CREATIVE MUSIC TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT - 2025/6

Module Overview

The purpose of this module is to provide you with the opportunity to develop further the skills and experience you have acquired in electronic music making and to advance towards a professional level your individual creative practice. This module enables you to undertake an individual project over a full academic year, with the assistance of an assigned supervisor. The extended scope of the individual project work required by this module, commensurate with its credit weighting, will be discussed in seminars and agreed via individual tutorial support.

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

HALL Thomas (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 45

ECTS Credits: 22.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): 28

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

CMT2012 Creative Music Technology Practice B 

Module content

Indicative content includes:
- Plenary sessions throughout the year outlining the module, requirements for the assessments and guidance on the commentary component of the portfolio.
- Seminars on relevant specialised topics as appropriate to the cohort.
- In-class discussions on your project involving module leader and student peer feedback.
- Regular tutorials with your supervisor.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

None

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate independence in the planning, research, and production of a significant body of compositional and/or other sound/music led creative practice in electronic music. An important part of this project also centres on the ability of students to explain this work in contextually aware, theoretically informed, and insightfully reflective ways.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of a Project research outline (addresses learning outcomes 1-6) and a Portfolio (addresses learning outcomes 1-6).

The project research outline is coursework intended to assist student and supervisor with which is has a diagnostic intention in order to assess at an early stage the strengths and any possible areas for improvement in the research project at an early stage.

A portfolio typically contains 6 to 8 compositions with a commentary considering its cultural and historical context, its technical, methodological and processual characteristics as relevant to the particular project. This portfolio functions to place the practical work in context and demonstrate the research and thinking involved in its creation.

Formative assessment
Formative assessment and feedback may take the form of individual or group discussions of finished pieces and work-in-progress in class from the module leader, and via individual tutorials with the supervisor.  Module seminars present the opportunity for students to present works-in-progress in an informal and supportive environment.

Feedback
Verbal feedback will be supplied in formative assessment sessions and during one-to-one tutorials with the individual supervisor over the course of the academic year. Formative written feedback may be obtained upon request via email correspondence with the supervisor or module leader in response to draft audio or written work.
 

Module aims

• - Enable you to conduct research-informed creative practice in an area of your choosing at a level of detail not otherwise achievable on the programme.
• - Foster an ability to conduct an extended creative project.
• - Develop professionalism in your approach to and quality of work.
• - Increase your knowledge of specialised computer-based approaches to sound.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to facilitate substantial independence in the planning, research, and production of a large body of electronic and computer-based compositional and/or other sound/music-led creative practice. The learning and teaching methods include, plenary seminars, individual tutorials, occasional guest lectures and an emphasis on individual study. Group discussions and peer feedback help test and develop students' understanding of the modules purpose and varieties of research project. Supporting materials on SurreyLearn and elsewhere as appropriate supplement the learning that occurs during the weekly seminars.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: CMT3012

Other information

The Department of Music and Media is committed to developing graduates with attributes encompassing employability, digital skills, global and culture awareness, sustainability as it relates to music and the wider arts and, finally, resourcefulness and resilience.

Employability

This module helps develop employability skills relevant to the creative industries. Student portfolios after graduation may form the basis of creative 'showreels', and have in many instances laid the foundation for successful employment. The module also fosters key transferable skills such as resilience and the ability to work independently.

Global & cultural capabilities

Students make distinctive choices on this module, and in the process engage with a wide range of creative repertoires from different cultures and global creative practices. In undertaking the module students necessarily expand their cultural capabilities, researching their chosen area of investigation and contextualising their work within a global context.

Digital capabilities

Like other modules in the Creative Music Technology programme, our focus and ways of working inherently involve digital capabilities, using computers with specialist software for digital audio. During the course of this module you will develop detailed digital workflows appropriate to your project. Resourcefulness and resilience This module helps develop students' capacity for resourcefulness and resilience as well of overall independence in researching and developing a creative project over a full academic year. Regular supervisions ensure that the student has support in working towards their project outcome, and plenary seminars reinforce key skills such as time-management in a group cohort context.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.