This module, rooted in the partnership between Imperial College London and the Victoria and Albert Museum, offers you the unique opportunity to understand materials and materials-based knowledge across academic disciplines, across time periods and cultural frameworks, and using a wide range of theoretical, historical and practical approaches. The module will take place over 10 weeks. Each week will involve a two-hour face-to-face session with a member of staff in the form of a seminar, practical workshop or museum visit. This programme will be complemented by short online lectures and readings (available through the module’s online learning environment) and home-based activities.  

In the first session, you will be given a broad introduction to the intertwined histories of science and art and design, and how this has impacted on the development and reception of materials and material-based knowledge in the past and present. 

From here, you will develop your interdisciplinary materials ‘toolkit’ by means of a series of lab-based practical sessions led by scientists, designers and makers; object-focused sessions that mobilise the V&A’s collection and expertise; and student-led group work grounded in multidisciplinary teams. The range of spaces (museum stores, university labs), experts (scientists, curators, conservators, designers and makers) and activities (discussion-based seminars, hands-on reconstruction, lab-based experimentation) you encounter mean you will also directly experience the interdisciplinarity of materials-based knowledge and methods, and, in doing so, better understand the adjacencies between histories and practices of art, design and science.   

From Week 2–8, each session will equip you with a new skill that will enrich and expand your understanding of materials and material-based knowledge. In Week 2, you will be invited to present a single object, drawn from your own ‘collection’, before being empowered in subsequent weeks to move beyond this single point of entry to grapple with the multiple ‘worlds’ (social, cultural, material, disciplinary…) of materials, material culture and material-based knowledge. Through this process, you will hone your close-looking and object-analysis skills using the V&A’s collections and mentored by V&A experts. In tandem, you will participate in lab-based and hands-on sessions facilitated by scientists, designers and makers where you will acquire the basic skills needed to perform key material characterisation techniques to better understand the composition and properties of materials, and to partially reconstruct historical materials and artefacts.   

The module culminates in Weeks 9 and 10 with student-led groupwork that will enable you to mobilise, apply and communicate the skills and knowledge you have gained during the module. During these sessions, you will collectively create an infographic (Week 9) and participate in group presentation of a linked social media campaign (Week 10). 

This is a practical module where most of the work will be done in groups. The groups will be multidisciplinary, and the students will be chosen from different disciplinary backgrounds to ensure diversity and highlight the importance of collaborating across departments. Learning will be active and collaborative, and mostly take the form of hands-on workshops at Imperial College London, alongside object-focused sessions at the V&A. 

You will receive feedback and support at every stage of the process. The feedback will be provided within 10 working days from the submission of your assignment. You will also get feedback on the formative reflective writing you submit.