# data[].attributes.body
I love art because is fun

# data[].attributes.body
art is cool

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is something that is different and unique. You can work with it however you want and be free with it.

# data[].attributes.body
Art is a way to express feelings based on their perspectives of drawing and painting.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is a way to express yourself and a way to show what your interests are.

# data[].attributes.body
I think that art is a way to express/show your feelings.You may draw what your feeling, what your doing, and what you may want to do.

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Wahyu Romdhoni, aka Weer, is a young artist from Indonesia. Despite his young age, he already has his own style. His vector illustrations of animals are incredibly colorful and dynamic. See more works on his DeviantArt and Shadowness.

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Colorful vector animals by Wahyu Romdhoni

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wahyu Romdhoni, aka Weer, is a young artist from Indonesia. Despite his young age, he already has his own style. His vector illustrations of animals are incredibly colorful and dynamic. See more works on his DeviantArt and Shadowness.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is a way to express your feelings.

# data[].attributes.body
Art is a complex yet expressive way to show your feelings and passion.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is artist's cognition from their live.

# data[].attributes.body
i think/feel art is a way to express urself and also to show people ur "style".

# data[].attributes.body
I think that art is a way to express/show your feelings.You may draw what your feeling, what your doing, and what you may want to do.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is how people show what they are thinking about. When they don't know how to express their feelings or what they are trying to say, they can draw it out.

# data[].attributes.body
My opinion on art is how you feel and express your self on the way you draw.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is something where you can express yourself and be creative

# data[].attributes.body
I love art because is fun

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is a way to express how you feel by drawing or by creating something that means something to you.

# data[].attributes.body
i think art is cool and fun

# data[].attributes.body
What I think about art is pure and passion it's a form of way you create something in your mind that is satisfying, cool, and sort of different to how people would imagine.

# data[].attributes.body
i think art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is another way to talk to

# data[].attributes.body
I personally think that art is a way people can be themselves and express their true self.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is a way to show what you are feeling and what you want people to know about you

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is something people can just imagine what they want in their head and draw it, it also shows what you are feeling and what your emotions are. Other people may also see what emotions you are going through just by looking at the picture you drew.

# data[].attributes.body
I believe that art is a form of expression for people whether it is painting or doing your makeup. It can come in all shapes and sizes. Art really has no limit and it is expressed and so many different ways

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Length
1 year full-time or 2 years part-time

Department
Visual Cultures

The MA in Contemporary Art Theory is for those with a special interest in contemporary art, and an aptitude for theoretical work in the subject.

The programme offers a challenging and advanced scheme of study, which explores a range of theoretical perspectives that shape attitudes towards visual art in the late 20th/early 21st centuries.

Invigorated by current research, the programme encourages you to explore conceptually and creatively the ways in which contemporary artistic practice and critical theory interrelate. It aims to expand your knowledge of contemporary artistic developments as well as to deepen your understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of academic discourses on visual culture.

The programme draws variously upon the fields of performance studies, art history, philosophy, museology, queer theory, post-colonial studies and cultural studies in addressing the critical challenges posed by artistic practice.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact Irit Rogoff

Modules & structure

Overview

The programme comprises a non-assessed introductory module, the Core Module (comprising 4 blocks that thematically vary from year to year and of which students choose 2), and four assessed components: two Special Subjects, the MA Symposium and the MA Dissertation. Students also attend the Visual Cultures Public Programme of lectures and other events. You have the option of auditing another special subject should you wish to do so, subject to availability and in agreement with the course tutor.

The taught part of the programme runs from the end of September to the end of March, with additional guest lectures or workshops in May and June. It offers a framework to help you focus and develop your own understanding of contemporary art practice and its wider cultural significance. It is designed to develop your understanding of a range of critical and theoretical approaches that inform the heterogeneous field of visual art production whilst, at the same time, enabling you to identify and prepare the area of independent research you will carry out in your dissertation project.

Thematic pathways through the MA will be offered on a yearly basis. These will connect the annually changing themes of the core courses with the annual roster of special subjects. In any specific year three themes will be operative. They may include Global Arts; Sound; Politics and Aesthetics; Performance and Live Art; Critical Thought.

Full-time students attend on Thursday and one other day each week (determined by the choice of special subject); part-time students attend on one day each week in the first year and on Thursday in the second year.

Core module

Module title

Credits

The Common Core Module: DEL: Readings/Processes

The c ore module strands introduce you to the problematic that resides at the heart of the MA programme: how to explore the relations between critical theory and contemporary visual arts practices. You choose either A and C or B and D. They present differently articulated contemporary perspectives on 'art' and 'theory' drawn from a variety of traditions (e.g. The Frankfurt School, Post-structuralism, Performance Studies, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Psychoanalysis and Post-Colonial Studies). The core module strands are supported by student-led Reading Groups.

0 credits

Special subjects

Special subjects are in-depth taught modules based on the current research interests of staff. They enable you to focus on an aspect of contemporary art, cultural theory or contemporary thought that particularly interests you.

Special subjects currently include:

Module title

Credits

Curating and Ethics

What is a suitable ethical position today? What cause should a curator support? What can philosophy do to address and/or support these ethical decisions? This course explores the act of taking on an ethical position in curatorial projects today. The material explored ranges from specific curatorial practices that have developed means of addressing ethical issues to philosophical engagements in ethics.

Authors studied are taken from both Western and non-Western traditions and range from Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, Valentin Mudimbe, Jean-Luc Nancy, Nkiru Uwechia Nzegwu, and Timothy Morton.

The visual work explored on this course mainly consists of key exhibitions that have defined the way art engages itself ethically. These include: Dada ist Politisch, When Attitudes Become Form, Inside the Visible, Making Things Public, Altermodern, etc. Teaching involves lectures, student presentations, and discussions of key art historical and philosophical texts.

45 credits

Reading the Performative

This module considers the impact of performativity on contemporary art practice since 1960, starting with performance art engaging with the everyday, moving through appropriation practices of the 1980s and ending with projects that use re-enactment and fiction to re-imagine histories and possible futures in contemporary artworks. In doing so, the module will discuss differences between 'performance' and 'performativity', drawing on theoretical perspectives from post-structural theory, queer and feminist studies, art theory, and philosophy. Throughout the module, performativity will be explored as a way of expressing the psychic and political potential of performance in art: a way of thinking about what art does. The focus will be on artwork drawing on feminist and queer politics. Theorists discussed include Erving Goffman, J L Austin, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Rancière.

45 credits

Sex, Gender, Species

This module asks how animal and sexual differences matter in and through a range of contemporary art, films and literature. Recent years have shown a surge of interest in what Jacques Derrida names 'the animal question,' ie the philosophical tendency to divide 'man' from 'animal' and for this difference to support a 'non-criminal putting to death' of the latter. This module investigates the 'logics' that create this critical division while also addressing what is a frequent gap in critical animal studies: the interface with gender and sexuality. Thus this module will also interweave study of works by feminist thinkers (Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Donna Haraway, Kelly Oliver) to bring the problematic ways that 'the feminine' is figured in relation to both 'the animal' and to a supposedly neutral and human 'subject' into view. It will also consider how the sexual locates a key intersection with species and may open paths to new ones. Thus the module points towards what some now call the 'posthumanities'.

45 credits

Geopoetics

How can the altered relations between the world, the earth and the planet be made audible, visible and sensible? How do the volatile spaces and non-local times of anthropogenic violence change the methods and modes of contemporary cultural production? The Geopoetics module engages with historical and contemporary narrations that respond to the multiple scales and inhuman matters that confront the critical humanities. What kinds of fictions and what kind of fabulations can be productively reread as prefigurations of tomorrow's climates today? How do artistic practices narrate the collisions between the strange weather of the present, the deep time of the earth and the abstract future of extinction?

The Geopoetics module explores a range of theoretical-fictions and fictional theories that narrate the entanglements between the surface world, the extractivist earth, the geological planet and the energetic Sun. Geopoetics introduces you to critical, creative and artistic practices produced by artists, novelists and theorists that complicate the borders between the humanities and the sciences, philosophy and horror and science fiction and critical theory. It focuses on the weird sciences, technometabolisms and geomythologies that articulate planetary matters of concern. Geopoetics thus aims to equip you with a theoretical and speculative vocabulary that is capable of analyzing, envisioning, and participating in ongoing critical and cultural debates on the forces and the futures of the planet.

45 credits

Judgement and Creation

This module examines the relationship between judging and creating, in general, and as it relates to art and aesthetics. Strongly philosophical, it starts with a conceptual analysis of this relationship based on readings of Kant's Critique of Judgement. It then considers how various 20th century thinkers (ie Heidegger, Derrida, Lyotard, Arendt, Adorno, Gasché, Henrich and Deleuze) have interpreted this important text and/or engaged with the issues it raises.

45 credits

Transforming Critical Practices

45 credits

Dissonant Images: Questions of Evidence

How can or must we think of evidence today? How can evidence be given of relations of force and political violence, from the micro-political to local conflicts, war and injustice, while at the same time notions of authenticity, veracity and truth are contested? Why and how to give evidence when its relation to and effect on the sphere of the political is in doubt? To explore a small aspect of this fundamental challenge this module chooses as its core arena documentary mode audio-visual material that we encounter in art, cinema and activist contexts.

Can creative documentary practice productively address situations of crises and emergency? How to think of documentary forms as propositional? How can we work out the relations between experimentations with documentary forms and new constitutions of the evidential, the political or the judicial?

To develop a solid ground for addressing those questions we will begin working with key writings in documentary film theory and selected historical moments, which brought about significant political cinemas, such as e.g. the Latin American Militant Cinema, revolutionary cinema from African and South Asian contexts or cinematic instances of socio-political change within Europe and North America post WWII. Looking at how documentary language and form came about at moments of radical change we want to think through the specific constellations at the time of their making and interrogate the implications this has for the thinking and practising with documentary mode material now, thus think trough genealogies, legacies and ruptures between historical and contemporary contexts.

2015/16 collaboration with Werkleitz PMMC lab:

Arguably the global contemporary is, or should be, undergoing radical transformations and the visual dimensions and technologies through which one seeks to understand and intervene into current scenarios need to constantly be understood anew. During 2015/16 the Dissonant Images class will think through the challenges towards and the possible futures of moving image practices in collaboration with the Werkleitz PMMC (Professional Media Master Class) lab, a practice based Master programme based in Halle (Germany) which takes a very innovative and expansive approach to film, documentary and moving image based media arts. There will be face-to-face meetings and workshops as well as online exchanges of ideas and thought processes with the idea to develop collaborative projects.

45 credits

Postcapitalist Desire

This module will consider recent debates on post-capitalism from the perspective of political aesthetics. It will explain and analyse some of the most influential theories of post-capitalism and ask whether post-capitalism is the best concept for theorising a shift out of capitalism. What advantages does it have over older terms such as communism and socialism? The module will identify the antecedents of theories of post-capitalism in socialist-feminism, anti-authoritarian leftism, cyberfeminism and accelerationism.

At the heart of the module is the question of what role culture and aesthetics can play in imagining, pre-figuring and facilitating a move beyond capitalism. What are the major obstructions to the development of post-capitalist desire? How has capitalism's use of culture enabled it to engineer and commandeer desire, and how can this be overcome?

45 credits

Spatial Biopolitics

This module engages with an expanded notion of the geographic, specifically the shift from classical post-colonial geography to issues of cartography. Drawing on key theoretical texts and the works of spatial practitioners (contemporary artists, architects, curators, activists and others in the fields of the humanities), it explores such issues as urbanity, globalisation, mobility, conflict, migration and human rights. In addition, it asks how, within the heterogeneous geographic discourses and practices in circulation today, not only knowledge and cultural production but also identities and new forms of subjectivity, are 'spatialised'.
Explore our online archive of student work from Geographies

45 Credits

Independent research

From the end of March, you will start independent research on a subject of your own choosing. At the end of the spring term, you will submit your dissertation proposal and be assigned a dissertation tutor who will support your independent dissertation research and writing activities in an advisory capacity.

Module title

Credits

MA in Contemporary Art Theory Dissertation

Having already produced an assessed oral presentation on your topic (see above) you work on your dissertation over the summer and submit your completed project for assessment early in September.

Assessment: one 12-15,000-word dissertation.

60 credits

Two-day MA Symposium (oral presentation on dissertation topic) (30 credits)
The MA Symposium provides you with the opportunity, fairly early on in the research/writing process, to present a worked up and focused investigation of your dissertation topic or some aspect of it. Your presentation will be formally assessed. Presenting on your dissertation research at this stage is invaluable for enabling you to define your project and, through verbal feedback and discussion, to progress your thinking. Assessment: one oral presentation in early June (20 minutes, plus 10 minute discussion).

Assessment

Visual Cultures assessment are 100% coursework. Normally this consists of essays, sometimes accompanied by creative projects, group projects, multi-media projects, presentations, symposia, reviews, and studio work.

Download the programme specification, relating to the 2017-18 intake. If you would like an earlier version of the programme specification, please contact the Quality Office.

Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.

Department

In the Department of Visual Cultures we explore and produce
new forms of art history and theory

Visual Cultures
Study in a department that combines an innovative approach with passionate academics, and makes full use of London's many opportunities to study art history.
Our approach

Our degree programmes deliberately move away from chronological histories: the innovative art of our time arises out of the conflict of ideas. So you'll explore the subject in the context of pertinent social, cultural and political issues and phenomena.

That means not only investigating artefacts you might see in museums and galleries, but also those making up our everyday visual and technological environment: including urban landscapes, film and video, and popular culture.

Our academics

Our academics are passionate about the subject and are at the sharp end of theoretical developments in everything from architecture to spatial theory. Some are practising artists and curators, which makes our degrees relevant and exciting.

Our location

Our teaching takes advantage of the many galleries, art spaces, museums, cultural facilities and specialist libraries in London.

Find out more about the Department of Visual Cultures.

Skills & careers

Many of our MA students have gone on to MPhil/PhD study, not only in art history and visual cultures, but also in related fields such as philosophy, cultural studies and literature. Careers obtained by recent graduates include: artist, curator/collections manager, journal editor, lecturers, researcher, and roles in TV and production, public relations, and rights and marketing.

Find out more about employability at Goldsmiths.

Student profiles

Francesca

"Studying at Goldsmiths provided me with the tools of critical thinking that have proven fundamental throughout my career."

I'm now an independent scholar, currently working on a book on art and creative practices in Kabul, Afghanistan: littlebookofkabul.wordpress.com

Studying at Goldsmiths provided me with the tools of critical thinking that in time have proven fundamental throughout my career. I also learnt the importance of dialogical education and the value of interdisciplinary studies.

Rachel

"The contacts I made there continue to be a valuable resource in my work."

"The BA Fine Art & History of Art standards were high and no compromises were made in terms of prior experience and knowledge. I often described it as a boot camp for artists. Stakes were equally high in the MA; the course consisted almost entirely of experienced/mature professionals and those who already had post graduate qualifications in other related areas. The contacts I made there continue to be a valuable resource in my work.

I am now co-director of Open Dialogues, a UK collaboration that produces writing on and as performance. Since 2008 Open Dialogues has pioneered a model of working closely with performance and Live Art artists to critically respond, document and extend the moment of performance. Programme partners include The Live Art Development Agency (UK), Pacitti Company (UK), Trinity Laban (UK), Performa Biennial (US) and Performance Saga (CH) among others."

Natalia

"Goldsmiths is an open place for your own ideas."

I'm from Mexico and currently studying an MA in Contemporary Art Theory. This Masters degree is focused on the present debates of art around the world. I have a BA in Humanities and have worked as a curatorial and archive assistant in photography in Mexico, India and France. I chose this course as a pathway for understanding art in my country in terms of the current research and interests, and in order to pursue a career as a curator.

I have found that Goldsmiths is an open place for your own ideas, you are free to pursue your own interests but still gives you the opportunity to get to know topics you never heard or studied before. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed with these new ideas but they enrich your knowledge. In my case this has encouraged me to expand my ideas and to think outside of my comfort zone.

I was granted a Santander Scholarship for Latin American students, and thanks to it I was able to come to study to London and not to worry about economical matters.

I hope to return to Mexico and open an independent art consulting firm for new talent.

See more profiles for this programme

Entry requirements

You should normally have, or expect to gain, an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in art history, fine art, another studio-based practice, arts administration and related activities, or a humanities discipline other than art history which demonstrates your ability to undertake work at Masters level.

You don't necessarily need a formal academic qualification in art history: we welcome applications from prospective students who do not meet the standard entrance requirements but can demonstrate appropriate knowledge and experience from outside academia in the world of work.

If you have little or no formal training in art history or a related humanities discipline, you may need to take a preparatory year of study on the Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Art History. You may also be required to attend an interview.

Equivalent qualifications
We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about the qualifications we accept from around the world.

English language requirements
If English isn't your first language, you'll need to meet our English language requirements to study with us.

For this programme we require:

IELTS 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing

If you need assistance with your English language, we offer a range of courses that can help prepare you for postgraduate-level study.

How to apply

You apply directly to Goldsmiths using our online application system.

Before submitting your application you'll need to have:

Details of your education history, including the dates of all exams/assessments

The email address of your referee who we can request a reference from, or alternatively an electronic copy of your academic reference

A personal statement - this can either be uploaded as a Word Document or PDF, or completed online

Please see our guidance on writing a postgraduate statement

If available, an electronic copy of your educational transcript (this is particularly important if you have studied outside of the UK, but isn't mandatory)

You'll be able to save your progress at any point and return to your application by logging in using your username/email and password.

When to apply

We accept applications from October for students wanting to start the following September.

We encourage you to complete your application as early as possible, even if you haven't finished your current programme of study. It's very common to be offered a place that is conditional on you achieving a particular qualification.

Late applications will only be considered if there are spaces available.

If you're applying for funding, you may be subject to an earlier application deadline.

Selection process

Admission to many programmes is by interview, unless you live outside the UK. Occasionally, we'll make candidates an offer of a place on the basis of their application and qualifications alone.

Find out more about applying.

Fees, funding & scholarships

Similar programmes

Around the university

Francesca

"Studying at Goldsmiths provided me with the tools of critical thinking that have proven fundamental throughout my career."

I'm now an independent scholar, currently working on a book on art and creative practices in Kabul, Afghanistan: littlebookofkabul.wordpress.com

Studying at Goldsmiths provided me with the tools of critical thinking that in time have proven fundamental throughout my career. I also learnt the importance of dialogical education and the value of interdisciplinary studies.

Rachel

"The contacts I made there continue to be a valuable resource in my work."

"The BA Fine Art & History of Art standards were high and no compromises were made in terms of prior experience and knowledge. I often described it as a boot camp for artists. Stakes were equally high in the MA; the course consisted almost entirely of experienced/mature professionals and those who already had post graduate qualifications in other related areas. The contacts I made there continue to be a valuable resource in my work.

I am now co-director of Open Dialogues, a UK collaboration that produces writing on and as performance. Since 2008 Open Dialogues has pioneered a model of working closely with performance and Live Art artists to critically respond, document and extend the moment of performance. Programme partners include The Live Art Development Agency (UK), Pacitti Company (UK), Trinity Laban (UK), Performa Biennial (US) and Performance Saga (CH) among others."

Natalia

"Goldsmiths is an open place for your own ideas."

I'm from Mexico and currently studying an MA in Contemporary Art Theory. This Masters degree is focused on the present debates of art around the world. I have a BA in Humanities and have worked as a curatorial and archive assistant in photography in Mexico, India and France. I chose this course as a pathway for understanding art in my country in terms of the current research and interests, and in order to pursue a career as a curator.

I have found that Goldsmiths is an open place for your own ideas, you are free to pursue your own interests but still gives you the opportunity to get to know topics you never heard or studied before. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed with these new ideas but they enrich your knowledge. In my case this has encouraged me to expand my ideas and to think outside of my comfort zone.

I was granted a Santander Scholarship for Latin American students, and thanks to it I was able to come to study to London and not to worry about economical matters.

I hope to return to Mexico and open an independent art consulting firm for new talent.

Maxine Suich

"My time at Goldsmiths was incredibly stimulating and productive and gave me a fantastic appetite for what I do to this day."

Find out more

John Cussans

Find out more

Dr Lynn Turner

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Length 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time Department Visual Cultures The MA in Contemporary Art Theory is for those with a special interest in contemporary art, and an aptitude for theoretical work in the subject.

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I think art is something that is different and unique. You can work with it however you want and be free with it.

# data[].attributes.body
I think art is the expression or creation of skill and imagination typically in paintings and drawings.

# data[].attributes.body
I think that art is a way that people can express how they feel and talent that they have.ways that people can show many things for example where they come from

# data[].attributes.body
I think ART is...