Contemporary Performance BA*
UCAS Code: Combined Honours only – see combinations tab|Duration: 3|Full Time|Creative Campus
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply
About the course
On this course you will be making work that physically brings the audience into the performance environment. It is about exploring drama and performance through the interactions between bodies and environments and how different technologies can facilitate this. How can light function as an actor? What are the merits and limitations of devising a performance for an audience of one person? What staging possibilities does virtual reality and video gaming provide the performance-maker? Here you will learn about the different approaches to creating your own immersive performance environments as well as gaining an important understanding of the digital creative sector.
Located within the Creative Campus, this community of artists, musicians and performers is a vibrant and exciting environment to create work. Throughout your studies you will be equipped with the relevant technical knowledge and skills to realise and manage your own projects, supported by a team of highly qualified tutors. These will include acquiring skills in digital coding, lighting design, audio and video editing, 360 film and sound recording, motion capture and projection mapping. In addition to making performances, you will present ideas verbally, as well as enhancing your skills in critical and reflective writing.
Your three years begins with an introduction to immersive performance practices before you journey into the exciting challenges of audience participation and interaction. Moving outside of the campus, the city of Liverpool itself will become a site for performance, echoing the work of immersive practitioners such as Punchdrunk, dreamthinkspeak and Shunt. Your final year will involve a push into new and experimental performance technologies, presenting performance projects in virtual worlds. This will culminate in you selecting either to complete a placement within an arts organisation or to take the lead as project manager of a major performance project of your own devising. This final year will also require you to complete an independent research project on a topic of your own choice.
This course is for those interested in making innovative and dynamic worlds for their audiences to interact with and explore. It will appeal to students interested in contemporary performance and its overlaps with creative technologies.
Course structure
The course will be delivered by way of an integrated lecture series, supported by seminars, practical workshops and student-led tutorials.
Assessment and feedback
Assessment will be by way of digital creative projects; programming and coding design tests and contextual essays.
Year One
In your first year of study, you will be introduced to the key practitioners and practices that have sought to create immersive environments for their audiences. This first year is about providing a broad critical context by illustrating the range of different interpretations of 'interactivity' and 'immersion'.
Year Two
In the second year, you will learn how to work closely with audiences, engaging with participatory performance practices. The second half of this year places emphasis on site-based performance and how technologies can be utilised to excavate the narratives embedded within Liverpool. Many immersive performance companies situate their work in locations not conceived for performances and it is important that you are able to adapt to working in such environments.
Year Three
In your final year, you will be able to fully evidence your proficiency in the varying performance technologies you have been trained to use and will be able to develop creative and original applications for them in your work. This year signals a shift towards digital performance, with you creating work in Virtual and Augmented Reality. With this comes a need to understand visual and proprioceptive perception and the challenges of sustaining a performance within a virtual environment.
In the second half of this academic year, you will decide to be assessed on a placement or as a curator. This placement will take place in an arts organisation and will enable you to gain relevant professional expertise prior to your graduation. The curation will enable you to hone your skills as designers of immersive experiences, managing a major project featuring first year students of the course. In this last year, you will also complete a Research Project or Integrated Dissertation.
Entry requirements
| A-Levels | BBC |
|---|---|
| UCAS Tariff Points | 112 UCAS Tariff points must come from a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent). Additional points can be made up from a range of alternative qualifications |
| BTEC | DMM |
| Access to HE | 112 Tariff Points |
| IB | 28 |
| Irish Leaving Certificate | 112 Tariff Points from Higher Level qualifications only |
| Welsh Baccalaureate | This qualification can only be accepted in conjunction with other relevant qualifications |
| T-Levels | 120 Tariff Points / Merit |
| Subject Requirements | An A level in one of the Performing Arts – Music, Drama or Dance is essential. Where music may be the chosen route of study, theoretical understanding at least of ABRSM Grade 5 is desired. An A level in Computer Science would be useful. |
International entry requirements
| Specific Country Requirements | Select your country |
|---|---|
| IELTS | 6.0 overall (with reading and writing at 6.0) and no individual score lower than 5.5. We also accept a wide range of International Qualifications. For more information, please visit our English Language Requirements page. |
Careers
Digital Creative is a fast-growing area of employment regionally, nationally and globally from games, installations, through to large-scale performance events, concerts and shows. Career prospects are diverse and significant and, consequently, graduates of Interactive and Immersive Performance will work across a range of important career pathways.
The variety of course combinations for this course affords a greater potential for different career trajectories. Within the creative industries, students will be well-placed to seek employment as performers, freelance creative technologists, directors, production designers, arts administrators and immersive experience designers.
The course’s emphasis on performance-making will provide versatility for students seeking to work behind the scenes of production as well as performing in works.
Many of our students will pursue a qualification in teacher training or in a postgraduate course within the creative and performing arts.
Enhancement opportunities
Work Placement Opportunities
Work placement opportunities will be sought from the many Liverpool-based cultural organisations that Liverpool Hope University already has good working relationships with: Everyman & Playhouse, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Sound City, etc.
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2023/24 academic year are £9,250 for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,250.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
Additional costs
While all of the required equipment will be supplied by Liverpool Hope University – a good quality laptop would be a worthwhile resource to be owned by the student.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2023/24 are £12,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is only available as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: