Imaginative, original and full of ideas, Creative Technology combines technical and creative skills to create the technologies of the future. At Middlesex, you'll have the opportunity to learn through doing, experimenting with different types of technology to design and build your own inventions.
Technology has become fundamentally important to art, design and culture. We increasingly engage with creative technology in our daily lives through print and broadcast, virtual and augmented experiences, games, film and music. We recognise the importance of combining the skills associated with the once-separate creative and technical worlds and have designed this masters course to ensure that you benefit from cross-faculty teaching between the Arts and Creative Industry and Science and Technology faculties. Our multi-disciplinary approach to teaching will equip you with the skills required to work as a professional within creative tech industries, as you’ll learn by experimenting with technologies and exploring creative and innovative solutions.
The course has a practical focus with an emphasis on collaboration and experimentation. You’ll be encouraged to step out of your comfort zone and tackle something new, benefitting from support and guidance from our practice-based staff who are active in research and constantly seeking new and creative ways to ensure that the course meets the needs of industry and employers.
You'll collaborate with your peers on group projects undertaking live briefs from Industry to get a feel of the professional world. In the past students have created immersive VR and AR environments, Hololens environments, 360° videos, projection mapping projects, locative mobile apps, novel gaming environments, wearable tech and an interactive cushion.
Working within the current public distancing guidelines, we will be enhancing our online teaching with access to our cutting-edge facilities such as TV, radio and sound studios, 3D workshops and workshops for high-end digital work, green screens and gaming and video editing computers. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to delve into your creative projects and take advantage of our award-winning facilities throughout your degree.
We welcome students with a range of skills, knowledge and from any background on this course. If you don’t have programming skills, we can help you to learn what is needed in order to realise your ideas. We encourage students to work collaboratively on projects to develop transferable skills such as team-building, networking and ideation. Past students have included journalists, artists, designers, programmers, marketing and TV executives, engineers, biologists and teachers. It's an unusual opportunity for students with diverse skills to work together, and it's this variety that gives our course so much character.
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The focus of the programme is making projects. You will be building, testing, entering hackathons, interacting, brainstorming, prototyping, working with clients on at least one live project per year, entering competitions – and having fun. We are always looking for ways of getting students involved in exciting, current projects, including, if possible, placements.
In addition to an in-depth knowledge of creative technologies, you will also become competent in computer programming, the various methods of completing research, and organising and planning projects. You’ll work with students from a range of academic backgrounds where you’ll gain team building and ideation skills as part of group work.
There are plenty of opportunities to enter competitions such as the Hackathon Awards where you’ll have the chance to win cash prizes. Past students have won the Richard Branson Entrepreneur Prize. You will also have an understanding of business models, users and audiences, ethics, copyright, intellectual property, and licensing.
Students have graduated from the programme to become Creative Technologists, UX consultants, VR entrepreneurs, audio specialists, Lecturers and researchers – and movers and shakers in the Creative Industries.
This module will give you the practical insight and understanding of why creative technical projects succeed or fail. More specifically, it will provide the means to orientate and situate your work in relation to a range of industry practices, organisational structures and business processes. You will develop an informed, practical understanding of key business and/or organisational aspects of creative technology. You learn to understand, work and negotiate productively with the different needs and constraints of creative technical work and industry/business practice to gain an appreciation of the economic and organisational implications of rapid change in the creative industries.
This module aims to give you a theoretical and practical understanding of the skills and tools required to work collaboratively on creative technical projects. You will develop, extend and refine your creative and technical skills within a project and your competencies in the use of specific technologies. You will also be given the opportunity to develop a practical exploration of the advantages and challenges presented by working with creative technologies.
The Final Project module enables students to integrate, refine, deepen and extend the skills and knowledge acquired in previous modules on the programme. It will promote and facilitate the development of innovative and experimental project work with creative technologies, and foster the development of an informed, organised and analytical approach to the challenges of creative technical practice.
This module provides an introduction to a range of novel techniques and technologies, such as AR, VR, EEG interfaces, eye tracking, locative media and other emerging technologies. You will develop skills in video documentation, presentation and ideation.
See the course specification for more information:
Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
We are regularly reviewing and updating our programmes to ensure you have the best learning experience. We are taking what we have learnt during the pandemic and enhancing our teaching methods with new and innovative ways of learning.
We aim to model a wide range of teaching strategies and approaches on the course which you can adapt to your own setting.
As well as working on your projects and attending practical workshops, you'll also be taught through lectures, seminars and presentations by visiting speakers. This is a very collaborative course and you'll be in constant discussion with staff and other students about your work, whether in class or through social media.
We encourage innovative ways of submitting work, including group blogs, content management systems and online environments, and your written assignments can include videos, animations, images, sketchbooks, spreadsheets, diagrams and flowcharts.
In addition to placement opportunities, you may also have the opportunity to visit and learn from practicing creative technologists. When you are not at the University, you'll be expected to do your own independent study, reading and online learning.
Although there are no exams you will be assessed via coursework. This will include practical projects, both individual and group, written analyses of real-life projects or products, business plans, project proposals, presentations, pitches and annotated videos. Some of this assessed work will be done in groups. As well as being a means of documenting your work, the videos are a valuable part of your portfolio.
As well as receiving regular feedback and support from your tutors, students will assess and give feedback on each other's work. You'll also keep a record of your own progress, aims and areas for development, which will form part of your overall assessment.
For your final creative technology project, you'll develop and conduct a piece of original research, with reference to existing research, either individually or in groups of up to four. You will also have the option to complete the project with an external company - you will receive support to help find a placement if you wish to do this. You will be assessed through a written report, annotated video and practical project. If you do your final project in a group, each student will write an individual report, and you'll be assessed both individually and as a group.
We are regularly reviewing and updating our programmes to ensure you have the best learning experience. We are taking what we have learnt during the pandemic and enhancing our teaching methods with new and innovative ways of learning.
We are currently reviewing our approach to teaching and learning for 2023 entry and beyond. We've learned a lot about how to give you a quality education - we aim to combine the best of our pre-pandemic teaching and learning with access to online learning and digital resources which put you more in charge of when and how you study. We will keep you updated on this throughout the application process.
Your timetable will be built around on campus sessions using our professional facilities, with online sessions for some activities where we know being virtual will add value. We’ll use technology to enhance all of your learning and give you access to online resources to use in your own time.
The table below gives you an idea of what learning looks like across a typical week. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on campus sessions.
This information is likely to change slightly for 2023 entry as our plans evolve. You'll receive full information on your teaching before you start your course.
Learning structure: typical hourly breakdown in 2022/23 | ||
Live in-person on campus learning | Contact hours per week, per level: | 12 hours |
Live online learning | Average hours per week, per level: | 2 hours |
This information is likely to change slightly for 2023 entry as our plans evolve. You'll receive full information on your teaching before you start your course.
Definitions of terms
Support
You have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to do well on your course.
Our support services will be delivered online and on campus and you have access to a range of different resources so you can get the help you need, whether you’re studying at home or have the opportunity to come to campus.
You have access to one to one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our library and IT teams, and our network of learning experts. Our teams will also be here to offer financial advice, and personal wellbeing, mental health and disability support.
Our students produce a wide variety of inspiring and innovative creative content.
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Watch some student produced videos below and make sure to check out our dedicated YouTube Playlist for more student work and inspiration.
This course has such a wide scope that the variety of careers which will be open to you is almost endless: Creative Technologist, music producer, games developer, application designer or developer, website producer, digital platforms engineer or social and locative media engineer / designer are just some of the many, many roles you could do. You could work for a wide range of employers in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, or even start your own business. Graduates have also gone on to study for a PhD and begin an academic career.
As well as in-depth knowledge of your subject, our course will provide you with many transferable skills. It will improve your research, data collection and interpretation and presentation skills, as well as your confidence and your ability to work under your own initiative and manage your own time. The strong focus on principles and concepts will help you develop the capacity for lifelong independent study.
Dr Passmore has a background in psychology (BSc), and computer science (MSc, PhD), and conducted research in a range of areas including visual perception, image processing, neural networks, visualisation, visual analytics, and 360 video. He set up the first European Net Yaroze Games programming laboratory sponsored by Sony.
Dr Moar's research interests focus on new approaches to learning and play, non-conventional interfaces, VR, AR and locative applications. He has worked on pioneering developments such as using GPS and mobile technology to progress narrative.
Debbie’s work on the Creative Technology course centres on creativity, lateral thinking, ideation, presentation and collaborative projects. She has over 30 years’ experience as a Product Designer and has designed for many worldwide companies. She has recently branched out into Textiles, both as one-off pieces and also as designs for fashion / furnishings. Her personal interests are in mixed-media textiles, upcycling, innovation, astronomy and social responsibility.
Carl is a University Teaching Fellow and his teaching and research encompasses the areas of sensors, interactive Genetic Algorithms and audio and video processing. He is particularly interested in synthesiser technology and interface design using a physical computing approach. He belongs to the AI and Smart Homes research groups and recently has been working with simple EEG systems and generative art to explore new ways of working and creating games.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: September 2023
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGN2P4