DI204-30 Term 2 and 3 DI202-15 Term 2 DI201-15 Term 3

Module Leader

Adela Glyn-Davies

Optional Core - Second year only

Terms 2 and/or 3

30 or 15 CATS

29.5 workshop hours and 10 lecture hours (30 CATS variant) 18.25 workshop hours and 9 lecture hours (15 CATS variant)

Not available to students outside the School for Cross-Faculty Studies.

All lectures and seminars will be face to face unless otherwise stated in Moodle

For session preparation and further info, visit the module Moodle space via this link

Please note this webpage refers to the module as planned for 2024-2025. For other versions, please refer to the module catalogue: Module information

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Materials are foundational to our very existence, in how we exist, perceive ourselves and others, our environments, our histories and our futures. This module explores approaches to materials through a transdisciplinary lens and an international perspective. It combines theoretical and practical approaches that call on both the sciences and the humanities to consider and interact with materials. Students will be able to pursue a diverse series of routes assessing the lives of materials through their qualities and transformations, and will learn from a range of people who work professionally with materials in their academic and professional careers.

Principal Aims

To understand the ethical, political, social, economic and cultural aspects of the material world. To develop methods for the creation of a personal taxonomy of the qualities of materials. To establish and hone methods of verbal, visual, material and textual communication in relation to ideas about, and qualities of materials. To evolve diverse methods of research that enable the effective analysis and understanding of materials (whether practical or theoretical). To appreciate the interconnectedness of diverse disciplinary approaches.

Principal Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students will be able to:

• Recognise, identify and record the scope and complexity of material worlds.
• Describe and critically assess the interplay of materials with ourselves, our physical, social and psychological worlds.
• Critically analyse and interrogate the complexity of material worlds through multidisciplinary methods.
• Demonstrate awareness of the ethical consideration of materials.
• Develop methods of textual, visual, material and verbal communication about materials.
• Develop effective and diverse research methods appropriate to both the theoretical and practical investigation of materials.

Syllabus

The 15 credit unit would be taught alongside the 30 credit module. The teaching will cover: original myths, chains of being, the resource model, global resources, ecological perception and economies of matter, materiality vs. materials, flows and surfaces, subject and object, digital materialities and future myths.

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Living with Materials assessment (DI204-30)

Title	Type	Length	Weight	Final Chronological	Eligible for self-certification
Reassessment component is the same
Materials Taxonomy	Portfolio assignment	3000 words	50%	No	Yes (extension)
Student preparation and completion time (hours)	50
Description	Students will produce their own taxonomies of materials and these should be communicated in a diverse range of ways through theory, making practice and curation (this might be physical or virtual). The word limit does not constitute the sum total of production but merely the textual contribution. Should the student wish to write more and work less visually, they may do so through negotiation with the tutor.

Living with Materials Assessment (DI202-15 or DI201-15)

Title	Type	Length	Weight	Final Chronological	Eligible for self-certification
Reassessment component is the same
Materials Taxonomy	Portfolio assignment	2000 words	30%	No	Yes (extension)
Student preparation and completion time (hours)	50
Description	This assignment can be done as either a largely practical assignment (e.g. the development of new materials or the physical analysis of materials) with 2000 word write up or as a purely theoretical analysis of the development of a new material, or reuse of an old material or process for 4000 words. This would be an assessment of its usefulness and possible applications, as well as the more academic connotations of the materials transformation, selection or application.

Title	Type		Length	Weight	Final chronological	Eligible for self-certification
Reassessment component is the same
Materials Festival	Presentation - Group - Marked collectively		10 minutes	20%	Yes	No
Student preparation and completion time (hours)	25
Description	To produce a critical display/exhibition that curates the examination of certain qualities/politics/applications of materials. The physical presentation will be accompanied by a short verbal presentation.

Materials Festival	Essay	2000 words	Yes (extension)
Description	A summary of the presentation that the group undertook and a full explanation of its components and the critical argument it was addressing.

 Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught by the staff listed on this page.