| Unit name | Creative Technologies |
|---|---|
| Unit code | THTR20024 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Wilson |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
Making Theatre |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of Theatre |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Theatre underwent seismic shifts during the pandemic, which closed buildings but presented unparalleled opportunities to engage larger, more diverse, and more international audiences than ever before via digital means. These changes are here to stay. Early-career artists especially have benefited from exciting opportunities to make and share work free from the costs and gatekeeping processes of traditional theatre venues. At the same time, the emergence of a range of creative and immersive technologies over the past few years has offered brand new creative potentials that can be used to enrich and enhance performance-making practices within live co-present space. This unit will introduce you to a variety of cutting-edge forms of practice designed both to bring creative technologies into theatres, and to bring performance into the digital realm. This might include immersive technologies, augmented and virtual reality, motion-capture, locative/place-based media, artificial intelligence, and online theatre. It will also introduce you to a wide range of tools for discussing and reflecting critically on these experiences, evaluating their cultural value, as well as developing them responsibly, considering the psychological and ethical implications of immersive technologies and issues of access and inclusion. No prior experience is necessary.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This optional unit embeds technical and conceptual competencies and knowledge of creative technologies, so you can apply these to a performance project of your own design. After the initial series of seminars, workshops and demonstrations you will work in groups to devise and produce an assessed digital performance project. This will develop your ability to apply the forms/techniques you have explored as well as your ability to collaborate and communicate as part of a team. You will become familiar with a range of contemporary digital performance practitioners and the strategies they use, which you will then be able to draw on and adapt in the development of your own creative project.
An overview of content:
Through a series of seminars, practical workshops, demonstrations and skills sessions, students will build their confidence in a range of creative digital performance and production skills. The students will have the opportunity to engage in independent research and explore case studies of contemporary digital performance projects, as well as working in groups on formative and summative practical performance and creative technology projects.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of this unit:
The unit aims to embed theoretical and practical knowledge and understanding ways of integrating immersive media and creative technologies into live performance, so students can go on to apply these to their final year performance and written assignments. For the summative group creative project, students will work in teams to apply the techniques/processes to create an approximately 20-minute piece performance that involves creative technologies. This project will develop their ability to collaborate and communicate with each other, specifically enabling them to integrate technologies into future practical work. These effective teamwork skills will also be transferrable to a wide range of professional contexts.
Learning outcomes:
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1) demonstrate an understanding of the ways creative technologies are used in a broad range of contemporary theatre and performance practices;
2) demonstrate an awareness of the theoretical, theatrical, and experiential concerns that guide the use of creative technologies in theatre and performance;
3) identify relevant techniques, creative technologies, and digital practices, and reflect on their use in their developing creative practice.
4) develop performance material at the intersections of theatre and creative technologies through a process of feedback and revision.
Weekly 2-hour seminar and 2-hour creative workshop
Weekly seminars will introduce students to: key digital performance case studies that use different technologies; relevant theoretical concepts, for instance around immersion, presence and embodiment; methodological and ethical techniques for critically analysing mediated experiences. Weekly hands-on practical workshops will introduce students to a range of methods of creating content, designing, directing and performing with creative technologies and/or in immersive environments. The students will then work in teams to experiment with creative technologies in performance. For the last 4 weeks of the unit students will have this time to work in groups to devise and develop their performance projects, with tutors providing weekly feed-forward on work-in-progress.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Formative Presentation: Students will give a presentation that pitches an idea for their group creative project; the form it will take, the technologies involved, and the audience intended. (0%, not required for credit)
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Individual practitioner case study presentation (30%) [ILOs 1,2]
20-minute Group Performance Project with 300-word framing statement (70%) [ILOs 1-4]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. THTR20024).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
