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The University of Edinburgh: Contemporary Art Theory

Institution The University of Edinburgh View institution profile
Department Edinburgh College of Art
Web https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying
Study type Taught

Summary

Established in 2001, the Masters of Contemporary Art Theory (MA CAT) is a post-studio programme that supports the research and practices of artists and aspiring art professionals.

The MA CAT encourages practices that are speculative and reflective, developing artistic research on, and in, a range of media, sites and organisations.

The programme supports an applied knowledge of art now, grounding schooling in the practices of art and contemporary art theory as well as extra-disciplinary and intermedial approaches.

The taught curriculum consists of an innovative series of learning sprints designed to support the development of your artistic research and practice through:

  • workshops

  • practical partnerships with art organisations

  • carefully scaffolded approaches to collaborative inquiry (‘problem-based learning’)

  • peer-production (‘paragogy’)

You will create art projects designed to engage and develop emerging hypereconomies of contemporary art and its variety of media, technologies, images, artefacts, tactics, texts, cultural contexts and professional practices.

Our philosophy and values A defining aspect of our theory programme is the emphasis we place upon speculative scepticism – not starting from the position of knowing what post-studio practice is but being motivated by speculation on what it might be.

We generate a dynamic, intellectually ambitious environment in which staff and students can learn together. We attract students with very different backgrounds and experiences. This difference generates diversity and a richness that is key to learning about, and expanding, the field of contemporary art.

The focus on building a supportive creative community through innovative forms of peer-generated knowledge, the rigorous and experimental combination of theory and practice and the international profile of the student body makes our master’s programme unique.

Our academic staff provide specialist support for students wishing to pursue research on and in established fields of contemporary art practices and theory, while fully engaging with the ever-changing context of emerging media and innovative forms of critical and organisational praxis.

MA

Edinburgh University

Edinburgh. Extraordinary futures await.

The University of Edinburgh is one of the world's top universities, consistently ranked in the world top 50, and placed 34th in the QS World University Rankings 2026.

Our position as one of Britain’s leading research universities was reaffirmed by the results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The University of Edinburgh is one of the world’s top research-intensive universities, ranked 4th in the UK for research power (Times Higher Education, Overall Ranking of Institutions), with 90% of our research activity classified as world leading or internationally excellent in the 2021 Research …

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