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Assignment

This unit is designed to enable you to identify, form and develop collaborative working relationships via a range of potential approaches.

You will collaborate with fellow MA IVM students, choosing from preselected themes to create a group body of work which you will then then curate and hang in a small, internal work in progress exhibition at LCC.

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Exhibition

The nature of the collaboration will involve working on a project whose objectives are agreed by your tutors/group and will take the form of a body of work that can happen within the college or digitally / remotely.

You must be able to present your final group work in an exhibition. The focus of the unit is student-driven collaboration with projects being developed to meet the specific requirements of the preselected themes within and across disciplinary boundaries.

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Exhibition Dates

Week 17

Hanging Dates: 9th Feb

Open for 3 days

10th-12th Feb

LCC

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*Option

This could if you wish, also include collaborating with other postgraduate students at other Higher Education Institutions; external parties (e.g., companies, cultural organisations, community based groups, NGOs, charities etc.)

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Assessment Requirements

This unit is assessed holistically (100% of the unit). Assessment will be against the specified marking criteria.

The assessment for this unit is through a

portfolio of work that will include research, project work, critical analysis, and an individual critical self-reflection on the nature of collaborative working and learning.

To be submitted as 1 single PDF file containing your proposal, development work and outcome(s) for the project

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The collaborative unit will allow you to define who you are as a collaborator and support you to create a small-scale collaboration resulting in a work in progress exhibition.

Over 6 weeks you will develop an understanding of what collaboration could be and how you can locate collaboration within your own practice. You could for example, collaborate with other students at UAL, another institution, an item of technology, an external organisation such as a museum, archive, charity, community-group or company or, another creative practitioner you have come across whilst doing research for the Critical or Emergent Image.

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Proposal

During the unit you will be asked to present a proposal detailing the collaboration you wish to undertake. This will have to include:

who the collaborators are
what the project is
the reason you have chosen to collaborate on this project (how does it relate to your work and research)
what your role in the project is
what you expect the outcome to be (this can change as you progress through the project)
any problems you expect to encounter and how you can overcome these

At the end of the unit, you will submit the documentation of the work you have made/taken on in response to your proposed project. There are no set expectations on what you should make – this should be defined by you based on your research, seminar participation and development of your proposal during the initial weeks of the unit.

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It is important that you are ambitious in your collaboration and consider it as a research-led task like everything else on the course – do not develop commercially-led projects that will mean you fall short of academic standards...this is not a commercial project but moreover an opportunity for you to interrogate and reflect on the processes of collaboration in an experimental, postgraduate context.

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The first 4 weeks of Collaborative Unit will be supported by Juliet, Harriet, Emma and Emily with dedicated theme groups. You will develop your thinking and research through one themed group over the four weeks, and continue your independent work for the WIP show and the submission on the 19th March afterwards. You are invited to fill out the form for your selected theme group.

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Glitching the machine

Breaking the image open : gender process and materiality

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01 - glitching the machine

Start with the research and images you already have - photographs, film stills, scans, archives, screenshots - and learn how to break them open. This unit is an invitation to work with the glitch: the productive “slippage” that happens when you reprint, re-scan, copy, compress, distort, mistranslate, or materially interrupt an image. Using Walter Benjamin’s ideas around mechanical reproduction as a springboard, you’ll challenge the authority of photographic “truth,” test what an image can hold, and discover how errors, artefacts, and repetitions can generate new meanings - emotionally, politically, and visually. If you’re interested in bold making, critical thinking, and pushing your practice beyond the “perfect” image, this unit is for you.

Across three energetic seminars, you’ll experiment with collaborative methods drawn from Dada, Surrealism, Situationist and Feminist practices - including montage and collage, print, assemblage, accidental juxtaposition, decalcomania, and participatory approaches - to reimagine visual storytelling in unexpected ways. You’ll explore how groups create rich, effective work through decentralised authorship, shared voice, intersectional thinking, and process over product, with a strong focus on community, agency, and social change. Alongside this, we’ll engage Legacy Russell’s “glitch feminism”, reframing glitch as more than an aesthetic: a strategy of refusal and transformation that disrupts dominant systems and opens space for multiplicity, ambiguity, and new forms of representation.

Expect a unit that rewards play, risk, experimentation, and collaboration - where your material choices matter, your process is valued, and “mistakes” become your most powerful tools. By the end, you’ll have expanded technical and conceptual strategies for working across media, and a sharper sense of how the glitch can communicate, critique, and connect.

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Chronoplacisity sophie Podolski

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The Spectacular in the Banal

Visual Journaling & Documentation

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02 -The spectacular in the banal

As we move through our day-to-day lives, we are constantly confronted by details, scenes, and stories that are fleeting and usually lost — interactions between strangers and friends. Strange juxtapositions of objects. Humorous moments. ‘Unexpected objects in the bagging area’.

Throughout history, documentation of the mundane details of everyday life has often been neglected. And yet — decades or centuries later — it is precisely these everyday details that we find most fascinating and important.

Despite being in an age of unprecedented recording, human nature tends still to focus on the polished, the extraordinary, the glossy. You are encouraged to see the spectacular in the banal. In the details of life which often pass us by.

Through four sessions, you will be encouraged to think about ways of capturing and visualising such tiny ‘slice of life’ moments. There will be practical exercises to accompany each short lecture which will expand your practice and encourage you to work in new ways. You will be encouraged to develop a practice of noticing and documenting — of seeing the value in the fleeting, and the importance of telling real stories in small ways.

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Shadows and She

Unveiling Power, Fear, and Transformation

in the Monstrous Feminine

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03 -Shadows & She

Explore and interpret the concept of the monstrous feminine through collaborative creative practice. Drawing on themes from feminist theory, mythology, psychology, horror, and social critique, this theme challenges us to interrogate cultural representations of gendered femininity as “monstrous” and the societal anxieties these depictions often mask. From ancient myths of the Gorgon to modern depictions of femme fatales or the "hysterical" vengeful spirits, the monstrous feminine is a mirror reflecting society’s fears and biases around gender, power, and autonomy.

Consider the roots of the monstrous feminine—whether through archetypes, stereotypes, or societal constructs.

Reflect on how these depictions have been used to vilify women, queer identities, or nonconforming bodies.

Engage with the underlying power dynamics, questioning who creates these narratives and why.

Social Consciousness: Your work should address contemporary social issues linked to the theme. Consider intersections with topics such as body politics, gender identity, mental health, race, and power structures.

How does the monstrous feminine manifest today in media, politics, or personal experiences?

Challenge or Reclaim the Narrative: Artists have the power to subvert and reclaim narratives. You might choose to embrace the monstrous as a form of empowerment, dismantle its harmful connotations, or reimagine its meaning. Can the monstrous feminine be a source of strength, defiance, or liberation?

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Jamie Clayton Hellraiser: Bloodline 2022

Mire Lee Open Wound 2024

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The Lives of Objects

How are objects tied to the ways we live and experience the world?

What stories can we tell with and through objects?

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04 -The Lives of Objects

The Lives of Objects is a four-part workshop series that explores how objects shape the ways we live, experience, and understand the world. Moving beyond the idea of objects as passive, the series invites participants to consider objects as active agents in the construction of meaning, identity, and everyday life.

Drawing on theory such as Sara Ahmed’s conception of use and Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), we will examine how objects are embedded in social, cultural, and political contexts, and how their use is never neutral or straightforward. Ahmed’s work highlights how objects orient us, guiding our actions, relationships, and sense of belonging. OOO challenges human-centred perspectives by emphasizing the independent reality of objects beyond human perception or use.

Through discussion, observation, and making, you will explore what stories objects tell: about memory and identity, labour and power, habit and desire, and the complex relationships between humans and the material world. This series offers new ways of seeing, thinking with, and telling stories through the objects that shape our lives

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From top left to bottom right:

Sara Ahmed, What’s the Use?, 2019
Katherine Behar, Object Oriented Feminisms (Posthumanities), 2016
Hew Locke, Sikandar. 2010
Sin Kai Win, Impressions, 2016
Jasleen Kaur, Journey back in time … 2022

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This unit will start next week:

Today we would like you to make your choice of themes from the pre written briefs choose one preferred - second choice or happy to try anything!

You are welcome to attend other seminars and can enjoy the different content across the course in addition to your core class.

We will have four groups of equal size so please keep an open mind between options

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Practical Information:

Timeline: The exhibition will take place 10-12th Feb 2026
Completed works must be submitted by arrangement with the team before these dates
Space: LCC (Exact space *TBC)
Support: Workshops, seminars, crits and tutorials will be held to support your research and creative development. Please make sure to attend all sessions

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Deliverables:

A finished artwork(s) for exhibition.
A brief artist statement (approximately 150 words) that contextualizes your piece within the theme and your practice.
Research and reflection (approx 200 words) documented on Workflow *this can be included in your final submission pdf
A brief group statement (approximately 500 words) that contextualizes your groups work, approach to the theme and collaboration.
1 single PDF file containing your proposal, personal development work and personal outcome(s) for the project (uploaded to Moodle by 3pm 19th March 2026).

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workflow

https://support.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2024/09/09/workflow-getting-started/

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Gavin & Rachel on Mondays

Gavin Monday 12.30-2 Language support - every week

Rachel Mondays Lecture series

Slow looking 20/1
Photographic and the machine 26/1
Nostalgia 24/2

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