This examines the critical, theoretical, historical and philosophical contexts of contemporary art practice and bridges the relationship between theory and practice providing pathways for both practitioners and theorists. This radically new programme, bringing artists and theorists, cultural practitioners and critics together, was first delivered in 2006. More information about this programme is available from
The programme’s innovative study modules include:
* Modernity in Fragments: covering the concept of modernity and critical moments in the elaboration of the art and culture of modernity.
* Practices of Dissent: Avant-gardes, Sub-cultures + Elites: the emergence within modernity of dissenting cultural practices with particular attention to avant-garde, sub-cultural, counter-cultural and elite formations.
Being Different: The Public Intellectual and the Claims of Art. This programme addresses the public intellectual in a visual cultural context, rather than the more familiar literary context.
* Unfinished Work: Art, Anti-Art and Disciplinarity: covers the range and diversity of current international and local art practices with particular attention to those that do not easily accommodate themselves to established critical canons or interpretative practices.
* Agon: Democracy, the Multitude + the Global Moment: the globalised context of cultural consumption as it shapes consumption and production of contemporary art and visual culture. Issues addressed include distribution networks/nature of audiences/new media publics/emergent cultural markets/multiple constituencies/stakeholders in new cultural production and the emergence of a global culture industry.
* Agora: Cultural Situations, Spatial Practices and the Everyday: the relationship between spatial design, construction of everyday spaces and elaboration of cultural practices. It also examines critical relationships between art and the everyday.
* Terror, Spectacle and Dangerous Ambiguity: the nature of terror, anxiety, shock and the uncanny in media and art, with particular reference to threatening ambiguity in visual imagery.
* Fugitive Rhetorics: Art + Philosophy Now: the intersection of philosophy and contemporary art, with particular reference to emergent voices in contemporary theory. This lecture series examines the exchange and interaction of ambitious thought and art.
* Research Methods: What are the research issues in the development of contemporary art? What does research mean for the practitioner? How does one go about developing a research project in contemporary art and visual culture?
* Major Research Project: An opportunity for each student to evolve a self-set project examining themes/questions and engaging particular personal interests in contemporary art and culture.
* This is a taught programme with lectures and seminars on two days of the week for full-time students, and on one day of the week for part-time students. The duration of the programme is 12 months full-time, 24 months part-time. Students attend classes from September to June, and submit a major piece of work in the autumn.
Students can apply for one of two pathways:
Theory Pathway
This is an academic route which welcomes graduates from a variety of backgrounds, including fine art, art history, philosophy, film studies, communications or design.
Combined practice and theory pathway
This route encourages students to produce practical and academic work. Intended for artists, it combines making art work with a smaller volume of written work.
Typical fees for this programme are €4,500 without studio, €4,700 with full-time studio or €2,300 part-time. For non-EU students the fees are approximately €17,000 euro. (These figures are guidelines and subject to annual revision).
Application Guidelines
Theory Pathway
1. Applicants submit a clear statement of intent (minimum of 500 words) indicating the reason for wishing to pursue the programme. » 5 copies
2. Applicants submit a recent example of written work. » 5 copies
Practice & Theory Pathway
1. Applicants submit a clear statement of intent (minimum of 500 words) indicating the reason for wishing to pursue the programme. » 5 copies
2. Applicants submit a recent example of written work. » 5 copies
3. The application must be supported by visual documentation or other documentation demonstrating previous practical work: slides, CD, video, catalogues. Slides must be accompanied by a slide list.