Master of Arts [M.A] [Art and Design - Design Futures Pathway] From Cardiff Metropolitan University

This is a call to arms for designers who dream.We are looking for visionary and imaginative graduates from any discipline who are seriously committed to thinking about the future. That might be the future of the human species, the future of technology, or of the planet, or of the design profession and their own future within it. 19th Century Designers had the vision to imagine a future of prosperity, health and democracy all made possible by a wondrous new Age of Machines. Today we benefit from that foresight and live longer, healthier and more exploratory lives than at any time in our species history. But this has not come without cost to our liberty, our values and to the ecology we share. Today we stand at the brink of a new age where there is no longer a category of imagination we can call science fiction.

We can now reasonably foresee a future where genetic redesign, or the enhancement of our own intellect and cognition will be possible. Do we approach that Age with the same spirit of optimism as our 19th Century forebears or do we face it with caution, in fear of a future where everything is messed up, where values are thrown up in the air, overturned, inverted and turned inside out. We need to face that future as designers by calling into question everything we currently take for granted.

Just as at the start of the last century, our politicians seem lost and incapable of imagination and the leadership required for this new Age, so where are the designers? Designers turned the horror of the machine into something we could use everyday and build into our lives; can they do the same with the future we face? We can't leave it to anyone else, we need the imaginative, speculative and visionary designers again.The aim of the MA Art and Design - Design Futures Pathway at Cardiff Metropolitan University is to enable a forum for intellectually liberal but rigorous speculation and creative research. This is an MA that will appeal to design students who wish to explore how they can intellectually and creatively play their part in setting out to identify, challenge and resolve the challenges we will face in the future.

The programme is intended for graduates from any discipline who aspire to develop a sustainable future design career in a developing intellectual and / or commercial context. Students work within a negotiated programme of learning closely supported by an experienced academic tutor who will work with them to develop a personal intellectual, creative and strategic direction.

Career prospects :

The MA Art and Design acts as a gateway to research or advanced experimental practice. It has an option for students to focus on research (by taking the initial formal PG Cert Research Skills module) or by taking an alternative creative practice route both leading towards potential future MPhil/PhD study. Students taking the MA Art and Design align with specific research and experimental practice pathways, led by academic staff with established practice careers and/or advanced scholarship and research.

The MA Art and Design programme is designed to enable students to achieve the attributes of greater flexibility, adaptability, and individual responsibility and autonomy as professional artists, designers or researchers. The MA Art and Design programme aims to develop increasing creativity, self-reliance, initiative, and the ability to perform in rapidly changing environments as well as increasing competence with research skills and methods which will make graduates highly employable as academics and or researchers or enable them to develop an active and sustained practice as artists or designers.

All students' are expected to complete a portable 'record of achievement' and use their PDP to support employability and life-long learning, normally in the form of a blog, that integrates opportunities for self-reflection in programmes in order to help them develop as effective and confident learners.