018. Offering an extensive range of courses in art, design, fashion, communication and performing arts, UAL is the main talent pipeline to the UK’s creative industries.

Home to a diverse community of over 18,000 students from 129 countries, UAL has a track record for launching and furthering careers. Our graduates can be found in every part and at every level of the creative and cultural sectors, from heads of global business to self-employed practitioners, and on shortlists for awards ranging from the Turner Prize to the Oscars.

Building on UAL’s association with some of the most original thinkers in the arts, students and staff are inspired to challenge convention, generate new ideas and nurture talent. Home to award-winning staff and students for more than a century, UAL’s Colleges are at the forefront of learning, creativity and practice in their specialist subjects. This close-knit College structure offers opportunities for learning and enquiry for people at all stages of their creative development.