News JUST REVALIDATED

This programme, together with the MA Design for Interactive Media and MA Moving Image: Film Video Interactive Arts, has just been approved for a further six years. There was particular praise for:

• the integration of theory and practice and the opportunities provided for inter-programme working and team work
• the flexibility of the programmes and the responsiveness of the programme team to student-led learning
• the close linkage between staff research and teaching
• the richness of the facilities
• the very positive feedback from students and External Examiners.

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

The content and structure of the course are designed to allow flexibility and customisation. MASA students are welcome to attend any LCEA lectures (within the practical constraints of timetabling) and can study part-time or full-time. The MA is achieved by the accumulation of 180 credits. For a full-time student this will consist of 60 credits in each of three semesters from September to the following September. The minimum duration for a part-time student is five semesters.

Students may develop a single project throughout their studies, or a series of projects. These should be thought of as investigations with defined research objectives, even though they may involve actual productions which are part of employed work.

Written work is a vital component of the MA and serves two purposes. It allows students to demonstrate that they have reflected critically on their own practice and it encourages wide ranging reading and other research which in turn improves the projects undertaken. Within a given module, the proportion of written and practical work is negotiable, but on completion the student will normally have written a total of twelve thousand words.

Although most work in LCEA focuses on the combination of theory and practice, a wholly theoretical approach to the MA is possible, which may be based on research by any of the standard methods, including fieldwork. The student produces an investigative critical dissertation, which may deal with any from a wide range of issues: technical, social, methodological, etc. This will normally demonstrate either a comprehensive knowledge of the potential of electronic media or an in-depth understanding of a particular aspect. Skills of analysis, synthesis, research and communication should all be evident. The written work for theory students totals thirty thousand words.

The modules provide a flexible framework for students to structure their programme to achieve the required number of credits for each stage whether part-time or full-time. The personal programme of modules must be agreed with staff. Each module in a student?s agreed programme must normally be passed before progression to the next is allowed.

• 60 credits are required for Postgraduate Certificate
• 120 credits are required for Postgraduate Diploma.
• 180 credits are required for MA

The module titles are designed to be as open and non-prescriptive as possible. However, this does not mean that a student can afford to be vague in his or her personal objectives. At the start of any module except the first, the student should already have agreed with staff a set of objectives for that module, and criteria for evaluating them.

INTAKE

From the above it should be clear that the MA Sonic Arts is not generally appropriate for those wishing primarily to study sound engineering, recording studio practice or ?conventional? music production.

It does not aim to prepare students for a career in the recording industry but rather seeks to impart a broad and imaginative comprehension of sound, its perception, traditions and enabling systems within the context of a creative medium.