In 2002 the University of Tasmania's School of Visual and Performing Arts and The Tasmanian Polytechnic (then TAFE) came together to form The Academy of the Arts, co-located at what was once the Inveresk rail yards. Originally Tasmania's largest industrial site, Inveresk and York Park is now the major cultural precinct in Launceston, Tasmania's northern city. It is home to The Academy of the Arts, the School of Architecture & Design, the School of Fine Furniture, the Australian Technical...

This case study describes how a postgraduate degree in cross-disciplinary art and design can be conducted in a fully online studio environment. The program comprises a structured sequence of core-courses which contextualise a wide variety of elective choices by illuminating their theoretical, practical and disciplinary connections. Electives include subjects such as creative thinking processes, drawing, sculpture, digital illustration, art curation, textiles, photography, understanding and...

The integration of theory within all practical studio courses at an undergraduate level equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary to position their chosen creative direction(s). We argue that critical and theoretical awareness enhances creative production and vice versa in a fluid and dynamic manner. We find that a central part of a Creative Arts education is an appreciation of the agency with which art can transform ways in which cultural issues are conceived and therefore...

For twenty years the foundation or first year visual arts studio at Queensland University of Technology has been run on genuine interdisciplinary lines. With no studio specific areas as such, the course is constructed on conceptual lines largely determined by students emerging interests. The students also determine the media they will use. These student conceptual orientations are structured by projects (one per semester) that are broad and 'soft edged'. Within these projects students...

This case study looks at the 2008 trespass 3rd Year Interior Architecture studio at Curtin University. The students' task was to re-think urban space on their terms, to consider the culture, politics, society and micro-economics of urban as interior space, to deploy interior strategies and sensibilities in an unfamiliar, cross disciplinary realm. The context for studio program was Perth where the weather is fabulous, the beaches are the best, the economy is strong but the city is...

This intensive studio aimed to engage students, collectively and individually, in identifying opportunities and constraints via a process of mapping, interviewing and observing. As an urban design studio students were encouraged to draw from specific site conditions to 'find' a final project. In some cases these projects would result in built outcomes, in others the proposal of community programs and in others long term strategic planning initiatives. The essence of the...

The integrated Fine Art program, an initiative between Riverina Institute of TAFE and CSU (2005), was originally available only to local Riverina based-students. The scope of the program has expanded with increasing availability of CSU subjects by Distance Education, realising demand from students in other regional NSW locations since 2008 (Tamworth; Dubbo; Albury and Orange). Students undertake local TAFE programs (as available locally) or TAFE programs as available...

This case study provides an overview of a new Bachelor of Digital Media program, which combines TAFE Illawarra study in digital film-making and animation with University of Wollongong (UOW) study in Media Arts. The program is closely integrated so that students can obtain a TAFE Certificate IV at the end of the first year, a TAFE Diploma at the end of the second year and a UOW Bachelor of Digital Media at the end of the third year. The program will begin in 2010 at...

Collabor8 (C8) 2008 built on Collabor8 Projects (2003 to 2005) developed by Ian McArthur while working as Program Director of Graphic Design at LDHU (Donghua University) and Head Teacher of Art and Design NCI (TAFENSW). Collabor8 2008 formed a pilot study examining the online interactions of ninety-four graphic design and visual communications students from universities and colleges in Australia and China to examine the relationship between cultural background,...

Keywords: interdisciplinary, creative arts, core courses, third yearT
his case study describes the role of a number of core courses in the third year of a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree at the University of Southern Queensland. In a major restructure of the Bachelor of Creative Arts degree, the disciplines of Music, Creative Media, Theatre and Visual Arts are linked into a single degree program and students have the opportunity to choose courses and majors...

Porosity Studio is a special interdisciplinary course for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Fine Art, Design, Media Studies, Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Planning and Engineering. This intensive studio centres on a critical investigation of contemporary urban space and the intersections of public and private space, and begins with the need for architecture to be porous in relation to pubic space, hence the name 'Porosity.'...

The Art and Natural Environment units form an introduction to the fundamental themes, concepts and principals central to engagement with, and creative representation of, the natural and altered environments in Tasmania. rnrnCentral to the delivery of each unit is the experience gained during two four-day field trips to remote areas of Tasmania.rnrnThe two subjects complement each other, as well as forming core units of the Graduate Certificate, Graduate...