Textiles MA

Entry requirements

Candidates are selected entirely on merit and applications are welcomed from all over the world. The selection process considers creativity, imagination and innovation as demonstrated in your portfolio, as well as your potential to benefit from the programme and to achieve high MA standards overall. You should have either a BA, a BSc or BEng, or equivalent experience, and a personal statement for the intended direction of study. We also want passion, commitment and a strong sense of personal responsibility for your own learning and development.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Working at the creative interface between materials, making and meaning. Study at the World's number one ranked art and design university for eight consecutive years (2015-2022) in the QS World University Subject Rankings.

The Textiles MA operates at the intersection of design, craft and fine art, and we encourage this mix of thinking to collectively challenge the role of the 21st century Textiles practitioner. Practice-led research is a fundamental intellectual framework for how we develop textiles and materials; conceived and created by ‘thinking through making’, we are uncovering new insights through material and process exploration in the physical and digital domains.

With a focus on radical experimentation, material exploration and transformation, we encourage an exploratory, non-linear approach that embraces the conceptual, allowing a space for the incidental and accidental processes of discovery that foster a culture of research through physical and digital making.

Units

• Textile Alchemy - This unit will enable you to develop a strong foundation for establishing your practice through research, experimentation and exploration of colour, material and process.
• Textile Make - this unit enables you to develop a deeper understanding and skill capability within your chosen area of practice and is delivered through a series of masterclasses, workshops, technical negotiated learning and independent study.
• Textile Provocations - this unit enables you to develop a deeper understanding and critical capability within your chosen area of practice and is delivered through a series of masterclasses, workshops, technical negotiated learning and independent study.
• Grand Challenge - the aim of this unit is to connect and challenge all students in all programmes in the School of Design through the introduction of a ‘wicked’ design problem that requires a cross disciplinary approach to problem solving involving an external international scientific or industry partner (or both).
• College-wide unit - this unit aims to support students to meet the challenges of a complex, uncertain and changing world by bringing all students from across the RCA together to work collaboratively on a series of themed projects informed by expertise within and beyond the College.
• Independent Research Project - this is the final Masters unit and asks students to identify, develop and present a cohesive body of work that encapsulates and demonstrates their Masters level expertise.

Facilities

Workshops for textiles include a large-scale printmaking workshop, a dedicated dye lab, mixed media and sewing workshop and extensive knit and weave facilities that include computerised handlooms, an industrial jacquard power loom with APSO software and a dobby power loom. High-tech printing and knitting is also accessible with a state-of-the-art Shima digital knit facility.

Fees and funding