Thinking Through Materials: Can Science, History and Art/Design Illuminate Each Other?

This module, rooted in the partnership between Imperial College London and the Victoria and Albert Museum, offers you the unique opportunity to understand materials and materials-based knowledge across academic disciplines, across time periods and cultural frameworks, and using a wide range of theoretical, historical and practical approaches.

The module will take place over 10 weeks. Each week will involve a two-hour face-to-face session with a member of staff in the form of a seminar, practical workshop or museum visit. This programme will be complemented by short online lectures and readings (available through the module’s online learning environment) and home-based activities.  

The first week will provide an introduction to key debates and issues in materials-based knowledge and histories, including the intertwined dimensions of the histories of art, design and science. In weeks 2–8, you will develop your materials and materials-based knowledge ‘toolkit’. Each session will equip you with new methods for analysing and contextualising materials. In small groups, you will work through a series of lab-based practical sessions facilitated by scientists, designers and makers; object-focused sessions that mobilise the V&A’s collection and expertise; and student-led group work rooted in multidisciplinary teams.

This work will culminate in student-led groupwork and presentations in weeks 9 and 10. In your multidisciplinary groups, you will mobilise, apply and extend the knowledge and skills developed across the module by collaborating to produce a materials infographic and linked social media campaign. This group work will also form the basis of the group presentations in the final week.

This is a practical module where most of the work will be done in groups. The groups will be multidisciplinary, and the students will be chosen from different disciplinary backgrounds to ensure diversity and highlight the importance of collaborating across departments. Learning will be active and collaborative, and mostly take the form of hands-on workshops at Imperial College London, alongside object-focused sessions at the V&A. 

The module’s combination of individual and group-led activities will improve your ability to fruitfully engage in team work, think and work across disciplinary and professional boundaries, and boost your confidence and skills as a communicator across oral presentations, written work and social media formats. This emphasis on multiple modes of learning (e.g. discursive, critical written work, practical and experimental…) is also designed to support your development as a self-motivated and reflexive learner. In addition to participating in group work, each student will maintain a logbook during the module as well as producing a short critical reflection essay that will inform the final infographic activity.

You will receive feedback and support at every stage of the process. The feedback will be provided within 10 working days from the submission of your assignment. You will also get feedback on the formative reflective writing you submit.