A collaboration between the Department of Media and Communications and the Centre for Cultural Studies, the teaching team includes Professor Scott Lash, Professor Angela McRobbie, and Dr Matthew Fuller.

The programme is aimed at graduates with an interest in working and intervening in the cultural industries. Some candidates may come via the traditional academic route, while others will have experience of working within the cultural field in some way before undertaking the degree. If you want to incorporate contemporary thinking on the organisation and work of culture into your practice or research, this is the programme for you.

What you study

Theories of the Culture Industry: Work, Creativity and Precariousness

This course sets out the key theorisations of the culture industry. Whilst incorporating classical figurations of the culture industry, the course is primarily concerned with assembling a clear engagement with contemporary research, such as that spearheaded by leading researchers at Goldsmiths. The organisation and substance of work and of precarious labour, of the developing debates and mechanisms of ‘intellectual property’, and cultural workers’ development of institutions and networks, as well as contemporary configurations of the professional, will be discussed. You will learn to strategise cultural production and intervention through exploration of relevant material. The globalisation of the culture industry will provide a persistent and ambitious point of reference.

Practices of the Culture Industry

This module presents a series of lectures and presentations by cultural practitioners. It aims to introduce students to contemporary debates in architecture, the legal framing and development of culture, visual art, design, community art and media, and interactive media. The course will map out the tricky transitions between theory and practice and include a rigorous discussion of the nature and the political, intellectual, and cultural stakes of interdisciplinarity. Driven by questions of practice, this core course is organised around a series of more detailed analyses of specific cultural dynamics, where the theoretical models from part one are brought to bear on individual areas of practice and the ways that they can and cannot be thought of in terms of ‘industry’. Cultural organisation has become increasingly important as a cultural form in itself. Whether this is seen in artists’ self-organisation, or through the changing scope of music distribution set in play by digital networks and other ‘disruptive technologies’, what culture means is increasingly seen as being critically interwoven with how it is ‘done’.

Culture Industry: Projects

You'll be able to undertake projects towards your dissertation, and as a minor. These projects are self-initiated and are expected to engage with practices of culture in significant terms. Work on projects will be supported by the provision of a Research Lab space. Rigorous work within an interdisciplinary context will be crucial. You may also develop and define the scope of project work in relation with other students, external organisations, events or practitioners. While such self-initiated work can be of a purely experimental or speculative nature, you may also wish to establish some kind of connection with outside agencies, such as competitions, exhibitions, NGOs, and community groups.

Culture Industry: Placements

You'll be able to take two kinds of placement:

• ‘Minor’
  One kind of placement available is short and London-based, accounting for 20 points. The course is intended to make use of Goldsmiths’ location in London, a global capital of cultural production. Through the proximity of London’s cultural industries – music, fashion, radio, new technologies – and the input of practitioners and experts, you'll be encouraged to bring cultural theory and a critical perspective to bear on London cultural industries and the practice of London’s cultural workers.
• ‘Major’
  These placements are more substantial, quite possibly overseas, and can provide the major focus for your dissertation, with a weight of 60 points. All placements will take advantage of the Centre for Cultural Studies’ significant network within the relevant professional fields and will be supervised by the course convenor or an appropriate tutor from within the Centre. Placements will result in an appropriately sized report, essay or dissertation. As such, the placement is not strictly focused on the delivery of training, but on placing you in a context within the culture industry in which you are able to make a study of specific practices. The written components provide a space for you to explore the connections between the practical issues concerning your placement and the theoretical issues addressed in the other parts of the degree. Reports may be submitted with a multimedia and/or visual component alongside the written part.

Research Lab

A key part of the MA is the Research Lab, a platform for experimental research and practice in culture. The Lab is a weekly space by which, through the use of a learning plan and in discussion with teaching and support staff, you customise your practical and theoretical skills in culture industry research. The Research Lab is a key aspect of the support for Projects and Placements (see above).

Options

You'll be able to take one additional standard-length module of their choice (or two shorter modules where available) from a wide range available at Goldsmiths.

Find out more about the Centre for Cultural Studies, including our varied events programme.

Assessment

Essays; project report and documentation/placement report and documentation; research lab participation.

Register your interest

If you register your interest in this programme we will keep you informed about open days and send you relevant further information. If you subsequently decide to apply for this programme you will be able to use the same login details to apply.