Background

The department aims to build on existing foundations - there are currently a number of well established introductory courses which cover aspects of art and design beyond Europe and North America, including Chinese and Japanese art and design at Level 1. The university also has a franchise in Singapore. UCE's constituency is a multicultural one; Birmingham has a small China town and the university has a number of students from Southeast Asia. A level 2 course in Japanese art is currently delivered by a visiting lecturer who will teach the course for one more year. Both staff members involved, Dr Mike Harrison (Deputy Head of School) and Jonathan Day (Senior Lecturer), are keen to widen their own knowledge base and develop a sophisticated knowledge in the area of Japanese and Chinese Art and Design.

Aims and Objectives

To develop staff knowledge and improve the resources available for delivering the existing provisions for Chinese and Japanese art and design courses at levels I and 2. This is a two-strand project:

1). Level 1 course: Jonathan Day will introduce a multi-media application for one of the school's key globally focused courses in order to change modes of delivery. Slides, video (via a VHS player and projector), OHP's and objects are currently exploited in teaching. Previous involvement in multi-media authoring indicates that some of the dynamic possibilities of computers could usefully be integrated into delivery. The possibilities are exciting; animated diagrams, images with staged information and the like, alongside the incorporation of materials currently exploited through more traditional means. Students are ever more demanding in terms of delivery, thanks to the incredible pace of development in visual media. We are committed to remaining somewhere near to the edge of this wave in our presentation of World art, because we believe it is important in countering possible perceptions of the materials considered as 'old-fashioned', 'quaint', or any other cipher for 'irrelevant'. We would like to share of this multi-media work, but this will be dependent on copyright costs.

2). Level 2 course: This course, which involves a series of lectures and seminars on Japanese and Chinese art and architecture will be delivered by Jonathan Day and Mike Harrison. Jonathan Day will focus on painting, works on paper, moving images and multi-media, while Mike Harrison will cover architecture, planning and 3 dimensional design.

Resources

The slides and books purchased will add to the existing collection. The library will support the purchase of the materials. Images will be drawn from books, material owned and collected by Jonathan Day and Mike Harrison and also local material. Copyright issues will be a major constraint on the project and will shape access to the resource.

Timescale

Groups Affected

Jonathan Day and Mike Harrison in the Art History department will be initiating the change. Art history students at levels 1 and 2 will benefit from the modified courses.

Back to top