Units you can study
Choose from the undergraduate or postgraduate options on offer across a range of disciplines. As long as you meet the prerequisites, you can choose subjects from any of our discipline areas to suit your interests.
Most units have a lecture and a tutorial each week. Lectures and tutorials for postgraduate units are usually held in the evenings.
Approved units
All students can study these units, regardless of your academic background. These units will be approved on your QUT study plan after you apply.
Creative arts
BAB302 Impact Lab: Community and Industry Engagement
This unit will enable you to consolidate and apply the knowledge and skills you have learned and experienced over your course. Through a community or industry project you will identify and analyse an authentic challenge, offer and defend a creative solution, and reflect on your strengths and career readiness to action the solution. Drawing on interdisciplinary research and insights this unit will enable you to apply examples that consider social and cultural sustainability, technological solutions and impact, and personal perspectives and ethics when responding to real world opportunities and challenges.
KYB110 Art, Text and Context
This is a foundational unit in the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree that introduces you to the critical contexts of creative works and practices, including: how they make meaning, their varying contexts, how they circulate, how these might change over time This is done through an introduction to: some of the key aesthetic, conceptual and technical ideas that underpin a range of creative practice disciplines; critical thinking and the critical analysis of creative works and practices; understanding what it means to be a critical viewer/reader/listener/artist; some different and diverse perspectives on various creative forms, works, and practices, including the contribution that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and thinkers have made across a range of disciplines.
KYB210 Art and Social Change
This unit critically examines the relationship between art, culture and social change. Drawing on art in its broadest multidisciplinary sense, you will learn about: Some key examples of art's relationship to social change since 1945, including visual, audio, and performance practices and movements. The impact of art as both a stimulus to and response to cultural, social and environmental issues The power dynamics underpinning the creation of and representation of diverse identities and communities in art, including First Nations perspectives. The responsibility of artists as creative practitioners and cultural intermediaries and the importance of critical and contextual research in creating work for publics. This unit builds on some of the foundational concepts and approaches introduced in KYB110 Art, Text and Context.
KZB104 Photomedia
Making, reading, and critically analysing complex photomedia images are essential 21st-century creative skills. This unit develops these skills through a combination of aesthetic, conceptual, and technical activities, addressing visual literacy, experimental and critical artistic enquiry, and the protocols related to ethical and inclusive photomedia practice. You are introduced to a diverse range of contemporary artistic photo imaging concepts and methods in the context of photographic history and encouraged to develop your own creative responses by experimenting with a range of approaches to photomedia image making.
KZB110 Approaches to Contemporary Drawing
This unit focuses on experimental and creative approaches to contemporary drawing. Contemporary drawing explores creative modes of engaging with materials, processes and concepts, to communicate ideas, capture experiences and respond to environments. Using a studio-based approach, you will explore, compose, analyse and interpret a range of modern and contemporary works of art. The aim of this unit is to build your technical and conceptual knowledge to increase your appreciation of drawing as a mode of expression and to extend your drawing skills for application in visual art, animation, design and educational settings.
KZB120 Australian Voices
The ability to recognise, analyse and engage with key aspects of one’s national artistic culture is an important part of a creative practitioner’s work life. This unit analyses works of contemporary Australian creative practice, focusing on how artistic culture in Australia is positioned in terms of industry and institutions, artistic forms, changing concepts of practice, and the crucial place of First Nations stories. This unit equips you with both creative and analytical skills in a range of Australian contexts and practice areas, that is, Acting, Drama, and Technical Production; Creative Writing; Dance; Film, Screen and Animation; Music; and, Visual Arts. It offers discussion of the breadth and diversity of contemporary works in Australia, and an understanding of the broader cultural contexts of their production. The unit supports your development as a creative arts practitioner by connecting you to national communities of practice and their audiences in Australia and abroad.
KZB290 Production Management
This unit introduces the skills and essential industry knowledge to equip students from all disciplines to successfully manage creative projects – whether they are large scale creative projects or your own individual creative practice. This unit will look at the management of all forms of creative practice, from live performance, events and exhibitions, music concerts, film projects, touring production, and more. Students will learn how to schedule, budget, assess risks and manage the logistics of creative productions, all while expanding their understanding of the key industry awards that govern Australian creative industries, from broadcast to live performance to print media. This unit is ideal for students wanting to work as production managers in all creative fields, as well as students wishing to self-manage creative projects.
Creative writing
KWB104 Writing Fiction
This unit investigates the techniques and elements of writing fiction, beginning by looking at the short story and moving on to looking at the novel. The writing of short stories has traditionally been a starting place for writers to begin developing their craft. Initially via the short story, this unit explores the elements of fiction such as character, voice, setting, plot, dialogue, point of view and modulation. The unit then moves to investigating further elements of fiction using the novel as its focus, helping you acquire and practice skills in creative writing. In this unit you will also learn to analyse prose fiction for craft elements in a way that informs and illuminates your own work. In addition to lectures, tutorial based peer-critique workshops are a central part of this unit. Within them, in a guided and structured way, you will get and give feedback on the stories as they are being written.
KWB113 Introduction to Creative Writing
This unit provides the fundamental skills for writing fiction and poetry as well as the basic theoretical background that underpins them. It looks at the foundational techniques required to write successfully in each mode and explores how a practitioner might best approach both writing and critical analysis in the contemporary context. It develops a critical understanding of your own and others’ approaches to writing life. You will be encouraged to develop the skills required for professional writing through a series of tasks that introduce key concepts such as characterisation, constructing a scene, writing dialogue, and creating imagery.
KWB116 Writing Creative Non-Fiction
In this unit, you will develop the ability to recognise, analyse and write in key areas of creative non-fiction writing. The unit offers you highly transferable skills that form part of the professional writer's practice and which are especially useful to develop early in a writing career. Creative non-fiction allows you to combine real life stories with the creative and imaginative writing techniques employed in fiction, and applies to a wide range of writing modes and publishing contexts. These include reviewing, writing about books, music and screen, food writing, the personal essay, life writing and travel literature, and the use of humour in writing. This unit encourages you to apply the creative writing techniques of these forms to your own areas of interest and creative practice, and has an industry focus in equipping you with practical and analytical skills in a range of non-fiction creative writing genres.
KWB118 Genre Writing and Storytelling
This unit surveys current trends in genre writing and popular fiction with a focus on essential storytelling techniques. You will look in detail at the biggest genres in publishing, including romance, science fiction, fantasy, and crime writing, gaining insight into the traditions, parameters, and possibilities of each. The unit will develop your understanding of genre theory through an investigation of the social and political underpinnings of key genres, and through the practical application of these ideas and perspectives in your own writing. You will develop a piece of writing that makes use of the techniques of your chosen genre and that reflects the appropriate concerns and themes. The unit aims to develop your critical understanding of your approach to the writing life.
KWB211 Creative Writing: Style and Technique
This unit is a masterclass in literary style. Each week in this unit we will look at how one writer produces a particular technique or effect well, we will unpack at a language level exactly what they are doing, and then we will use this understanding to produce a written piece for the week employing that technique. In essence, this unit provides an opportunity to develop different writing techniques through guided writing exercises and theoretical analyses of texts with an emphasis on style and effect. Here you move beyond the basic elements of fiction and develop advanced techniques in creative and professional writing at a low, language-oriented level. Intensive tutorial-based work, self-directed creative practice, guided critical analysis and asynchronous on-line activities characterise the teaching and learning in this unit.
KWB212 Poetry and Poetics
This unit provides important creative and critical skills in writing poetry and cultivating an understanding of how to interpret and use poetic techniques. It explores a spectrum of contemporary and traditional forms of poetry, and is designed for those who are interested in poetics and the use of words in precise, innovative, concentrated and musical ways. It equips students with knowledge of the techniques, poetic forms and modes, and the opportunity to apply this vocabulary in analysing and reading a wide range of contemporary poetry. The unit provides key creative and critical skills in writing poetry, while offering you the chance to practice in a variety of poetic forms and modes, reflectively writing about your own poetry and analytically writing about the stylistics of another person’s work. The unit occurs at the mid-point of the creative writing major, preparing you for the advanced work of third year.
KWB312 Editing and Publishing
This unit offers an advanced understanding of the editing process and the contemporary Australian publishing landscape. It develops your editorial acumen across a range of modes and forms, and builds the interpersonal skills required for editorial relationships. These understandings and skills are crucial for those intending to work in the publishing industry and are of great benefit to creative writers. You will learn to edit the work of others with insight, understanding, and technical skill, and gain a greater knowledge of contemporary Australian publishing.
KWB319 Dangerous Ideas: Contemporary Debates in Writing
This unit introduces you to the key debates and ideas animating the field of contemporary creative writing, and allows you to consider your own writing practice in the context of these debates. The unit helps you to develop a nuanced understanding of the issues preoccupying contemporary writers, to gain insight into the historical and cultural factors informing those issues, and to articulate your own perspectives via conversation and debate. You will encounter a spectrum of ideas about what it means to be a writer today as well as the historical and cultural factors informing our ideas of authorship.
Dance
KDB107 Fundamentals of Choreography
This unit introduces the fundamentals of improvisation and choreographic practice. Throughout it you will participate in a series of creative laboratories that seek to enliven an experiential understanding of the body in dance and explore different practices and processes that cultivate tools for dance making. The unit focuses on exploring dance through different approaches to improvisation and task-based processes. This is an opportunity to develop your foundational skills as a choreographer in dance through developing critical skills in experimentation, physical thinking, responsivity, as well as the ability to mobilise your ideas and concepts.
KDB113 Dance Studies
This unit will give you an introduction to the diverse field of dance studies. Through encountering relevant theory, reflecting on recorded dance performances, and participating in physical dance analysis activities, the unit will equip you with critical frameworks through which you can interrogate various aesthetic codes and relevant issues relating to dance in a variety of historical and cultural contexts. This will involve a range of perspectives including dance analysis, writing from practising choreographers and dancers, historical and cultural contextualisation, gender issues, racial diversity, and social dance. These understandings are an integral part of a wide range of pursuits within the dance industry including those of the performer, choreographer, and critic, as well as useful to other Creative Industries' disciplines.
Drama
KTB112 Drama: Theory and Performance
This foundational unit engages practically and theoretically with notions of contemporary performance practice, before inviting students to consider future evolutions of the form’s techniques and methodologies. Focussing on styles of performance that promote co-creation, interaction and participation, the unit teaches critical and creative theories and techniques needed to cultivate self-awareness, other-awareness, and greater socio-political awareness of performance practices. How these aspects influence style and form, constitute the central focus of the unit. A combination of exercises and opportunities to develop a performance persona in this unit encourages students to find comfort in the evolving modes and expressions of the form of contemporary dramatic styles.
KTB130 Foundations of Drama and Performance
This foundational unit provides you with a comprehensive introduction to the diverse landscape of dramatic arts. It explores a spectrum of theatrical forms including classical, commercial, post-dramatic, musical, and community theatre, with a strong emphasis on the sociocultural and historical contexts that shape these practices, including the role of First Nations works and artists in the Australian context. Industry aligned case study examples encourage you to critically engage with dramatic roles, which may include the director, producer, performer, designer, and teaching artist, examining how each contributes to the creation and communication of meaning in performance. This fosters analytical and collaborative skills through exposure to extant scripts, staged readings, and associated opportunities to develop and practice dramatic performance skills.
KTB131 Technology in Live Performance
This unit immerses you in the evolving intersection of technology and live performance. Blending theoretical inquiry and practical experimentation, you will explore both the conceptual underpinnings and creative practices of incorporating technology into dramatic world-making, through the investigation of established and emerging tools – such as projection mapping, augmented and virtual reality, motion capture, artificial intelligence (AI) and interactive media. The unit considers the historiographical framing of technological integration, encouraging you to contextualise innovations within broader artistic and cultural movements while also considering their own relationships with technology and artistic expression. You will engage in hands-on labs and conceptual design projects where possible, supported by ethical frameworks for AI use where appropriate, preparing you to navigate and contribute to the future of technologically enhanced performance.
KTB132 Drama Facilitation and Creative Community Engagement
This unit equips you with the skills to design and deliver applied theatre experiences that foster social inclusion, wellbeing, education and/or community engagement. Drawing on community-art and arts-health methodologies as well as applied drama practices – such as epic theatre, process drama and/or Boalean theatre systems – and facilitation theory, you will learn to create responsive workshops tailored to diverse populations. The curriculum integrates leadership, directing practices and collaboration, with flexible delivery models negotiable within the frameworks provided through the interrogation and assessment of industry-aligned resource materials. You will engage with real-world briefs from community organisations, developing portfolios that reflect ethical engagement and creative strategy. The unit positions community theatre as a vital, realistic and respected career pathway.
KTB133 Script and Performance Analysis
This unit offers a rigorous exploration of dramatic texts and performance interpretation. You will engage with a range of genres and theatrical forms – which may include but not be limited to Realism, the post-dramatic and/or Theatre of the Absurd – developing skills in dramaturgy, theatre criticism, and scene study. The curriculum encourages reimagining extant texts through contemporary lenses as well as developing skills for writing new works, fostering innovation and critical reflection. Assessments include multimodal submissions and peer critique, promoting diverse modes of communication and analysis. Industry engagement is facilitated through live performance analysis and script development and performance workshops, providing you with practical experience in shaping and evaluating dramatic works.
KTB219 Directing
This intermediate praxis unit investigates notions and functions of direction and creative leadership in the fields of theatre, drama, mediated and live performance. Through engaging with models of directorial best-practice and examining influential practitioners you will unpack the process of leading creativity from both a collaborative and personal perspective, with the aim of achieving a unified creative vision in consideration of emerging ideas in sustainability, diversity and technology and how these things may shape considerations of leadership. Whether within conventional hierarchical structures or collaborative models, delivering creative outcomes requires not only knowledge of the personal, logistical, curatorial, and sustainable artistic processes of creation, but also an understanding of the processes to safely navigate from concept to fullest expression.
KTB220 Directing, Leadership and Performance
This advanced unit focuses on the art and craft of directing within collaborative performance environments. You will develop rehearsal strategies, leadership techniques, and aesthetic vision through practical directing labs and peer-led projects. The unit integrates observation and feedback-giving as core competencies, supported by reflective writing and the option to experiment with AI-assisted visualisation and creative expression tools. Industry engagement includes a focus on prominent and guest directors where possible, and identifying industry opportunities for practice, enabling you to refine their skills in professional contexts. The unit fosters independent thinking and strategic planning, preparing you for leadership roles in the performing arts and across their careers and multitudinous career paths.
KTB221 Theatre and Performance Futures
This unit prepares you to become entrepreneurial leaders in the performing arts. It covers essential skills in producing, budgeting, grant writing, and project management, framed within the ecological and social contexts of theatre-making. You will respond to real industry briefs, developing immersive pitch presentations using digital, online and other technology-enabled to present and share their creative contributions. Ethical AI use is embedded throughout, with alternative pathways for you if you opt out. Guest lectures where possible, for example from funding bodies and successful practitioners, provide insight into sustainable career strategies and innovative production models.
KTB320 Theatre Industries: Identity and Engagement
This unit supports you in articulating their professional identity and engaging with audiences across digital and live platforms. You will tailor their learning experience, electing to explore career pathways in directing, producing, education, arts-health, and/or administration, developing portfolios that may include websites, self-tapes, branding strategies and any other artefacts relevant to their chosen field. The unit emphasises reflective practice and strategic communication, with opportunities for placements or shadowing in-industry encouraged. Deep research of the industry and potential roles and opportunities within it is paired with creative ideation, ensuring you graduate with a clear sense of purpose and readiness for diverse roles in the creative industries.
KTB330 Negotiated Performance Project
This capstone unit empowers you to conceive, develop, and present a major performance project that reflects their artistic identity and professional aspirations. Projects may be solo, collaborative, or community-based, incorporating directing, producing, technology, or applied theatre practices. You will design audience engagement strategies and document their process through public showcases and digital media/documentation. Flexibility is built into the unit to support diverse needs, with options for external partnerships and alternative formats, negotiated with the Unit Coordinator and/or teaching team on a case-by-case basis. Industry attendance and feedback are integral to the final presentation, reinforcing real-world relevance and professional standards.
Film, screen & animation
KNB100 Introduction to Animation Studies
As an evolving art form, animation engages both critical and historical practices in an ongoing creative, technical and narrative development. This unit will examine the key critical, historical and cultural contexts, including Indigenous perspectives that underpin contemporary animation. Starting at the early 20th century and finishing with the present day, this unit nurtures critical thinking through an investigation of the unique conditions that gave rise to important pioneering and innovative currents that distinguish contemporary animation as a genre. Students will have the opportunity to: explore important theories of colour, motion, and form; trace the journey of animation from historical to contemporary contexts; understand creative and technical methods and their applied contexts; develop a critical awareness of the techniques and methods underpinning modern animation; and, gain foundational knowledge that will inform student’s individual animation practice.
KNB105 Core Concepts in Animation Practice
This unit provides you with a comprehensive understanding of the core concepts and principles of animation through 2D processes. Drawing on key animation texts, you will explore theories and processes that underpin the craft of animation, enabling you to produce original artefacts that create believable motion for diverse animated outcomes. Building an understanding of how motion is constructed frame by frame ahead of using computer systems to handle the in-betweens is key grounding to animation practice which can be applied to any medium or method of animation.
KNB110 Virtual Art Department: 3D Assets and Virtual Worlds
Like a traditional art department, the virtual art department (VAD) is focused on shot design, layout, visual development, and creating production-ready digital assets and worlds to be used in a range of production approaches and fields such as Film, Animation, Virtual Production, Games, visualisation, and immersive experiences to name a few. This unit explores the methods, applications, and theories of 3D and real-time asset production and virtual environment creation (world-building). You will learn about the fundamental components of 3D asset production, including textures, mesh, materials, and other aspects, and build abilities to create 3D assets using current production processes. This unit will also delve into approaches to environment creation and how assets can be adapted and adjusted to suit specific needs. You will learn about environmental narrative and how locations can be used to tell stories, as well as the impact of environments on narrative.
KNB205 Digital Creatures and Characters
Animated characters and creatures have captivated audiences across all forms of content they generate empathy and emotions and are key to storytelling within animated contexts. This unit explores what an Animated character is, and what they are composed of within the contexts of emerging concepts and methods of animated production. This unit will empower you to create the next generation of virtual characters through a study of the practice of designing, creating and presenting compelling and memorable animated characters, that communicate their story and personality through their design. We will also discuss the importance of cultural sensitivity in character design and how to create characters that are authentic and respectful of different cultures and traditions. The content of this unit forms a key part of the animator’s tool kit giving you a command of the virtual entities you manipulate as part of the animation process.
KNB210 Animation Project Development
Through a practice-based study of innovative industry and emerging pipelines, you will gain a critical and practical understanding of the processes and resources needed to design, develop and render a variety of animated outcomes. Extending this knowledge, there will be an opportunity to experiment with emergent transmedia workflows, such as integrating non-linear content using a gaming engine pipeline. Learning will evaluate techniques, methods and practices for production of animated films and other projects, including augmented, virtual and extended reality (VR/XR) workflows. Students will extend their professional practice through evaluation and application of animation studio workflows. As well as providing a deep dive into technical and creative workflows common to the animation industry, this unit will extend knowledge for students wishing to undertake 'above the line roles' in animation workflows such as Producer, Director and Production Manager.
KPB113 Introduction to Screen Studies
Introduction to Screen Studies develops skills to assist you interpret, analyse, and evaluate narrative screen texts. It explores how and why narrative productions tell their stories through the creative construction and arrangement of visuals and sound. You are introduced to film as art and then to film as social practice. Appreciating film language (such as mise-en-scene and editing) considers film as art by examining film form, film style and film genre. Film as social practice focuses on an understanding of screen productions as being created within particular social and cultural contexts since films have social and cultural significance for communities and audiences. Screen Studies is brought into the contemporary era by including ecocinema as a case study — fictional narrative films with ecological and environmental narratives, themes, and audiovisual representations.
KPB116 Introduction to Screenwriting
This unit introduces various principles, elements and processes for script development with a focus on fictional storytelling for the screen. The unit examines and applies screen language to develop stories for the screen, including generating and selecting ideas best suited to the audio-visual medium, script development processes, writing synopses and drafting screenplays. The unit addresses principles of storytelling, industry standards and practical skills involved in developing projects for narrative productions within film, television and other media. The focus is on how to develop ideas, create engaging characters, and construct scenes for visual mediums. Writing scripts for a range of screen media formats is a learned craft and requires discipline, perseverance, and an understanding of industry practice. Possessing this key knowledge provides capabilities to develop concepts through to script stage.
KPB119 Introduction to Screen Production: Single Camera
This unit introduces single camera production techniques and the skills and knowledge required to work in small, independent screen production contexts. Students will develop an understanding of single camera production workflow from pre-production, production and post-production with a focus on creating short form content in independent and collaborative contexts.
Music
KMB117 Creative Musicianship
This foundational unit develops core musicianship skills while guiding students to discover and articulate their emerging creative voice across contemporary music practices. Students build practical fluency in melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and musical communication through individual exploration and collaborative music-making that spans diverse genres and creative approaches. The unit emphasises creative identity development through musical creation, arranging, improvisation, and ensemble work, while introducing industry-standard documentation and presentation practices. Students explore career pathways through case study analysis and develop professional skills through simulated industry scenarios including creative briefs, collaborative projects with defined roles, and professional presentation formats.
KMB119 Sound Recording and Audio Production
This unit provides you with the essential technical foundations for contemporary music production, introducing you to professional recording, editing, and mixing practices used across the industry. You will develop critical listening skills and hands-on proficiency with digital audio workstations, microphone techniques, and studio workflows. The unit emphasises practical application through real recording projects, preparing you for roles in music production, audio engineering, and content creation. Sustainability concepts related to music production, including gender inclusivity, cultural awareness, responsible technology use, equipment lifecycle management, and energy-efficient production practices are integrated throughout.
KMB127 Music Studies
This unit develops students' ability to understand and articulate music's role in cultural, social, and industry contexts, building critical thinking skills essential for informed creative practice. Students explore diverse musical traditions including Australian First Peoples' music, examining how globalisation, technology, race, gender, and economics shape music production and consumption. The unit connects scholarly analysis with practical application, helping students position their own creative work within broader cultural conversations and industry trends.
KMB129 Composition and Sound Design in Digital Environments
Building on recording fundamentals, this unit introduces students to digital music creation, sound synthesis, and interactive audio technologies used across contemporary music, gaming, and multimedia industries. Students develop fluency with Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), synthesizers, sampling technologies, and programming environments, creating original compositions that demonstrate understanding of digital music production workflows. The unit prepares students for careers in electronic music production, sound design, and technology-enhanced performance while emphasising creative application of technical knowledge.
Visual arts
KAB110 Open Studio: Experiment
This unit provides the foundations of the Open Studio, introducing experimental art practice through the creative processes and critical concepts of modern and contemporary art. The ability to iteratively experiment across diverse art media is a crucial skill in the development of a creative practice. This unit explores a range of digital and material approaches to creative experimentation and process art, developing skills in art thinking and collaboration, and introducing key principles such as the art manifesto, the artist journal, and the art studio.
KAB120 Open Studio: Image
This unit introduces experimental approaches to 2D art with a focus on image-making, representation and identity. Contemporary artists explore creative and critical interpretations of images in an expanded field of 2D art media – working across photography, printmaking, drawing, collage and painting. This unit is focused on introducing conceptual and practical skills in relation to these distinctive media and understanding diverse artistic practices and cultural perspectives.
KAB130 Open Studio: Object/Space
This unit introduces experimental approaches and expanded 3D art practice in the open studio including sculpture, objects, assemblage, environments and installation. These investigations are grounded in understanding 20th and 21st century art practices and key theoretical frameworks in relation to object-making, spatial art, context and site. The expanded field of contemporary sculpture encompasses a broad range of conceptual approaches and material processes including social sculpture, environmental and public art. This unit provides practical activities to develop independent 3D artworks, framed by the theory and practice of site-responsive art and by contemporary Indigenous and ecological perspectives.
KAB140 Open Studio: Time
This unit introduces experimental approaches to 4D media in relation to the open studio and the expanded field of contemporary art. Art practices that creatively explore the interplay between video, sound, performance, installation and digital art invite audiences to critically engage with embodied, interactive, participatory and immersive modes of techno-cultural experience. This unit considers conceptual frameworks and contextual practices in relation to time, the body, duration, and experience. You will engage in a diverse range of practical activities to produce and present independent artworks that investigate time.
Units requiring approval
Students need specific academic background knowledge to study these units, so we will assess your eligibility and determine if you’re able to take these units after you apply. We will let you know the outcome through the application portal as soon as possible.
Creative arts
KKB285 Creative Enterprise Studio 2
This unit furthers your theoretical and practical knowledge and skills to develop enterprise focused creative projects. It links with work previously undertaken in KKB185 Creative Enterprise Studio 1 and prepares you for the final semester capstone unit KKB385 Creative Enterprise Studio 3. You will build upon your foundational understanding of project development gained in KKB185 and develop skills in project delivery and management through to prototyping your creative idea. The concept of iterative design is introduced through reflection on the success of the prototype and recommendations for future iterations and creative experimentation. This unit allows you to extend your project development skills including field analysis, creative experimentation, communication, problem solving and project evaluation.
KKB385 Creative Enterprise Studio 3
During this capstone unit you will demonstrate creative leadership by initiating an industry linked creative project. It brings together the skills and knowledge acquired throughout your course, drawing specifically from KKB185 Creative Enterprise Studio 1 and KKB285 Creative Enterprise Studio 2. The unit provides you with a framework incorporating explicit skill development in critical creative competencies (4Cs: Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Context) to develop a project proposal that addresses an identified opportunity. You will then initiate your project proposal, launching your career as a creative industries professional.
KRB130 Set and Spatial Design
This unit focuses on set and spatial design approaches to shaping worlds for live performances, film and television, installations and creative encounters. Through a mix of practical exploration and analysis of professional practice, the unit delivers skills, techniques and concepts to equip you in designing spaces within your individual creative practice. You will learn how the foundational elements of production design are applied in professional practice and how they can enhance your own creative work. Through the lecture series, you will be exposed to a range of design styles and genres and discover key elements of set and spatial design. The workshops and the assessment items provide the opportunity to apply set and spatial design skills to a creative area of your choice. This unit complements disciplines such as Acting, Drama, Visual Art, Music, Film, Screen & Animation, Dance, Fashion, Interaction Design, Architecture & Interior Design.
KRB131 Lighting Design for Creative Arts
The unit focuses on the creative application of light in creative practice. From live performance, screen, exhibitions, installations, and more, this unit will introduce you to the fundamentals of lighting design practice and approaches. You will explore a range of lighting practices and learn how to apply essential lighting techniques. You will investigate how to use light to convey meaning and create atmosphere, while also learning how to light bodies, materials and spaces. This unit would complement any creative discipline that requires or curates light, such as Acting, Drama, Music, Visual Art, Film, Screen & Animation, Music, Dance, Fashion, Interaction Design, Architecture, and Interior Design.
KRB230 Digital Scenography
Digital scenography is a design approach to building worlds for performance that entangles the digital into the form, function and narrative of a work. This unit investigates how performance technologies - from projection design to screen technologies to extended reality devices - can be used as key design and storytelling tools within the creative arts. This unit will equip you with the conceptual approaches and design tools to integrate the digital into designs for live performance, such as theatre and dance, exhibitions and spatial designs, and more. This unit is ideal for students wanting to design with visual digital technologies as crucial worldbuilding tools. This unit complements disciplines such as Acting, Drama, Music, Visual Art, Film, Screen & Animation, Dance, Interaction Design, Architecture, and Interior Design.
KYB120 Makers and Breakers: Creative Media and Technologies Lab
This foundational unit introduces you to a range of creative technologies and digital literacies that will inform your creative arts practice. You will engage in creative workshops with an emphasis on curiosity and openness, developing skills you will build on as you progress through your studies. You will also engage in a tutorial series that will consolidate your workshop experiences through critical discussion, debate and analysis that situate your experiences within broader theoretical concepts. This unit emphasises creative risk tasking and experimentation to help you develop a speculative arts practice and encourages active and enquiring participation.
KYB220 Creative Professional Practice
This unit focuses on the varying professional settings and contexts of your creative practice through a delivery model that features an Industry Immersion intensive and ongoing professional skills development. It is a core unit in the Bachelor of Creative Arts that will address: •The development of a professional identity and presenting yourself publicly through authentic industry engagement •Pitching and developing proposals across diverse creative disciplines •Creative and social entrepreneurship and defining sustainable career pathways •Professional agreements and processes, including contracts, copyright, and intellectual property •Critical analysis of contemporary industry challenges and opportunities •Research methodologies for creative practitioners •Building ethical and sustainable careers in creative practice and the creative industries
KZB260 Advanced Script Development
Narrative drama script development occurs across a range of creative contexts and for a variety of media such as film, television, theatre, streaming services, web series, podcasting, radio drama, animation and story-driven, role-playing games. Often success in one medium can lead to IP being adapted for another. Being able to write for the theatre, the screen or the ear can help build a sustainable writing career. This advanced unit builds skills and knowledge in script development processes to enable you to conceive, develop, write and pitch a compelling short script for a medium of your own choosing.
Dance
KDB206 Dance in Contemporary Culture
Through a series of seminars and practical workshops you will explore different trends in the role and place of dance in contemporary culture. You will explore dance's place in society and the development of trends such as Dance in Museums, Hip-hop culture, Dance as a Political Intervention, and Dance for Well-being.
KDB223 Screen Dance
This unit introduces you to the field of screen dance through a critical and practical engagement with the genre. It addresses screen dance practice from a critical perspective, as well as developing your skills in producing and documenting dance across a range of digital platforms. You will develop skills associated with the conceptualisation, composition, filming and editing of movement for the camera. This unit is designed for those with an interest in the merging fields of dance, choreography, film and video production, shared creative practice, collaboration, and the screen based presentation of dance works. The skills learned will be transferable across a range of different platforms and can be applied to the creation of new screen dance works as well as to documentation of performance and creative process.
KDB318 Performance in Context 2
This unit aims to enable you to use, adapt and transform your skills for artistic expression in a specific performing domain including collaborative and interdisciplinary practice. As such, this project-based unit provides the context in which you will develop technique, artistry, communication skills, performance ability and confidence through professionally guided rehearsals, classes, performances and workshops. It is the second of two units which builds on the practice of the Teaching Artist as a facilitator of dance-led creative experiences. You will apply your developed knowledge of technical skill and artistic practice to the creation of a performance situated within a specific context while exploring your role as a Teaching Artist from different perspectives.
KDB320 Independent Dance Project
This unit enables you to adapt and transform your dance skills for artistic expression and is the culmination of your previous two Performance in Context units. This guided experience supports you to develop your skills to work independently and to establish your practice as a teaching artist through the key processual stages including conception, development and realisation of your ideas. You will apply your integrated knowledge of technical skills and artistic practice to effectively initiate and realise an independent dance project. This self-contained, discrete project will enable you to develop your skills, professional identity and aptitude for engagement within a variety of industry contexts.
Drama
KSB110 The Actor's Instrument: Impact and Presence
This introductory unit addresses the fundamentals of dynamic movement and voice production for actors, exploring foundational skills that focus on embodied impact and presence. Highly developed technical proficiency in vocal and physical expressiveness is a fundamental requirement for professional actors. This unit introduces core techniques and concepts associated with safe movement and vocal production for actors working in screen and stage contexts, including foundational ensemble development for collaborative practice informed and strengthened by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practices. These skills will inform every acting exercise or collaborative project undertaken through the three years of your course and beyond.
KSB115 Acting Realism, Theories and Practices
This foundational unit introduces you to the core theories of acting in the genre of realism and explores how they can be applied to the development of professional acting methods and practice, and to an understanding of the actor’s creative role in traditional and contemporary theatre-making, and to the collaborative protocols that underpin it. It also introduces you to contemporary approaches to dramaturgical and textual analysis, that enable you to identify and apply the elements of a dramatic text that stimulate the imaginative procedures specific to the art form of acting. The aim of this unit is to help you build a foundation of cognitive, imaginative, and embodied learning skills centring on acting practice, to enable you to continue developing your craft autonomously and in a systematic, informed way.
KSB120 The Actor's Instrument: Communication and Composition
This introductory unit focuses on the continuing acquisition of instrumental skills associated with developing impact and presence in physical and vocal expressiveness, and now applies them to the communication and shaping of dramatic meaning. Highly developed technical proficiency in vocal and physical expressiveness is a fundamental requirement for professional actors. This unit builds on core techniques and concepts introduced in KSB110 associated with theoretical notions of vocal and physical transformation for actors working in screen and stage contexts.
KSB125 Theatricality and the Contemporary Audience
This introductory unit develops your understanding and skills in creating acting performances that dynamically engage with live audiences, requiring you to investigate ways of combining physical and vocal embodiment with genre-appropriate, audience-focused staging conventions. Your enquiry includes exploring how realism and theatricality can be combined to intensify the impact on the audience of dramatic meaning, social commentary and visual storytelling. This enquiry will be informed by engagement with a range of play texts and theoretical perspectives relating to acting issues associated with this form of theatre and its political, social and cultural contexts. The unit challenges you to apply your developing acting, voice, imaginative and embodiment skills and techniques, to the demands associated with performing dynamic roles from complex source material of different genres and cultural contexts.
KSB240 Screen Acting Theories and Practice
The screen-based industries provide actors with the opportunity to reach wide audiences and to potentially build national and global careers, as well as create sustainable, independent, entrepreneurial practice. This unit introduces analytical, technical and performance practice associated with contemporary acting for camera in both traditional and emerging screen technologies. The focus is on exploring the application of analytical skills to acting materials written for screen, the development of specific acting techniques sensitive to technical elements such as frame, eyeline and continuity; and an understanding of simple studio production technologies and their associated personnel, workflow and purpose.
KSB245 Performing Ideas, Ideology and Social Critique
This intermediate unit sees the creative application of acting and research skills to respond to contemporary plays that confront complex cultural, political or social issues, with scenes to be staged for live audiences and then adapted to being filmed in screen studio settings. These can include the challenge to act in scenes that require considerable investment in understanding complex ideas, fusing psychological and political/philosophical perspectives, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, unusual given circumstances, or digital/green screen environments. (There may also be scenes requiring the application of explicit consent-based protocols such as those that regulate the portrayal of intimacy or violence.)
KSB310 Character, Identity and Story: Screen Acting for the 21st Century
This advanced unit aims to develop your ability to synthesise highly individual creative choices in relation to scripted source material, scene partner and real or imagined settings (whether domestic, public, natural or fantasy environments) while being aware of and playing to a range of viewer expectations and agendas associated with the genre of the material and its explicit or implied social commentary. The unit challenges you to apply broad and coherent dramaturgical understanding and advanced acting skills to the creative representation of character and identity, drawing on their physical and cultural locations.
KSB320 Professionalism, Entrepreneurship and the Creative Actor
This advanced unit provides opportunities to apply your knowledge, skills and understanding to the creation of screen-based works for distribution in traditional and/or digital streaming contexts. These screen-based works will offer a platform to demonstrate the technical sophistication, screen presence, originality, and professionalism you will be seeking to promote to agents, casting directors, producers, and others in your networks as you enter the industry.
KTB114 Interpreting Dramatic Text
Through critical engagement with theories of dramatic interpretation, this foundational unit provides introductory learning experiences to help you effectively perform dramatic text. The notion of “text” is understood as potentially covering a broad range of artefacts and creative stimulus, from classical scripts to inter-disciplinary creative artefacts and even inanimate chosen objects. This unit enables you to develop and apply skills of theatrical interpretation and performance through practice-led process methodologies grounded in theories of dramatic interpretation, rehearsal, and performance. You will work with your peers to critically engage with the interpretation of a source text, before being provided the opportunity to develop a performance of the text and implement the core performing skills needed for this.
KTB115 Devising Drama
This unit introduces models of devising to create a new performance work under the guidance of a tutor/director. The work will be devised in groups and performed at the end of semester. Past and present practitioners have proven that key creatives of many kinds can lead the creation of dramatic works through collaborative models of performance making, which often aspire to include a range of voices, innovating in both form and content.
KTB218 Curating Drama Experiences
This unit recognises performance makers, drama educators, directors, performers, dramaturgs and community arts workers all need to understand how to shape and lead engaging drama experiences for a range of performative contexts. Through theory and practice, this unit provides a foundational platform for the development of a process-driven performance practice, including the selection and sequencing of dramatic conventions, elements, and context to generate meaning and dramatic experiences. This unit challenges particular assumptions and widely held views about the way dramatic action is created, encountered and used by performance makers and audiences, operating in an environment keenly aware of diversity and sustainability as key components of all drama-based art practices.
KTB311 Dramatic Developments
This advanced practice-led unit synthesises and builds on skills and knowledge developed across the degree and is designed to facilitate connections between theory and practice in the creation of an original concept for a performative outcome. You will research, propose, experiment and conceptualise a performance, scripted or devised, that responds to bigger critical and creative conversations, as well as addressing potential industry destinations for the concept you craft. Articulation of development processes will form a critical component of your learning.
KTB312 Staging the Drama
This advanced unit enables you to independently realise a new work on the page, stage or in between, responding to real world opportunities you may pursue after graduation. This unit activates the foundations of prior drama units in a capstone experience which enables you to further develop your creative practice in consideration of developing a sustainable creative practice.
Film, screen & animation
KNB115 Crafting Motion in 3D
Enhancing your core animation skill set, you will focus on expressing qualities of character within animated outcomes. With reference to historical and contemporary precedents, you will gain a thorough grounding that will foster the knowledge required to advance in digital character animation. Incorporating a critique and analysis of body mechanics, expression and body language, students will explore and experiment with the nuances of real-world physics within a character animation context. This unit provides students with a comprehensive understanding of 3D animation, while reflecting upon present day technological methods involving aspects such as machine learning, performance capture and optimization with algorithms and the impact on animating characters. A final animated outcome will challenge you through a practice-led investigation of body mechanics and the subtle relationship with character behaviour, applying complex locomotion to an original bipedal character.
KNB305 Advanced Animation Studio
In this unit you will focus on independent practice within the context of creating a cohesive animated project within a complex production studio environment. You will critically engage with current theoretical and philosophical contexts in animation in accordance with industrial and/or independent pipelines. You will engage in in-depth research and analysis of relevant topics, issues, and debates within the expansive field of animation and culture and build upon your explorations, collaborating and combining with others to create a cinematic outcome. This unit presents an opportunity to develop professional-ready skills through adaptable learning frameworks and praxical approaches that foster both formal experimentation and conceptual innovation.
KNB315 Advanced Animation Practice
Animators have a long tradition of pioneering new approaches and ideas of animation through experimental animation practice. This capstone unit offers you an opportunity to engage with this tradition by undertaking your own independent or collaborative study of animation through a practice-based inquiry into core concepts and current themes of animation. In this unit, you will be able to specialise in your desired aspects of animation production, create innovative and unique animation works, build content for your individualised portfolio and gain a depth of understanding of animation as a field of study, preparing you for a career in the animation industry.
KPB123 Multi-Camera Studio Production Practice
This unit addresses creative, technical and organisational skills and knowledge required to work in a multi-camera television studio production context. You will develop an understanding of the formats suitable for live production and the practical production skills as a crew member on multiple modes of production which will form the basis of an effective industry-related repertoire. This unit builds on skills developed in previous units to make studio-based multi-camera productions and live broadcast content.
KPB218 Narrative Screen Production
This unit develops an appreciation of contemporary screen narratives by building analytical and collaborative production skills applicable to fictional screen storytelling. It also investigates the application of contemporary narrative screen production approaches via the examination of core areas of specialisation and the production of a short narrative film. The unit will deepen your creative, technical, and organisational abilities in the areas of narrative screen storytelling.
KPB219 Factual Screen Production
This unit introduces the traditions of documentary film and television production, stylistic practices in documentary and documentary scripts, and methodologies for producing ethnographic, indigenous and cross cultural documentaries. Understanding the role documentary performs in our media age provides a crucial literacy to this film forms. You will be exposed to the history and theory behind documentary, enabling you to conceptualise and plan your own documentary productions and critique the place of them alongside factual and fictional forms of filmmaking in the contemporary media landscape. This unit then addresses the knowledge and skills required for non-fiction multi-platform content production while engaging with high-end production and post-production technologies. You will learn screen language and production practices, roles and responsibilities of production teams, production management, design and practice.
KPB324 Advanced Screen Production Contexts
This unit examines the broader context in which screen content is produced in relation to policies and practices that support the screen production sector in Australia. This includes film, television, streaming, and online video production. Students will focus on specific government policies, production initiatives, markets, producers or platforms to identify production and / or distribution opportunities. Students will develop a project proposal targeting specific initiatives or responding to government policies, and create a proof of concept, prototype or other short form screen production.
KPB326 Advanced Screen Production Practices
This unit extends your knowledge and skills relevant to the demands and expectations of contemporary screen production practices through practical production experience and exposure in a professional setting. It will extend on screen production experiences in new and unique environments and further equip you with expertise particular to technology and employability in the workplace. This unit will provide you with the opportunity to further specialise in an area of pre-production, production or post production, as you work collaboratively to produce a festival-quality short film.
Music
KMB226 Studio-Based Music Production
This unit situates music in collaborative contexts, preparing students for diverse career pathways and professional partnerships in today's music industry. Students learn different roles in contemporary music practice and across creative disciplines, such as composition and production for film, theatre, animation, and multimedia. Students connect individual practice with collaborative partnerships to produce studio recordings and/or live performances of original works. Students further their knowledge of the music sector and learn to build sustainable portfolio careers typical to the contemporary industry. Key sustainability concepts related to touring and record production are introduced. Students develop understanding of how contemporary music is produced by undertaking practice in professional roles such as studio engineer, songwriter, producer, session musician, top-liner, or media composer, gaining direct insight into industry career pathways.
KMB236 Music Performance, Practice and Persona
This unit develops advanced performance skills for contemporary music contexts, integrating live performance, audio documentation, and multimedia presentation techniques used across the modern entertainment industry. Students master stage presence, audience engagement, and technical proficiency while learning to adapt their musical expression to diverse performance environments including concerts, festivals, streaming platforms, and multimedia events. The unit connects performance practice with sound engineering, introducing students to both artist and technical career pathways in live music.
KMB318 Advanced Music Creation and Innovation
This capstone unit enables you to define and develop your unique artistic identity through intensive creative research and sophisticated music-making across composition, improvisation, performance, and production. You'll undertake self-directed creative projects that push genre boundaries and demonstrate professional-level artistry while mastering advanced collaborative skills and creative leadership. The unit emphasises original creative voice development, innovative approaches to music-making, and the ability to contextualise your work within contemporary cultural and industry conversations. You'll prepare for creative leadership roles through advanced project management, critical reflection, and professional presentation of original artistic work.
KMB328 Professional Music Practice and Career Development
This capstone unit integrates advanced music practice with comprehensive professional development, preparing you for sustainable careers in today's dynamic music industry. You'll refine your creative and technical skills through intensive music-making while simultaneously developing the business acumen, entrepreneurial thinking, and industry knowledge essential for professional success. The unit emphasises real-world application through professional-standard projects, industry case study research, and hands-on experience with contemporary music business practices. You'll graduate with both a sophisticated creative portfolio and the practical skills needed to navigate and thrive in the contemporary music landscape.
Enrolment restrictions
Postgraduate students can't enrol in:
- first-year undergraduate core units
- postgraduate honours-level units, which change from year to year.
Enrolment in capstone units is generally not allowed, as these units require extended knowledge gained throughout the course of a full degree.
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