Design

The course introduces the study program’s disciplinary core through exploration of the relationship between society, the design field, and the designer. The students are introduced to a series of concepts in contemporary design discourse. Through discussions and practical work, they reflect on disciplinary/professional and ethical problems that today’s designers are faced with.

The course has an overarching perspective on design, and it is up to the students themselves to contextualise the knowledge within their own specialisations.

Design is a broad discipline with a great variety of research methods. Which methods are relevant for the individual project, the individual field, and the individual designer's interests, therefore span user-centred, art-oriented, innovative, and exploratory ones. The course presents a selection of methods for design research. It encourages reflection on the epistemological basis of these methods. The course presents methods for generating and developing design outcomes and research. It examines how a methodical approach to design activities can inform exploratory design practice and research in the arts. By presenting examples of how methods can be combined, modified, or adapted to specific issues and projects for students, the course facilitates discussion about what method in design is and can be. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to reflect on how to apply research methods in their own master's project and include these reflections in their own project outline.

The master's project is each individual student's main project. It can consist of a single project or be composed of several smaller projects bound together by an overarching issue and written reflection. All or parts of the master's project can be individual, a collaboration between several students, or a collaboration with external actors.

The Master's project requires both a methodical approach to the topic to be explored, a high level of practical, technical, and craftsmanship skills, as well as advanced theoretical knowledge and the ability to link this to the practical part of the project.

Through the work on the master's project, the students explore, among other things, practical, theoretical, and ethical challenges linked to working with publicly accessible design work and design as a social and cultural phenomenon. This work provides knowledge and experience in solving complex design problems, and the ability to critically reflect on one's own process and solution is central. The work can take different forms and have different end results, but must be adapted to the student's specialisation.

In order to make the student aware of the professional reflection inherent in design work, and so that others can take part in and benefit from it, the project must also contain a written reflection. In this, contextual assumptions must be explained and discussed, and linked to the practical project. Through the written reflection, the student's learning must be articulated and made transferable to others.

The master's project should add new knowledge to the subject field in question. "Knowledge" is here a broad term, which can include new visual expressions, processes and methods, strategies, technical and artisanal solutions, theoretical connections, contexts, etc.

Upon submission, the master's project must be published or otherwise presented publicly, in a dissemination format approved by the supervisor.

The master's project is divided into two subjects, one in each study year. The subject Master's project in design, part 1 (in the first and second semesters), emphasizes the development of the project from the idea stage, via a project sketch that frames it and gives it direction, to the started project. In the Master's project in design, part 2 (in the third and fourth semesters), the student builds on this work and further develops and completes the master's project. Master's project in design parts 1 and 2 amount to a total of 52.5 credits.

Introduction to Master's project in design part 1

(NB! Master's project in design parts 1 and 2 must be seen in context, as the master's project covers both subjects. What is written in this course description is therefore also relevant for the subject Master's project in design part 2.)

In the subject Master's project in design part 1, students must develop a project sketch for the master's project as a whole, which is delivered at the end of the first semester. The project outline must present, i.a., the project's theme and problem, theoretical grounding, methods, as well as any practical, technical, local, and collaborative prerequisites for the project. The course ends after the second semester with a presentation of the project's status and a progress plan. The students receive feedback that lays the foundation for the work in the final subject (Master's project in design part 2).

It is expected that the students apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the other subjects in the first and second semesters.

All design carries within it an attitude that arises from the value system in which the designer has grown up and been educated. Often, this attitude is invisible to us because we haven’t learned to recognize it. From this perspective, the designer—whether consciously or unconsciously—is an active co-creator of our society and culture.

The course is about becoming aware of these values and attitudes as a basis for defining one’s own position as a designer, and thereby becoming an informed co-creator. Critical examination and an external perspective of the field are used to help reveal implicit and unconscious attitudes and values. Concepts such as identity, class, diversity, power, intersectionality, and norm criticism are explored within the context of design, and the students are challenged to relate them to their own design practices.

The course incorporates knowledge from the course Design and Society from the first semester into the process of defining one’s own position. This work will also lay a significant foundation for the master’s project.

The course has an overall focus on abstraction as a method in creative work processes. The student must be able to analyse, identify, and evaluate the potential and possibilities of an idea. In the process, the student must use their own senses and experiences. The course has a clear focus on aesthetics, abstraction, senses, and phenomenology. In addition, emphasis is placed on reflection on one's own and others' practice.

The module has a focus on aesthetics, sustainability, and conceptual architecture with the intention that this will help the student to actively contribute to the world of tomorrow.

The students will gain an increased understanding of the relationship between the present and the future, together with an understanding of the role that design has in a world that is in dynamic change.

The module is divided into two clear parts: The first part is characterized by a period of deep insight, where the student is challenged to go through a period of self-reflection with the intention that this can lead to systemic changes on a personal level. The intention is that these changes will contribute to creating an architecture for the future.

The second phase of the project will be of a practical nature and will be focused on developing and presenting a design solution that builds on the insights gained in the first phase.