Victoria University of Wellington

This course develops the technical skills of drawing and the understanding of human anatomy, kinesiology, perspective, motion, light, and proportion. This course nurtures personal practice and develops creative voice through drawing. Skills learned can be applied in many design contexts and programmes. Students who pass this course should be able to: Develop a drawing practice that demonstrates use of professional techniques. Describe various aspects of drawing within the context of history and its trajectory?. Apply drawing techniques in a variety of design disciplines.

This course explores the climate system and the cryosphere, focussing on interactions between the two. The course provides a comprehensive treatment of climate processes over the 2000 years leading into the modern era of anthropogenic influence; case studies of ice-climate interactions; and recent behavior of ice sheets, mountain glaciers, and sea ice.

This course examines modern and past Earth environments and the key processes that have shaped them. The course focuses on understanding and interpreting evidence from the geological record for environmental change and using this knowledge to help predict future variability. Specific focus is on Antarctica, the Southwest Pacific, and New Zealand.

This course introduces students to strategies and techniques in which to perceive theatrical performance in the contemporary context. The course offers opportunities for practical and theoretical engagement with performance, enabling students to better understand performance discourses through practical work, while also offering skills to reflect on their practice in a theoretical way. The teaching material is framed around three core elements: theatre technology, devised performance, and performance studies.

This course introduces students to the tools and materials we use in landform design. Students examine landscape architectural ideas from an initial concept to detailed design and construction. Students learn techniques and knowledge required for understanding and manipulating landforms, reading and producing grading and drainage plans, and modeling using the 3D visualization software. Students choose materials, using and installing them in the landscape, and producing the appropriate technical documentation.

This course introduces the field of art history through the study of key works of art. Each lecture considers how the meaning of a particular artwork changes over time. The course introduces stylistic, iconographic and contextual analysis, and provides insight into central debates in the discipline.

Industrial design and new media are pervasive fields of human endeavor which contribute to the complex interactions in our relationship to technology through artifacts and experiences. By observing and analyzing historical approaches and responses in and between these design disciplines, students explore design history from new perspectives. Analytical, critical, and discursive skills, both oral and written, are emphasized.

This course focuses on the creation of more sustainable and potentially regenerative domestic architecture, building upon and adding to the students' background knowledge. Students explore issues related to the built environment and sustainability, while learning a variety of practical techniques to address such issues in the design and making of buildings, environments, and landscapes. Students are encouraged to take a critical thinking approach to environmental issues that are relevant to a built environment and design context, and to recognize the inherent links with social issues. This is important because of the impact our professions have on these issues and the potential role we have in contributing to positive change.

This course provides an introduction to the scientific study of abnormal behavior. The course encourages the critical examination of the underlying theoretical models involved and to the empirical evidence for their support. Topics: some of the philosophical assumptions and methodological issues in defining abnormality; some major psychological disorders of childhood, adolescence and adulthood; major models to explain these disorders (biological, psychological, and social); introduction to therapy.