Contemporary Art Theory MA

Established in 2001, the Masters of Contemporary Art Theory (MA CAT) is a post-studio programme that supports the research and practices of artists and aspiring art professionals. <br/><br/>The MA CAT encourages practices that are speculative and reflective, developing artistic research on, and in, a range of media, sites and organisations. <br/><br/>The programme supports an applied knowledge of art now, grounding schooling in the practices of art and contemporary art theory as well as extra-disciplinary and intermedial approaches. <br/><br/>The taught curriculum consists of an innovative series of learning sprints designed to support the development of your artistic research and practice through: <br/><br/><br/>* workshops <br/><br/><br/>* practica <br/><br/><br/>* partnerships with art organisations <br/><br/><br/>* carefully scaffolded approaches to collaborative inquiry (‘problem-based learning’) <br/><br/><br/>* peer-production (‘paragogy’). <br/><br/><br/>You will create art projects designed to engage and develop emerging hypereconomies of contemporary art and its variety of media, technologies, images, artefacts, tactics, texts, cultural contexts and professional practices. <br/><br/>**Our philosophy and values**<br/><br/>A defining aspect of our theory programme is the emphasis we place upon speculative scepticism – not starting from the position of knowing what post-studio practice is; rather, being motivated by speculation on what it might be. <br/><br/>We generate a paragogic atmosphere that supports mutual cooperation; a dynamic, intellectually ambitious environment in which staff and students can learn together. <br/><br/>You will generate and embody an assemblage of practices, combining process of production, translation and consumption. Our students make this happen; they often work on collaborative forms of practice and inquiry. The programme staff are therefore eager to support applicants based on their ability to work as part of a creative team as much as we are interested in their artistic and academic potential. <br/><br/>The focus on building a supportive creative community through innovative forms of peer-generated knowledge (such as open learning and problem-based learning), on the rigorous and experimental combination of theory and practice and the international profile of the student body makes our master’s programme unique. <br/><br/>The CAT faculty and our partnership organisations regularly identify and examine what are (currently) accepted notions of artistic production as a means of encouraging our students to develop a highly ambitious research-practice. <br/><br/>To do this, academic staff aim to provide specialist support for students wishing to pursue research on and in established fields of contemporary art practices and theory, while fully engaging with the ever-changing context of emerging media and innovative forms of critical and organisational praxis.<br/><br/>**What and how you will study**<br/><br/>Artists think and act. Being contemporary means engaging with multiple perspectives and different ways of learning. Students of contemporary art theory conduct research in relation to a broad range of creative, cultural and historical contexts in ways that are speculative, writerly, philosophical, organisational, social and economic. <br/><br/>The MA CAT is an integrated curriculum specifically crafted to develop an understanding of multiple perspectives in ways that open different possibilities for our graduates from those offered by cookie-cutter MFA studio and curatorial programmes. This means focusing not only on what we teach, but on how we learn, and on the many different environments we learn in. <br/><br/>On the CAT programme, artistic learning and research is conducted in a wealth of settings: in galleries, biennale, residencies, art fairs, and - of course - through artistic and theoretical practice. <br/><br/>Artistic learning and research are exploded networks; our students learn how to pool and share resources to cultivate a climate in which all communities flourish.