Programme
undergraduate
Please make sure to refer to the Faculty of Humanities Student Handbook for detailed information regarding the rules that apply at the school. undergraduate
1st Year Studio Work, Foundation Course, Discourse of Art, Access information and the general first year timetable -click here to view these. You can also download the Humanities Handbook on Citation and Related Matters.
First Year: FIN1001W, FIN1005WFIN1001W - Studiowork - First Year
First year studiowork is the introductory course for all BAFA programme majors. The course has a common structure and aim and deals with the generic creative processes of fine art practice preparatory to discipline specific studies. Disciplines taught are drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking and design. The course is designed to develop confidence and understanding in the management, manipulation and resourcing from both observation and concept.
The aims of the First Year Fine Art Studiowork course are:
- To introduce the generic language of Fine Art practices.
- To introduce students to the scholarly and practical skills preparatory to specialist study.
- To introduce methods of resourcing and developing imaginative and creative responses to observations and concepts.
- To introduce the historical and theoretical context of art practices.
- To develop the student’s ability to research, investigate and be critical.
Notes, Projects and Assignments
FIN1005W - Foundation Course - First Year
The foundation course aims to introduce students to critical and creative thinking and critical literacy, paying attention to academic reading and writing and communication skills. The major focus is on visual literacy.
The common theme is “representation and display”(specifically in relation to the body and heritage) and the ways in which this reflects power, politics, gender and identity. Case studies are used to introduce students to core concepts, issues, theories and approaches to knowledge-construction. The galleries and museums in the museum spine adjacent to are the archive for the realisation of specific projects. General themes are explored in relation to individual exhibits. Students are introduced to both African and other comparative examples. The course has a contemporary focus and where appropriate explores historical origins. Students learn to articulate and contextualise their own creative production. Visualisation and visual retention are stressed.
Notes, Projects and Assignments
Compulsory Studio Course: FIN2026W, FIN3021HFIN2026W – Core Practice 2 – Second Year
This course will be seen as a continuation of the first year fine art foundation course. The course will be a combination of practice that is core to the programme in second year, rather than just drawing as core. Practise, in this course, may be largely drawing, but will also include other forms of practice. Projects will include both a theory and a creative practical component and may be executed in the form of illustrated posters, curated exhibitions with accompanying mini-catalogue, or drawing and other studiowork projects.
Projects and Assignments
FIN3021H - Digital Arts - Third Year:
Videography, Digital Lithography, Sound, CAD/CAM, AnimationThis core third year course aims to familiarise participants with aspects of new media in the digital domain. Candidates choose one elective per semester out of those on offer. Owing to space and other restraints, we may limit class sizes. Consequently, intending candidates in oversubscribed electives may be required to submit a brief motivation in support of their choice of the Digital Arts elective. Examination will not necessarily be based solely on the assessment of finished artworks. Attendance and participation in classes, as well as proficiency in software applications is important. Generally speaking, 50% of the course mark will be based on participation in the class, and 50% on an examinable artwork. The course is aimed at enrichment.
Videography
Videography runs over two two-week sessions and aims to give participants a working understanding of video art and video production within the limitations of desktop video editing applications. Session one introduces students to the concept of video art, as well as the project for the session, and includes an introduction to Adobe Premiere video editing software. Introduction to digitalisation of footage, from analogue to the digital domain, also occurs in week one. Participants will use sampled and scratched audio and video footage captured in week one for realising the aims of the project. Session two involves camera technique (Sony Hi 8 and digital video cameras) and a more rigorous approach to narrative and composition. Students work in teams of three, on chosen locations, to produce material for editing down to a three-minute work.
Project outlines
Digital Lithography
Digital Lithography is a 1st semester elective that is offered to third year students.
Project outlines
Book Arts
Students are introduced to key notions surrounding Book Arts. Discussions are held around the history and construction of the book and students are encouraged to challenge and interrogate those conventions. There are two weeks of technical instruction. Johan Maree of the Conservation Unit provides a week-long workshop in which students produce a standard codex bound book. They also explore various non-adhesive techniques. The layout programme Quark is taught in the second week. Students are encouraged to use this technology in the production of their final Book Art object.
Project outlines
Sound
What you hear is not what you get. Sound is a blind medium that draws the best images from memory. This is a first semester elective that will introduce students to various nuances of Sound Art
Project outlines
Studiowork Majors - Painting: FIN2011W, FIN3011W, FIN4006W
- Sculpture: FIN2012W, FIN3012W, FIN4007W
- Photography: FIN2013W, FIN3013W, FIN4008W
- Printmedia: FIN2024W, FIN3024W, FIN4013W
- New Media: FIN2025W, FIN3025W, FIN414W
Painting: FIN2011W, FIN3011W, FIN4006WIntroduction
Except for fourth year, and the second semester in third year, Painting students engage with structured studio-based projects. The Painting section builds on assignments set in first year, that range from hard-core perceptual instruction and guidance grounded on traditional formal pictorial principles, to carefully administrated third year student's self motivated proposals. Teaching in the first and second years lay emphasis upon perceptual and conceptual learning. First year projects include rigorous retinal exercises in achromatic tonal recognition. They include formal description, spatial articulation and visual composition. The difficulty level is high, and thus techniques or skills in concentrated observation are taught. The projects are also geared towards students being able to acquire skills in self-evaluation. The development of students' critical faculties is important. Second year students receive projects of an increased level of sophistication. These projects deal with understanding the 'real' and techniques of illusionist simulation through the medium of rendered collage. Content is not ignored. Application and studio discipline are encouraged. Projects are designed for completion within the allocated studio time.
Our fourth year approach is strongly theoretical. Stress is placed on 'life after Michaelis'. We encourage students to view fourth year as preparation for a solo exhibition of a professional standard. "Professional" means them being able to be internationally competitive within the context of their chosen field of study. Career guidance is deemed important and students' abilities are reviewed with them in that respect .
Painting has seen enormous change garnering much debate as to its status, particularly now, in contemporary art practice. Some argue that the discipline is dead, faced with the onslaught of New Media widespread in international Fine Arts practice. We are unafraid to teach the basics of a tradition at the School, but at the same time we ensure that our graduates are equipped for competition anywhere. Therefore we consent to the discipline being interrogated or even dispensed with if students wish to move across boundaries into other creative media. Our courses therefore reflect the complex and changing conditions of art today, by responding to new ideas and encouraging innovation, although not at the expense of neglecting vital traditions. In this research active environment, students have the opportunity to extend their work into areas such as video and installation. The Painting section at the school has been successful in producing graduates who are achieving some success in the visual arts in all its forms, and of late in new forms.
At a time when issues confronting the student painter are complex, the programme seeks to offer an awareness of painting as a medium not unconnected, but essentially linked, to other areas of humanities research.
FIN2011W - Painting - Second Year
This hands on course offers a broad exposure to the full range of painting techniques including oil, acrylic, collage and mixed media. Students are also instructed in the preparation of surfaces and grounds. The broad principles of two dimensional design, composition, colour, texture, line, perspective and elements of composition to name a few are elucidated. Although second year emphasises technical skills development, the history of the genre and its place in contemporary art is not ignored. Projects are therefore designed to include specific reference to condition of painting locally and internationally.
Projects
FIN3011W - Painting - Third Year
The aim of the course is to provide the opportunity for students to expand their ideas and technical abilities. First semester projects aim to free up the students technical and theoretical grasp of the medium that encourages an original approach or ‘signature style’. We link this to confidence building whereby students are assisted to develop powers of objective self-criticism. Advanced techniques are taught through projects leading to specialisation in the development of self-motivated fields of study in preparation for their fourth year in the second semester.
Project outlines
FIN4006W - Painting - Fourth Year
The final year of the course sees the student work through an individually negotiated programme of study geared towards professional practice. Each student, in consultation with lecturers is obliged to produce a research proposal strongly embedded in theory and practice. Ongoing tutorial support throughout the year aims to achieve a substantial, original, coherent and professional body of work able to be presented not only for graduation but in the marketplace as well.
A successful student, at the end of fourth year will show a high level of individual mastery of craft and a sense of engagement with the critical discourse of the chosen medium.
Project outlines
Resources and Facilities
A workshop for the production of various surfaces from conventional panels and canvases for painting upon to complex framing and polymorphic forms is situated in the Michaelis building. Small power and other woodworking tools are available to students. Safe usage of tools is emphasised for the sake of student’s eyes and hands. The workshop operator administers a medicine chest.
Sculpture: FIN2012W, FIN3012W, FIN4007WThe scope for sculpture has become almost limitless, as its boundaries have expanded to encompass both traditional and contemporary media from construction, casting and fabrication through to video performance and installation. The course acknowledges these developments and actively encourages students to think independently and critically, gaining a command of the conceptual and technical processes appropriate to this expanded field of sculptural practice.
The course aims to develop the practical and philosophical understanding of the subject of sculpture and to produce students whose work represents the wide range of sculpture activity, as it exists in contemporary practice. The course develops practical skills and the ability to mediate ideas through materials and process, and the ability and confidence to critique and communicate historical and contemporary developments through the integration of theory and process.
FIN2012W - Sculpture - Second Year
The second year focuses the development of visual ideas through materials, process and theory at an intermediate level. Set projects identify key aspects of sculptural language providing opportunities to develop new skills in modelling and casting, metalwork and ceramics. Strategies for critically analysing work are taught through group critiques and tutorials.
Project outlines
FIN3012W - Sculpture - Third Year
The third year extends these approaches into the expanded field of sculptural practice. Individual and personal programmes of study are established through advanced problem solving and sculptural techniques including the introduction to bronze casting, metalwork, ceramics and wood.
Project outlines
FIN4007W – Sculpture - Fourth Year
The fourth year aims to consolidate study through specialisation to a professional standard by encouraging a highly motivated and independent practice. The programme of study is formalised through a proposal and directed through individual research supported by tutorials and critiques.
Project outlines
Resources and Facilities
The Sculpture section is regarded as the best sculpture studio in any education institution in the country. The buildings are large, lofty and adaptable, serving both as pragmatic workshops/studios and as open, airy exhibition spaces. There are well-equipped workshops for wood and metal, stone and woodcarving, equipment for gas, arc and argon welding and a foundry for casting in bronze and other metals. There is also machinery for bending, drilling and grinding metals.
Photography: FIN2013W, FIN3013W, FIN4008WPhotography now plays a crucial role in contemporary art and in this area students can develop as artists with photography at the core of their practise. The section aims to provide a critical and educational environment which acknowledges developments in contemporary photo-based practise and actively encourages students to think independently and critically, gaining a command of the conceptual and technical processes appropriate to an expanded field of photographic practice. The majority of the teaching is provided by means of individual and group tutorials and workshops. Photographic practice ranges from studio based constructed images, to documentary interpretations of our cultural and social environment. Whilst retaining photography as a core discipline, it is expected that in some cases student work may move towards video, computer-generated imagery and lens based installations. The students' work is therefore diverse and linked by an interest in questions of meaning and representation. The section offers a context in which students can articulate ideas through making work and can reflect critically on what they have made. The section understands photography as a medium with no fixed identity. This disregard for a fixed essence is photography's strength: no aesthetic purity, but a multiplicity of rhetorical forms used for the creation of fact, fiction and fantasy. An informed practice of photography acknowledges the heterogeneous traditions of Fine Art and visual culture, and also engages with practices of reading and writing about the image. Theory and practice inform one another, and this dialogue characterises committed study at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Students are expected to produce not only images, but also analytical thinking, in order to study what photography is, for the purpose of discovering what it can become. The main methods of teaching are seminars, lectures, individual and group tutorials and critiques. Students have the opportunity to participate in relevant workshops that deal with technical and conceptual aspects of photographic practice.
FIN2013W Photography - Second Year
Second year develops the student's understanding of the basic expressive possibilities of black and white photography through theory and practice. The course aims to instruct students in basic darkroom techniques for film and paper processing, and introduces them to systems of exposure and silver image development. Aspects of staged and found photographic moments are explored in relation to the camera.
Project outlines
FIN3013W - Photography - Third Year
In the third year there is an emphasis on advanced photographic techniques and an introduction to colour photography. Students also get the opportunity to explore a wide range of approaches, from historical processes to digital image manipulation. The first semester is project based leading to self-motivated specialisation in the second semester.
Project outlines
FIN4008W - Photography - Fourth Year
The final year of the course sees the student work through an individually negotiated programme of study towards a self-motivated professional practice. The student is required to produce a proposal that is developed and discussed in relation to theory and methodology. Ongoing tutorial support helps the student to achieve a substantial
coherent body of work at a professional level.
Project outlines
Resources and Facilities
The Photography section is equipped with black and white, and colour enlargers; facilities for historical processes; large format black and white printing; processing machines for exhibition size colour prints and processing facilities for black and white film. The photographic studio is equipped with flash and tungsten lighting units. As well as using photography as their primary means of expression, students are able to use the other facilities at the School. The academic staff delivers the teaching programme with additional input from practicing professional photographers, artists and visiting academics.
Printmedia: FIN2024W, FIN3024W, FIN4013WPrint exists as a vital force in our everyday lives, providing not only a means of the transference of information, but a vast resource in itself for the exploration and communication of ideas.
The programme encompasses both the traditional role of the print, and its contemporary development as a primary expressive medium. Students begin with a series of set projects, through which drawing in both two and three dimensions, and across a wide range of media, is investigated. Intensive workshops in intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, relief print and papermaking are introduced at an early stage, and complemented by lectures and seminars on the historical development of the print.
The School sees printmedia as a major means of expression within fine art. Many of the greatest artists have made prints that are regarded as central to their work and expression. Print in all its many manifestations is central to our culture. We regard all print media from the traditional to the new digital technologies as equally valid. The aim is to enhance each student’s potential as a creative artist through the use of printmaking and to develop the section as a leader in the subject.
FIN2024W - Printmedia - Second Year
The second year is seen as an introduction to the basic techniques and theoretical aspects of printmaking practice. It is tutor led and project based. Second year is crucial to the discovery and assimilation of conceptual, technical and critical skills in the development of personal expression. Throughout the projects students are directed to investigate relevant contemporary practice and theory alongside their historical precedents.
All students are expected to be competent in three of the main print disciplines by the end of second year. The basic stages in the making of a print provide the media focus for the second year course, and are common to all print media.
Project outlines
FIN3024W - Printmedia - Third Year
Third year builds on the experience gained in second year developing technique and practice at a more advanced level. The first semester is project based whereas students are required to develop a self-motivated proposal in the second semester. Third year is a considered a bridge between tutor led projects and more autonomous self-motivated work.
Project outlines
FIN4013W - Printmedia - Fourth Year
The final year of the course sees the student work through an individually negotiated programme of study towards a self-motivated professional practice. The student is required to produce a proposal that is developed and discussed in relation to theory and practice. Ongoing tutorial support helps the student to achieve a substantial coherent body of work at a professional level.
Project outlines
Resources and Facilities
The workshops are very well equipped for all kinds of lithography, intaglio, relief, screen-printing and new digital technologies. They are staffed with full-time highly experienced technical instructors. As well as using printmaking as their major means of expression, students are encouraged to use the wealth of other facilities at the School. There is an exciting and challenging teaching programme of regular academic staff, complemented by visiting artists and critics. The main methods of teaching are seminars, lectures, group tutorials, individual tutorials and criticism as well as workshop courses. Study visits are arranged to museums and galleries and there are regular talks on professional practice and related matters.
New Media: FIN2025W, FIN3025W, FIN4014WNew Media is a new and growing area within the School. The School recognises that digital art is a significant mode of production within contemporary Fine Art practice. The discipline is seen as entirely integral to other fine art disciplines and within multi-media installation. New Media has become one of the most pervasive forms of contemporary art production and to a certain degree; it has become the standard through which other disciplines are read. This is one of the first university fine art schools in South Africa to offer New Media as a specialist area.
The programme encompasses an introduction to basic image manipulation and pixel and vector based programmes, including methods of input and output, as well as more complex time-based applications such as CD Rom, web design and animation packages. Students begin with a series of set projects, through which they are required to meet certain technical and theoretical challenges. Projects aim to create an awareness of the origins of digital media in design, while at the same time, challenging those traditions and being aware of current trends in the discipline. Tutored instructional workshops introduce the various digital applications and these are complemented by formal and informal discussion on current creative practice within the discipline.
FIN2025W - New Media - Second Year
The second year is seen as an introduction to the basic image manipulation and pixel and vector based programmes, including methods of input and output. Taught applications include Photoshop, Freehand and Quark. Students are introduced to more traditional aspects of design such as typography, layout, illustration and book design as well as using digital technology to consider more complex visual problems. Second year is tutor led and project based. All projects encourage students to investigate relevant contemporary practice and theory alongside their historical precedents.
All students are expected to be competent in basic image manipulation and digital imaging by the end of second year. They are also expected to have a clear understanding of the visual communication of typography and layout.
Project outlines
FIN3025W - New Media - Third Year
Third year builds on the experience gained in second year developing technique and practice at a more advanced level. The three quarters are project based whereas students are required to develop a self-motivated proposal in the last quarter. Third year is a considered a bridge between tutor led projects and more autonomous self-motivated work. In third year students are introduced to time-based and interactive media such as Flash, Director, After -Effects and Dreamweaver. They are also taught sound editing applications. A thematic project is introduced at the beginning of the year and students are expected to begin to develop their own visual vocabulary and visual research methodology. This theme is reworked and expanded throughout the year in accordance with the various technical requirements of the projects. Most of the work produced at third year level is screen based, and although the digital applications have origin and usage in the commercial world, they are seen as integral to the Fine Art language of innovation and experiment. Professional presentation is discussed and encouraged.
Project outlines
FIN4014W - New Media - Fourth Year
The final year of the course sees the student work through an individually negotiated programme of study towards a self-motivated professional practice. The student is required to produce a proposal that is developed and discussed in relation to theory and practice. Ongoing tutorial support helps the student to achieve a substantial coherent body of work at a professional level.
Project outlines
Resources and Facilities
The School has a computer and electronic media resource comprising a laboratory of 23 Macintosh computers with a range of image manipulation software and a number of printers and scanners. There are also facilities for digital video editing and multimedia production. This is open to all Fine Art students by arrangement. The regular academic staff is supported by a number of specialist teachers in new media, especially in areas of animation, web art and sound editing. Visits to digital production houses and presentations by visiting lecturers on their own practice provide insight into professional production. Lecturers and discussions take place in the computer lab, where students are able to develop ideas, store work on the computers and discuss work with staff. Internet access in the lab also enables students to become familiar with contemporary time based digital art.
Theory Courses {list,bullet
Discourse of Art: FIN1003H, FIN1004S, FIN2021H, FIN2022S, FIN3022H, FIN3023S
FIN1003H – Discourse of Art – Theory Courses
The course looks at the emergence and development of art over time and geographical space. Thematically based, it presents an overview of human art production from, amongst other, Upper Palaeolithic Africa, Byzantium, Classical Greece, 19th and 20th century West Africa, Renaissance Europe, Ancient and Medieval Asia as well as comparative material from the 20th and 21st century global production. The primary focus is the development of skills to analyse and contextualise artworks.
Project Outlines & Assignments
FIN1004S – World Art Overview – Theory Courses
This course looks at contemporary trends in the context of the globalisation of art. It focuses attention on the big international biennials, on the development of curatorship as a central component in the exhibiting of art, and in the shifts from the centre, liberating the margins and overturning the traditional dominance of Western Art.
Course Outline, Readings and Tutorials Assignments
FIN2021H – Theories of Art – Theory Courses
This course exposes students to dominant theories of art and how they have been responsible for the maintenance of hegemonies and the production of new art forms. It will also address the issues of sub-continental theory (India and Southern Africa). The course will look at art theory generally, while placing emphasis on the emergence of art theory as a discipline relevant to the practise rather than the critiscm of art. It will propose that the production of art runs concomitantly with the theorisation of this activity.
FIN2022S – 19th, 20th,& 21st Century Art – Theory Courses
The course examines the city and artists' response to the city as well as the emergence of Modernism during the twentieth century. It will be strongly visually based, encouraging students to become familiar with the visual resonance of the contemporary art practise.
Course Outline, Readings and Tutorial assignments
FIN3022H – Theorising Contemporary Art – Theory Courses
This course will concerntrate on the analysis of the art of the last third of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. New forms of art, for example: performance art, conceptual art, installation art, video art and curatorship will be examined in terms of gender, race, identity, post-coloniality and historiscism.
Notes, Assignments & Useful class links
FIN3023S – Contemporary Art (Case Studies) – Theory Courses
This course will be strongly seminar and case-study based, and will examine art critiscm, dealership, advocacy and the work of individual South African and visiting artists as presented by themselves as the primary producers of "the meaning" of their work. It will also examine the phenomenon of the "fame" in the market place.
Course Outline, Readings and Tutorial Assignments
Theory and Practice of Art: FIN3010H, FIN4011H
FIN3010H – Theory and Practice of Art 3 – Theory and Practice of Art
This course is a lecture/seminar based and aims to provide an understanding of the position of art in the last decade of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st century. The following themes, inter alia, will be introduced: media theory, cyber theory, youth culture, art anarchy, the subaltern, "race" and racism and new historiography.
Project Outlines & Assignments
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| Detail of work by Chad Rossouw |