Digital Creativity and Special Educational Needs

DIGITAL CREATIVITY

This course will educate students towards creating work that bridges the gap between traditional creative practices and their modern technologically facilitated counterparts from gaming, to graphic design to music and dance. It responds to the continuing appropriation of emerging digital technologies by artists with the aim of discovering new approaches for creative expression, often referred to under the umbrella term ‘Creative Convergence’. The course responds to the teaching and research interests of staff within the subjects of Music, Performance and Visual Arts, as well as colleagues in the areas related to Computer Science. You will learn how to use a variety of technologies and realise assessed projects; these may include motion capture, haptic feedback, interaction design, data sonification & visualisation, animation & sound design, and coding/scripting in relevant languages strictly for creative output. The practical seminars will act as laboratories to experiment with these technologies and enhance your skillsets, working towards a signature practice that primes them for the digital creative sector. The lectures provide a theoretical basis for you to critically position your work, further developed through student-led discussions in tutorials. The lecture content also informs the seminars, ensuring you are able to perceive the practical application of these ideas. In your first year of study, you will be introduced to the key practitioners and practices who demonstrate the ways digital technologies enrich the creative potential of traditional art forms.

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

The Special Educational Needs course will equip you to become a passionate advocate for disability rights and equality in your chosen profession. There are 14.6 million disabled people in the UK, and graduates with expertise in special educational needs and disability are in demand in a wide range of areas including education, health, social work and social care, local government, and business.

A supportive team of disabled and non-disabled academics will enable you to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to become a future leader in this area. You will learn about the historical, social and cultural factors that shape our understanding of special educational needs and disability. Your understanding of academic theories and models will be deepened by activities which challenge you to explore how this knowledge can be applied in professional settings. As well as tutors’ extensive professional experience, course content is informed by input from a range of guest speakers, and from our partner organisations, which include disabled-led and self-advocacy groups, education and care providers, charities, and disability arts organisations.  

The Special Educational Needs course at Liverpool Hope is unique in that it is informed and enriched by the work of the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies, an internationally recognised centre of excellence in disability studies research, and the only UK research centre to focus on disability and culture.