Visual Culture BA(Hons)

International equivalencies

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Why study with us? 

• Brighton is a creative, digital hub, jam-packed with museums, galleries and street art and the location for England’s leading art festival. It has a significant role in contemporary visual culture, from picture postcards, to films like Brighton Rock and Quadrophenia, to books such as Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman.

• You’ll get to grips with the theories from art, film and photography, while understanding the social and historical backgrounds that inform the culture around us.

• You’ll build core visual culture knowledge through seminars, team-based and individual research projects while developing your own specialist areas of interest by choosing from a range of options.

• On-site at the university, you will have access to our world-class Design Archives, an excellent art and design library, the Screen Archive South East and our Dress and Textiles Teaching collection. You can view the Design Archives blog for insight into our conservation work.

• You’ll develop your capacity for critical inquiry and analysis and gain hands-on placement experience, equipping you with transferable, relevant skills and giving you a competitive edge when you graduate.

• A thriving and international research culture ensures that you will learn from a wide range of academics and visiting makers, researchers and writers.

• You’ll be part of our lively student community studying History of Art and Design courses at Brighton. Check out the History of Art and Design blog and Twitter feed for an insight.

Poster advertising Brighton – early twentieth century. Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove.

Year 1

The first year of the Visual Culture degree familiarises you with good study practices and introduces you to the different kinds of assessment used on the course, including essays, seminar presentations, display projects and exams. Much of the teaching will take place in small groups of around 12 students with one tutor.

Modules

• Art, Culture and Commerce
• Art and Design History in Brighton: Places and processes
• Critical Approaches: Core concepts in history of art and design
• Art, Design and Modern Life
• Analysing Art and Design
• Introducing Themes in History of Art and Design*

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through our applicant portal.

*Most recently, themes explored on this module have included art, modernity and the city; screening meaning; art, architecture, design and decoration in the English country house.

Year 2

You can apply to spend the first semester of year 2 at the University of Oslo, which offers teaching in English on subjects related to visual culture. The exchange is organised through the EU Erasmus programme.

Alternatively, you can go on a five-day trip to a European city to study art, design and visual culture in context, with possible destinations including Paris and Berlin. The trip is optional and costs around £300.

Modules

• Modernism, Ideology and the Avant-garde in the Twentieth Century
• After Modernism: Postmodernism and Beyond
• Constructing Histories: Research methods and professional practice in history of art and design

Options*

• Image Object Text**
• A Trip to Europe
• Considering Debates**
• Behind the Scenes: Arts and heritage placements
• Modernism in Asia
• Museums, Material Culture and Representation
• Cold War Cultures
• Option module from across our humanities and arts subjects, including creative practice modules

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

**These modules may explore themes including modernism in Asia; museums, material culture and representation; cold war cultures; reading dress.

Final year

The final year sees you execute independent but closely supervised research projects, including your own dissertation, a group display project and a visual display of your dissertation research, which is shown as part of the arts and humanities graduate show. In these projects you are supported by one-to-one or small group supervision as well as peer support.

Modules

• Eye And Mind
• Dissertation in the History of Art and Design
• Communicating Research
• Special Subject**

Options*

• Real World Research in Art and Design History
• Professional Paths in Art and Design History

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

**The Special Subject module typically enables students to explore themes like making the modern home: design, domesticity and discourse; participation, performance, politics; the limits of representation; the past in the present: retro, vintage, revival; and fashion contexts. 

Facilities

• World-class Design Archives
• Excellent art and design library
• Screen Archive South East
• Dress and Textiles Teaching Collection

Staff profile

Dr Annebella Pollen, course leader

Annebella is an academic working across a range of interests in material and visual culture.

Her research areas include mass photography and popular image culture, and histories of craft, design and dress. She has developed projects on historical youth cultures and experiments in living, on silhouette portraits, snapshot photographs and picture postcards, and on revivalism and utopianism.

Annebella leads the academic programme in history of art and design, which covers undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Find out about our other staff: Dr Harriet Atkinson, Dr Verity Clarkson, Dr Angelica Groom, Anna Vaughan Kett, Yunah Lee, Charlotte Nicklas, Louise Purbrick, Dr Megha Rajguru, Dr Glenn Ward.

Student views

Lizzie Lewis

"I decided to study Visual Culture as I was interested in art history, but also wanted to learn about design, photography and architecture. The course stood out for me, as it includes the study of both historical and contemporary arts. I have found myself drawn to realism in art, and have enjoyed exploring this material in depth, through presentations and essays. I have also studied the architecture and design of the British country house. A study trip to Paris was a brilliant experience, and our group spent five days visiting exhibitions, and developing our perceptions of Parisian culture.

"Although there is a lot of hard work, it is manageable, and you can usually tailor your assignments to suit you, as there is a lot of freedom in choosing areas of focus. Your tutors will guide you along the right path, and there is a wide collection of material at the library for you to use. There is also a diverse range of modules to choose from, and I would advise you to choose ones that interest you most, not necessarily subjects you know the most about."

Location

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Grand Parade campus map