Explore Fine Art and Photography

[Start of transcript]

Dr. Kristen Sharp: Hi. My name is Dr. Kristen Sharp, and I'm the Associate Dean of Art in the School of Art here at RMIT university. Today, I'm going to tell you a bit about the Bachelor of Arts Fine Arts and Bachelor of Arts Photography programs. I will introduce the key features, core structures, industry connections, career pathways, and outcomes. These are world-leading programs in their respective fields of contemporary art and craft, and photography. They allow students to work across a variety of disciplines and specialty areas replicating a real world experience that helps students kickstart a career in the art, craft, and photographic industries.

Before I start, I'd like to acknowledge the people of the Woiwurrung and Daungwurrung language groups of the Eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the university. RMIT respectfully acknowledges their ancestors and elders, past, present and emerging. And while we conduct our work remotely, I want to pay my respect to the wider unceded lands of this nation.

Photography and fine art are leading undergraduate programs. At RMIT, you'll enhance your practice and innovation in a creative environment where experimentation is encouraged. In a rapidly changing world environment, developing your knowledge and skill, and being responsive, and thinking critically, and being able to innovate, and be creative will be the key qualities that will be in demand in the future. Fine art and photography offer you these critical skills, knowledges, and experiences. Your learning will occur in specialized world-leading studio workshop and photography spaces. You'll be supported in your studies through learning about art and photography contexts that will prepare you for stepping into a range of careers upon graduation.

For domestic applicants, we require VCE Units three and four, a study score of at least 30 in English, or at least 25 in English other than EAL. We also accept applicants with equivalent studies. International applicants require an academic IELTS minimum overall band of 6.5 or another approved English proficiency test. ATAR scores are not applicable, instead application to the fine art and photography programs requires a folio of work to be submitted alongside statements about your reasons for applying, any relevant experience you've had, and about your work. Shortlisted applicants are normally interviewed as part of the selection process. Staff are looking for applicants who demonstrate curiosity, commitment to developing their work, and a current engagement with the art or photography sector in all their forms, such as attending recent exhibitions or events.

We have a number of pathway options into the fine art and photography degrees from certificate and diploma levels. Most of our applicants taking these options in fine art and photography come from visual art, digital photography, screen media, and music industry. You can visit our pathways tool to view more options available.

Year one, semester one in the BA Fine Art program enables students to situate themselves into one of our specialized studio areas, in print, gold and silversmithing, painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, or video. Studio projects are partnered with an introductory course in art history, theory, and cultures which provides students with the broader cultural and theoretical context for these projects. Alongside this, students have a specialized workshop class providing core skills and competencies in the relevant studio area.

From second semester and into year two, students are encouraged to choose from a range of options across studio, workshop, and art history theory and cultures classes. This enables students to have flexibility and to choose from a range of art practices and ideas that they want to develop and explore. Most courses are vertically delivered, enabling students to engage with the diverse range of student communities over the course of their degree.

The final semester of year three is a specialized capstone semester based in a studio specialization with a focus on independent practice. Many students also elect to move on into a fourth year by taking our Honors program where they have the opportunity to advance their studio practice within their area of research. Studio courses enable students to develop and evolve their skills and knowledge within the seven studio areas. Workshops are focused on learning new techniques, technologies, and processes. Art history theory and cultures enable students to engage with the broader context of art ideas, cultures, practices, histories, and politics. These courses examine arts connection and location in contemporary society. During year two and three, you can also choose from a wide range of university elective courses to compliment your learning in the studio.

At RMIT, you have the opportunity to study in a range of highly specialized and world-leading facilities and spaces located right in the center of Melbourne City. The Ceramics Studio allows students to experiment, design and conceptualize with clay. It's equipped with pottery wheels, a dedicated mold making area, a glaze lab, and electric and gas fired kilns, enabling students to explore a range of creative techniques and processes from throwing to sculpting.

The Drawing Studio offers individual workspaces for each student to explore and develop their creative practice. We have some of the finest drawing studio facilities in Australia for life drawing, exhibition, and group critique experiences. The drawing studio enhances students skill-based workshop tuition and work integrated learning.

RMIT's gold and silversmithing workshop is extensively equipped with traditional and contemporary metalworking technologies. Students work under the tuition of contemporary artists, jewelers, and craftspeople, and the workshop allows students to learn metal fabrication techniques, such as sawing, filing, cold joining, and soldiering.

The Painting Studio equips students with essential technical and conceptual skills, encourages critical and analytical thinking, and provides experience in a diverse range of creative visual expression in painting. Studies include investigation of historic and contemporary processes and concepts, which are inclusive of image, object, installation, and the performative.

RMIT Print Studio offers students a holistic approach to art making through reproductive technologies, from traditional analog presses to contemporary digital printers. With home studios and workshops, students access industry grade facilities to experiment with concepts and processes facilitated by renowned practitioners.

Our sculpture facilities include a series of workshops equipped to allow students to work with a range of traditional and contemporary materials. Students are taught by practicing artists who approached sculpture as an expanded practice that ranges from foundry-based and constructed works, to installation, performance, and conceptual art.

The Video Studio incorporates practices and video art, animation, sound composition, projection, performance, and digital cultures. Offering a range of contemporary technologies including cameras, lighting, editing, and surround audio recording, as well as more traditional experimental processes. You will work with experience contemporary artists and technicians to foster your emerging practice.

The BA Fine Art program is well known, not only for its amazing facilities, but also for the expertise of the staff and the sense of community that is fostered in the studio environment. Many of our graduates are world-leading artists and craftspeople, or working in associated fields of curation, education, and the creative industries.

In first year photography, you have core courses introducing fundamental camera skills, the properties of light and lenses, and digital imaging technologies. You will work on location and in a studio environment. These courses give you the skills to develop your own creative practice. The foundation studio is about introducing the idea of praxis, the integration of theory and practice. So we begin to look at the history of photography, key theoretical perspectives, and how we make meaning from images, and how to develop a visual language so that we're able to communicate concepts visually.

From semester two, you can choose from a range of highly specialized practice-based courses led by an expert in the field. These are a deep dive into areas such as documentary, architecture, fashion, and landscape, but in each case, it's about expanding the genres in new and exciting ways. Other studios include things like performative photography in the body and 21st century photography. As the biggest photography program in Australia, we can offer a breadth of choice that enables you to determine your own pathway through the program and to try out different things.

Studio courses in second and third year are supported by photo theory courses, alongside a series of elective options. Your degree culminates in a capstone course where you spend a whole semester exclusively working on your graduating portfolio. Many students also elect to move into a fourth year by taking our Honors program where they get to focus on a single project for the entire year.

RMIT's photography facilities allow students to practice in purpose-built spaces with carefully controlled lighting conditions. With individual bays for self directed projects, industry standard lighting equipment, professional large format print facilities, and contemporary photographic technology, RMIT provides the perfect environment for you to hone your craft.

Our photography alumni are practicing around the world in fields of photography. Many are leading practitioners or working in associated fields of photojournalism, education, media and communication, fashion, and advertising.

RMIT emphasizes real world learning through the opportunity to engage with work integrated learning placements throughout your program. These prepare you and give you vital experience, as well as potential professional networks for work pathways upon graduation. A key flagship course in both programs is internship, which allows you to undertake placement in an organization of your choice, relevant to your studies and future direction.

The School of Art has partnership agreements with a number of key art and photography organizations in Australia and overseas. We co-organize events, projects, and exhibitions with these partners and they provide global mobility study options for our student community. One of RMIT's strengths is the way it emphasizes real world learning through working with industry partners.

Some of our highlights for these projects include Testing Ground. In fine art, the Testing Grounds studio course explores new models of working beyond the conventional studio. Testing Grounds is a unique temporary space in Southbank for creative practices encompassing art, performance, and design. In addition to daytime onsite projects, students organize their own one night festival, allowing them to draw on the many social aspects of Testing Grounds with a night of projections, performance, sculptural work, and music. In photography, the Collingwood studio provides students with the opportunity to work with alumni in residence at The Photo Lab, which is an offsite project space in Collingwood where they develop projects with local partners engaged in community led initiatives.

RMIT has an extensive network of partnerships around the world. Our fine art program is also offered in Hong Kong in partnership with the Hong Kong Art School. We have a vast range of global mobility study options where students can choose from over 76 universities around the world to do a study exchange for a semester. Both our programs also offer global mobility options through a range of intensive study courses. Each year we offer courses in different locales, including New York, Nepal, and Japan.

RMIT culture brings together the universities cultural spaces, creative programs, and art, film, design, and research collections, providing a valuable support for the university's learning and teaching activities and opportunities to inspire creativity and collaboration. RMIT students in fine art and photography can engage with RMIT culture through its galleries, collections, venues, and programs, including The Capitol, LIGHTSCAPES, and the SITUATE residency program. RMIT students in fine art and photography can engage with RMIT culture through its galleries, collections, venues, and programs, including The Capitol, LIGHTSCAPES, and the SITUATE residency program.

Studying fine art or photography provides you with the creative and critical thinking skills that are vital for future fields of employment. In a quickly changing world the knowledge and experience you will build in these programs will support you to be a confident, experimental, and creative innovator. This sets you up to be flexible and working across a number of different fields and able to respond and adapt to changing environments. Many of our alumni are leading art practitioners, exhibiting in major art exhibitions and events, or leading photographers who have set up their own studios. Our graduates also work in associated fields of curation, education, and media.

If you are applying this year, interviews for shortlisted applicants are normally held towards the end of 2020, and if successful, your first year would begin in March 2021.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our globally recognized programs in photography and fine art. For more information about these programs, be sure to check the program information available on our website.

[End of transcript]