MA Creative and Cultural Industries

Issues in Creative and Cultural Industries, the core module for the MA Creative and Cultural Industries, introduces a range of theoretical perspectives on the cultural economy and the history of thinking about the relationship between culture, the arts and the market in a global context.

This course will introduce students to key themes, methods, and movements in the history of contemporary art through the lens of the global, with sustained attention to the transition from modernism, the spectres of colonialism and communism, transnational and diasporic subjectivities, the role of expanding markets, and the assertion of the self and the collective. To this end, recurring questions will include how contemporary art both embraces and critiques the effects of globalization, and how contemporary art has influenced the presumption of a global(ising) art history. By using case studies that include West Africa, Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and their diasporas, this course will push students to critically question the binaries of local/global, centre/periphery, modern/primitive, East/West, and North/South.

This module is designed as an overview of Global Film Industries for MA Global Creative and Cultural Industries students who may or may not have a background in Film Studies. The module will focus on approaching film languages and film industries from a decolonised perspective, paying particular attention to important films, filmmakers, and film industries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and to moments of radical rupture within mainstream film culture (particularly in relation to gender).

The Dissertation will normally follow the ‘pathway’ chosen by the student in their second core course but may alternatively be based on a theoretical issue in the study of global creative and cultural industries. The Dissertation can also be linked to optional courses, including the skills courses (Digital and Traditional Broadcasting Communication, Sound Recording and Production, and Media Production Skills) and the course Directed Studies in Industry, thereby allowing students to focus on their personal disciplinary, geographic, skills-based or thematic interests.

?This module focuses on the music business as an aspect of the contemporary Creative Industries. Using a range of theoretical perspectives combining political economy, cultural studies, media sociology, ethnomusicology and popular music studies, this module will consider issues such as ownership and control, production and consumption, music and technology, the future of genres, music journalism and careers in the music industry.

The course is designed to develop practical skills in ?digital media, informed by media scholarship. ?The principle of the module is that one of the best ways to study digital media is by making it. Students will learn about the emergence of podcasting ?as a new form of digital production, consider its relationship to traditional forms of broadcasting like radio, and work in groups to produce and publish a podcast. Students will learn a range of media production techniques; including idea management tools like Affinity Diagrams, consider a range of podcasts and the different genres they use to present information, scripting and presentation and editing (Audacity).

The framing of creativity or cultural activities as “industries” communicates an essential and much-analysed juncture at which highly subjective cultural forms and practices are ascribed economic value in a largely market-driven global economy.

This module will complement the aims and objectives of the MA Curating Cultures degree by providing teaching which focuses on the physical spaces for works of art/artefacts across cultures. It will also be object based, providing students studying any region with transferable skills. It will further use a wide range of displayed objects, including those in SOAS collections and the Brunei Gallery as the primary teaching resource. It will thus provide students of the MA Curating Cultures programme with direct experience of diverse contemporary and historical display practices in museums, galleries and commercial spaces, as well as digital modes of display.

Art and Visual Culture of Modern and Contemporary China

This module addresses the development of Korean art and visual culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The material may address a particular theme or period and may assess art produced on the Korean peninsula – North and South - as well as that by the Korean diasporas in Asia, Europe and the USA. By placing local production of the arts within a wider understanding of key issues, such as modernity, nationalism, globalisation and gender, the development of a Korean visual aesthetic will be addressed.

The material examined may include paintings, sculpture, textiles and/or ceramics, produced in North and South Korea as well as by the Korean diaspora in addition to recent developments within the art world including the use of performance, installation and video art.

Curating Cultures is designed to equip students with a range of critical, theoretical and practical approaches to curating. Themes and issues addressed on the course will include: histories and ideologies of curating; theories of collecting, interpreting objects and writing exhibition texts; contemporary issues and critical debates; exhibition programming and design; collections management and conservation. In particular, the course will provide an in-depth knowledge of the practical, intellectual and ethical issues involved in the interpretation and display of the SOAS teaching collections, and will culminate in student-led, group exhibitions of these collections in the SOAS Library. By providing practical, hands-on experiences of curating, the course will develop students’ knowledge and understanding of aspects of the exhibition development process, as well as team-working, organisational and communication skills. The course will appeal to students wishing to pursue careers as curators in museums or galleries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

This course will introduce students to key themes, methods, and movements in the history of contemporary art through the lens of the global, with sustained attention to the transition from modernism, the spectres of colonialism and communism, transnational and diasporic subjectivities, the role of expanding markets, and the assertion of the self and the collective. To this end, recurring questions will include how contemporary art both embraces and critiques the effects of globalization, and how contemporary art has influenced the presumption of a global(ising) art history. By using case studies that include West Africa, Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and their diasporas, this course will push students to critically question the binaries of local/global, centre/periphery, modern/primitive, East/West, and North/South.

Engaging with debates surrounding race, gender, colonialism, modernity and decoloniality, this module critically introduces theories and methods prevalent in art history and explores the discipline’s increasing inclusion of forms of knowledge salient to understanding artistic production and reception in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and their diasporas.

This module is designed as an overview of Global Film Industries for MA Global Creative and Cultural Industries students who may or may not have a background in Film Studies. The module will focus on approaching film languages and film industries from a decolonised perspective, paying particular attention to important films, filmmakers, and film industries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and to moments of radical rupture within mainstream film culture (particularly in relation to gender).

In this module we review the principles which underpin the UNESCO treaty, the shift from cultural preservation to cultural sustainability, questions of ownership, authenticity, economics, and rights. We take a case study approach to intangible cultural heritage across East and Central Asia, exploring the gaps between the principles enshrined in the convention, the priorities of the nation states which are signatories to the convention, and the management of heritage on the ground.

This module introduces history, theory and methodology in the study of Taiwan cinema through examining key works by major filmmakers from Taiwan and the Chinese diaspora as well as the socio-cultural condition of their production, distribution, exhibition and consumption. Special attention will be paid to issues such as the construction of local and national identities through film, national film historiography, as well as mainstream and alternative film practices.

The module is designed to offer a critical overview of Chinese cinema, and its progression from the beginning to the present day. It will be looking at how actors and directors are involved in the industry.

The module is designed to offer a critical overview of Japanese cinema, and its progression from the beginning to the present day. It will look at how actors and directors are involved in the industry.

A central component of globalization is the mass movements of people and the consequent growth of a variety of communities and networks whose lives are played out across and beyond national borders. Media and communications are central to the lives and practices of such collectivities and take many different forms. Many diasporas have developed a range of media channels to bind members and maintain connection with the homeland. Religious communities are amongst the biggest transnational media players, for example in the development of Christian broadcasting channels or the multiplicity of sites for Koranic interpretation on the Net.

This course combines practical and theoretical study. Classes will be taught primarily in the music recording studio, with content being a combination of lectures and practical work.

This module explores current debates in music history and examines how we might understand the cultivation, evolution, and erasure of music over time from a global perspective. We will examine case studies from across the global south, and consider the connected histories between regions. This module is suitable for all levels of experience, and there is no requirement for you to have studied music before.

The module will examine key issues pertaining to the representation of genders and sexualities in a selection of films made by South East Asian filmmakers.