This paper is complementary to MEDIA501 Critical and Creative Approaches to Research in which students identified the constraints and freedoms of a range of research methods, experiencing research as an intellectual, theoretical, and processual activity through which they developed a proposal and ethics application for a future research project in either or both critical or creative modes.

MEDIA 504 focuses more tightly on creative research. It is about investigating media materials and forms that fascinate you and which seem appropriate to self-expression, communication, skill-development and/or which meet a public need that you have identified. It is about understanding, through research, the affordances of different form of media, both physical and virtual and then designing your own research process, doing a literature review (including relevant creative works) and shaping Research Questions, which will result in interesting, relevant and strong Creative Practice projects.

Creative Practice as research moves quickly into making things, learning through experimentation (or reflective practice) using various techniques and concepts that attract and challenge you. Audio-visual media are undergoing continual transformations that question the roles of makers and audiences alike. Students are encouraged to experiment with sensory perception in order to question current notions of aesthetics in relation to cultural practices and media creations. This process of reflection encourages critical perspectives on existing and potential design practices, and contributes to re-evaluating the relationships between the self, digital media, lens-based technologies, and aesthetics.

Since your ideas develop and change as you move through a creative research process you will document the development of your research design, methodological choices and inspirations throughout the course in a series of short assignments and reports recorded in a journal and in either physical or digital objects that you make.

While this second approach can be more intuitive than research presented only through written reports it is nevertheless not without intellectual rigour, since you will need to think carefully about what you are doing and why - and to justify your choices to others. You will do a substantial piece of writing in this approach towards the end of the semester in the form of an exegesis that accompanies the work. Your work may also form part of a Student Showcase.

You will learn about and be able to choose from a range of creative practice media in this course - for instance: video (documentary, fiction or short videos), music video, photography, digital animation, (2-D and 3-D animation) script-writing, live performance, transmedia, or 2-D and 3-D design etc.

A third focus of this class is thinking about the presentation of your creative practice research and outputs.

What is the intended audience for your Creative Practice Research output? Where is the best place to connect your work and your audience? Is it a physical and/or virtual space? What are the aesthetic and ethical codes and professional customs and standards of that kind of work?

MEDIA504 is designed to give you more creative and intellectual tools to undertake MEDIA507 and 508 projects as well as your MEDIA592 final project.

MEDIA504 is a face-to-face team-taught course, with one lecture a week on Mondays at 11-1 in I1.09 and a 2-hour workshop on Wednesday mornings 10-12 in K3.19 (note change of time for the workshop/second lecture). That means there is no Wednesday afternoon session

Ann Hardy is the Paper Convenor, will give the first and last lectures and will be present at all lectures and facilitate the workshops. After that, successive weeks of the course will feature different speakers from the School of Arts and the School of Design as well as the University Art Curator. The first seven lectures will deal with different media and their affordances, aesthetics and methods, while the final 3 lectures are more about presenting yoru work to clients and audiences.

The workshops will feature practice-led research activities and some background research into examples, theories and methods, as well as practice in Research Question development, reflective practice .journal-keeping and exegesis writing. give Students may be asked to brief presentations about their own creative practice. In the second half of the course students will focus on Creative Practice projects and accompanying documents either as individuals or working in a small group.

Please note that there may be some small changes in the order of the speakers and of the content, depending on personnel availability and what seems beneficial for the class at that time.

Required Readings will be provided on Moodle from time to time.

A list of readings will be provided via the Waikato Reading List, accessible via a link on Moodle.

Please note that you, as autonomous learners, are also expected to search for your own academic sources in addition to these readings.