Courses - Faculty of Creative Arts And Industries
Fine Arts
Stage I
Introduction to Photographic Practice
Introduces the methods, concepts and contemporary contexts of photographic practice alongside the development of a photographic portfolio. Students will use their own camera, (this can include cell phone cameras) to develop a portfolio of photographic work and explore the ways in which contemporary arts and cultural practices in Aotearoa enable a critical reflection on the production of images.
Introduction to Fine Arts Technologies
Introduces students to a range of technical workshops and skills for artistic practice. Students will develop a set of technical competencies and build their capacity to think through making. Students will be inducted into best workshop practice, whakaute, health and safety protocols, and be assessed as safe workshop users while working under direct supervision.
Fine Arts Studio 1
Through a series of three short studio-based projects, students will be introduced to key concepts and practices of painting, sculpture and social practice. Emphasises the acquisition of skills in conceptual thinking and the development of ideas, using a range of approaches to the making and presentation of artworks. Aspects of mātauranga Māori and its relationship to artmaking will also be introduced.
Fine Arts Studio 2
Through a series of three short studio-based projects, students will be introduced to key concepts and practices of print, time-based arts, and photography. Emphasises the acquisition of skills in conceptual thinking and the development of ideas, using a range of approaches to the making and presentation of artworks. Aspects of mātauranga Māori and its relationship to artmaking will also be covered.
Stage II
Creative Computing
Introduces methods and concepts for engaging with computing as artistic practice. Students will learn fundamental principles of programming, work with generative and algorithmic processes, and explore approaches and ideas in the field of computational arts. No prior experience in coding is necessary.
Prerequisite: 30 points at Stage I
Understanding Contemporary Fashion Design
Investigates the relationship between fashion design and identity to build understanding of the increasing rapidity of clothing change as both the product of individual choice and the manifestation of a need for community. The emphasis will be on the consumption of fashion and its relationship to the human body with reference to fashion theory in the context of the broader literatures of gender, class and ethnicity.
Prerequisite: 60 points passed
Nga Toi Taketake: Fibre and Textile
Engages students with concepts, materials and methods of making that are indigenous to Aotearoa. Explores ways of developing and creating contemporary art in fibre and textile.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Nga Toi Taketake: Kōhatu / Stone
Engages students with concepts, materials and methods of making that are indigenous to Aotearoa. Explores ways of developing and creating contemporary art in kōhatu/stone.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Printed Matter: Printmaking
Explores contemporary printed matter. Students will work with a range of traditional printmaking technologies that may include monoprint, screen print, woodcut, and photogravure as well as expanded, experimental processes using digital and laser cutting technologies.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Printed Matter: Publication
Introduces students to print publication as a site of contemporary practice exploring ways in which artists, designers, and activists have made use of the printed form as a social medium. Students will experiment with the format and materiality of printed media, and the experience of viewing, through the production of self-published works such as artist’s books, posters, and zines. Technical workshops will develop skills in digital and hand-made print and production methods.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Time-Based: Moving Image
Offers a practical exploration of moving image production. Students will learn camera techniques and editing skills to support the development of experimental video and audio while learning how digital workflow and project management can affect a creative outcome. Students can work collaboratively or individually, using a range of filmmaking equipment and editing software to create moving image works.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Time-Based: Action and Documentation
Considers how documentation informs our understanding of time-based action and/or performance art and what might be done to retain and communicate the effects of a passing event. Students explore their own time-based practices and develop appropriate methods of documentation including video, photography, drawing, and sound recording. Students can work both collaboratively and individually, using documentation as a visual and conceptual tool for the creation of artworks.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Photography: Digital Photography
Covers the conceptual and practical possibilities of digital photography. Students will experiment with a wide range of image-making technologies including SLR digital cameras. Lighting considerations and a range of options for printing digital photos will be explored. Contemporary photographic practices will be covered within the context of global image circulation.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Photography: Analogue Photography
Provides students with an overview of analogue photographic processes. Students will gain skills in darkroom photography, including a practical understanding of film camera technologies, developing and printing processes, and the use of darkroom techniques to refine and manipulate photographic imagery.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Painting: Materiality and Process
Considers the various ways in which actions, processes, and materials can shape a painting practice. Covers a range of painterly actions and a self-generated list of ‘paint-related’ verbs (to roll, to smudge, to scrape). Students will create a ‘catalogue’ of marks and manipulations of paint. They will then develop these ideas through a studio practice which explores abstraction, materiality, and considerations of form. A broad range of traditional, modern and expanded paint properties and mediums will be considered.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Painting: Painted Images
Explores contemporary techniques of still life and representational painting as a means of re-thinking visual histories. Students will gather and arrange source materials and object references and explore a range of painted responses. Emphasises the construction and preparation of supports and surfaces, colour theory, and the methods and mediums that support painting practice.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Sculpture: Constructing and Fabricating
Based in the metal and wood workshops, this course will guide students in the exploration of materials and construction processes. Develop sculptural works in metal or wood. Students will use tools and techniques such as cutting, joining and welding.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Sculpture: Shaping and Casting
Engages with tactile processes of object-making and reproduction to create works of contemporary art using clay, wax, and other materials. Students will make reproductions of their handmade objects using a range of casting processes and explore how multiples impact the form and content of artworks.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Performance: Communication, Identity and Community
Focuses on performance art as a means of communication. Examines the ways in which performance can be integral to an artistic and cultural identity, contemporary life, and community.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Creative Careers: Pathways
Emphasises the practical aspects of establishing a career as a creative practitioner. Covers writing proposals, applications, artist’s statements, and other practical tools for a creative career. Focuses on the ability to communicate ideas effectively to peers and professional networks.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Creative Careers: Making Exhibitions
Students will consider the types of roles and structures that exist in contemporary art worlds, with a focus on curatorial practice and exhibition making from the perspective of the artist. Engaging with the local art world, students will develop a critically informed exhibition proposal for a real-world context.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Drawing as Creative Thinking
An introduction to approaches to drawing and its relationship with contemporary practices in art and design, including digital and analogue drawing techniques. The course explores drawing as a conceptual method of thinking through making.
Prerequisite: 30 points at Stage I
Indigeneity and Culture: Ko wai au?
Encourages the development and creation of artworks that explore whakapapa, whakawhanaungatanga, genealogy, and relationality as the foundation of creative practice in the contexts of Aotearoa and Te-Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa. Related indigenous methodologies and concepts will be explored.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Indigeneity and Culture: Power and Place
Explores and examines the ongoing impact of colonisation, imperialism, and migration through art making. Related indigenous methodologies and concepts will be explored.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Image, Object and Materiality: What is an Image?
Addresses image-making in a digital world. Explores the relation between the fabrication of individual images and their circulation through mass media using different mediums. Reflection on the different ways artists might embrace or subvert the profusion of internet imagery.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Image, Object and Materiality: What is an Object?
Addresses object-making in a digital world. Responds to the immaterial condition of internet culture, students will generate sculptural objects that exist in real space. Reflection on materiality and mediation in contemporary culture.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Embodiment, Identity and Agency: Art and Audience
Explores the role of the audience through a creative project, as well as examining the work of artists and writers who have challenged assumptions about art production and reception. Aspects of cultural safety and the ethics of working with others will also be addressed.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Embodiment, Identity and Agency: Art and the Self
How is identity produced? Explores key concepts of fluidity, intersectionality, body image, fashion, gender and persona, in relation to photography, film, art, and fashion.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Systems, Ecologies and Environments: Art in the Anthropocene
Students will undertake a studio art project that responds to the challenges of the Anthropocene and climate change. The course explores related art and ideas from Aotearoa and overseas.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Systems, Ecologies and Environments: Embodied Nature
Explores our place as a species within a broader ecological framework. Enables students to reflect on the limitations proposed by ways of thinking that separate self from world. Through studio practice and artistic research, develops an enhanced awareness of and sensitivity to living systems.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Technology and Material Futures: Mixed Realities
Considers virtual and tactile methods of production in contemporary art. Investigates the tension where the physical and virtual worlds are woven together. In mixed realities, the line between analogue and digital artmaking is blurred. This course provides an opportunity to experiment with technologies which might include 3D printing, real-time and interactive technologies, laser cutting, digital casting, and 3D scanning.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Technology and Material Futures: World-making
Focuses on the idea that a key driver of creative practice is the seeking out and imagining of alternative models for living, this course provides students with the opportunity to engage in world-making. Students generate and produce artworks that explore new worlds. Provides an understanding of how material affects and conceptual propositions work together to produce meaning in an artwork.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110, and 111 or 112
Corequisite: FINEARTS 113
Stage III
Studio Practice 3
Builds upon the conceptual, material, technical and contextual work undertaken in Studio Practice 2. Students will explore and develop a range of methodologies that will enable them to understand the principle of a self-directed practice. Students are required to pursue open-ended exploration and critical analysis within their studio work, with an emphasis on experimentation and reflexivity. Consists of a range of supervised briefs embracing media specific, interdisciplinary, Māori, local and global approaches to creating art works. Students will also engage in focused contextual study in an area relevant to their interests.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 204, 207, 208
Restriction: FINEARTS 302, 304
Studio Practice 4
Extends the self-directed aspect of FINEARTS 308 through work on one or two long-term personal projects. A key focus is the identification of, and response to, a contextual issue or mode of practice relevant to contemporary art. Students will begin to develop an understanding of their own practice within the context of a wider field of local and international contemporary art practices. Students will also engage in focused contextual study in an area relevant to their interests.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 308 or 310
Restriction: FINEARTS 303, 307
Creative Methods for Studio Practice
Explores methods for studio practice through an introduction to different approaches for making and thinking creatively. Methods are drawn from the visual arts as well as examples located in poetic, embodied and philosophical orientations to the world. Students apply these in relation to their artistic practice, as well as experiment with developing their own working methods.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 110-113, 90 points from FINEARTS 205, 220-250
Fine Arts Studio 3: Capstone Project
A major studio art project that demonstrates an advanced level of practical, independent, inventive, and conceptual enquiry. Students will engage in research and studio investigation using tools, technologies, and methods appropriate to their chosen field or fields of enquiry.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 320
Corequisite: FINEARTS 322
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 321 A and B, or FINEARTS 321
Research Essay: Making Sense of Practice
A response to the capstone project, this course focuses the research essay within relevant local, international, and historical fields of practice. Considers different ways of writing and discussing art, and how different types of art may be served by different forms of interpretation.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 320
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 322 A and B, or FINEARTS 322
Postgraduate 700 Level Courses
Research Project - Level 9
A research project in fine arts and/or design.
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 756 A and B
Creative Practice Methodologies
A guided exploration of a range of key research methodologies relevant to contemporary art. Using a seminar format, this course will provide students with the research-specific, discursive and academic skills necessary for advanced creative practice.
Corequisite: FINEARTS 759
Studio
An advanced studio course in which students complete a significant studio art project that demonstrates a sustained level of practical and conceptual enquiry.
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 759 A and B, or FINEARTS 759
Contemporary Practice 1
A studio-based investigation of a specific medium of contemporary practice. Students will develop advanced conceptual capabilities in that medium and realise finished works to an advanced standard. These specialised outcomes will be informed by complementary acquisition of advanced technical skills and theoretical knowledge in co-requisite courses focused on the same medium.
Corequisite: FINEARTS 762 or 763
Creative Technology 1
A workshop-based exploration of a specific medium of contemporary practice. Students will develop advanced technical skills in that medium as an area of targeted inquiry. These advanced skills will complement the attainment of specialised creative studio capabilities and advanced theoretical knowledge in co-requisite courses focused on the same medium.
Theories of Practice 1
A seminar-based interrogation of contemporary theories and contexts pertinent to a specific medium of contemporary practice. Students will develop an advanced understanding of key critical and contextual analysis in that medium. This understanding will complement the attainment of specialised creative studio capabilities and acquired advanced technical skills focused on the same medium.
Contemporary Practice 2
A studio-based investigation of a specific medium of contemporary practice. Students will develop advanced conceptual capabilities in that medium and realise finished works to an advanced standard. These specialised outcomes will be informed by complementary acquisition of advanced technical skills and theoretical knowledge in related courses focused on the same medium.
Corequisite: FINEARTS 765 or 766
Creative Technology 2
A workshop-based exploration of a specific medium of contemporary practice. Students will develop advanced technical skills in that medium as an area of targeted inquiry. These advanced skills will complement the attainment of specialised creative studio capabilities and advanced theoretical knowledge in co-requisite courses focused on the same medium.
Theories of Practice 2
A seminar-based interrogation of theories and contexts pertinent to a specific medium of contemporary practice. Students will develop an advanced understanding of key critical and contextual analysis in that medium. This understanding will complement the attainment of specialised creative studio capabilities and acquired advanced technical skills focused on the same medium.
Studio - Level 9
A supervised studio course in which students complete a significant studio art project producing an original outcome at an advanced level that demonstrates a sustained level of independent, practical and conceptual enquiry.
Corequisite: FINEARTS 782
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 767 A and B, or FINEARTS 767
Studio - Level 9
A supervised studio course in which students complete a significant studio art project producing an original outcome at an advanced level that demonstrates a sustained level of independent, practical and conceptual enquiry.
Corequisite: FINEARTS 769
Studio Practice Essay - Level 9
A supervised, independent research essay in which students evaluate and analyse their practice and its contexts to an advanced level.
Research Methodologies - Level 9
A guided exploration of key research methodologies relevant to contemporary art and art writing. Students draw upon these methodologies to inform and critically investigate their current and ongoing independent research in the discipline at an advanced level.
Studio - Level 9
A supervised, independent studio-based investigation of an aspect of contemporary art practice to an advanced level.
Prerequisite: FINEARTS 770 and 45 points from FINEARTS 761-769, or FINEARTS 790
Corequisite: FINEARTS 780
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 779 A and B
Studio Research Essay - Level 9
A supervised, independent research essay that critically investigates a topic of pertinence to an aspect of contemporary art practice.
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 780 A and B
Research Portfolio - Level 9
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 781 A and B
Research Essay - Level 9
A supervised, independent research essay of no more than 12,000 words that critically investigates a topic of pertinence to an aspect of contemporary art practice.
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 782 A and B, or FINEARTS 782
Research Project - Level 9
A research project focused on artistic or related outcomes. Individualised research-based programmes of study are supported through a range of studio critiques, various forms of group tutorials, technical workshops, reading groups, lectures and frequent one-to-one meetings with studio staff. Research projects are thus developed through an integrated programme including studio practice, seminars, and/or written coursework and reading groups.
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 790 A and B
Research Portfolio - Level 9
A practice-based research project involving the exploration of themes in contemporary fine arts and design. The final submission of the project will be a presentation in the form of an exhibition, performance or other such outcome as approved by the Head of Fine Arts. The presentation will be supported by a written component that introduces topics and methodological directions relevant to the creative project.
Prerequisite: Departmental approval
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 795 A and B
Masters Studio - Level 9
An advanced studio based performance in fine arts and/or design.
Prerequisite: B or higher in FINEARTS 756 or 790 or 795
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 796 A and B
Fine Arts Thesis - Level 9
A thesis embodying the results obtained by the student of an original investigation or advanced study in fine arts and/or design.
Prerequisite: B or higher in FINEARTS 756 or 790 or 795
To complete this course students must enrol in FINEARTS 797 A and B