Claire Barclay (1968-) Artist The airborne goddess falls to Earth "Having been informed and inspired by a recent discovery of feminist, and other women's ideas, I have taken an interest in the history of women and their representation in art. Often I myself have been frustrated at, but also influenced by, the persistent categorising of females into 'types' through the authority of social expectations. In this dissertation I wish to examine the ways in which women artists have developed a new visual language."

Karla Black (1972-) Artist Culture as nature: origins and operations of the man-made "This essay puts forward a view of culture as a natural phenomenon, using discoveries made by the science of chaos theory as a basis for the argument. It begins by suggesting that the opposition between the terms nature and culture has been caused, at various stages in history, by scientific progress. And goes on to suggest that now, for the first time since ancient Greece, science is providing a way of reuniting them."

Karla Black (1972-) Artist A snake in the garden: artistic uncertainty and institutions Based upon the artist's work as Education Project Officer for South Lanarkshire Council for a public art commission for the town of Hamilton by Ian Hamilton Finlay. The artist produced workshops and a publication, 'Danger Garden', for children.

3

Christine Borland (1965-) Artist Darvel: reflecting the growth of the textile industry in Scotland "My essay centres around my home town of Darvel and its main industry - textiles, and in particular the weaving of curtains. During the course of the essay I will examine the cotton industry as a whole from the Act of Union in 1727 to the end of the eighteenth century."

Jonathan Boyd Silversmith and designer The marginalisation of fashion in design and design history "This essay aims to look at the way in which fashion has been sidelined and marginalised in the world of design, and why. Looking at specific subjects which have had an effect on the way in which fashion is marginalised (the history of fashion in design, academic disinterest, fashion's methodologies, gender, modernism, post-modernism, capitalism and cultural studies) this essay will look for reasons why each one has affected the way fashion is so often overlooked, and given little critical analysis"

Roderick Buchanan (1965-) Artist The responsibility of design "One of the major advances in recent years has been the postmoderns' rejection of the 'cult of expertise' which isolates people within their specialties. Cross-disciplinary discussion can be seen in many collections of essays that have been published in recent years. I hope to contribute to their general discourse within my study. As a student of Environmental Art, I feel it is important to learn from the critical movements within design as it is to learn from those of fine art."

4

Steven Campbell (1954-2007) Artist Picasso: the second Rose Period "The ideas contained in early paintings were to lie dormant in Picasso's mind until 1917 with Parade. As the first Rose Period ended with Cezanne's influence, the second began with its rejection."

Peter Capaldi (1958-) Actor Vampires: the history of vampires in the cinema "The vampire as it appears on film owes its form almost exclusively to a small number of specific literary sources. The sheer richness and variety of blood drinking creatures that have filled our screens for so many years might suggest otherwise."

Nathan Coley (1967) Artist Glasgow’s renaissance? Thatcherism-postmodernism "This dissertation discusses the Conservative Party's policies on urban renewal, and the effect they have had on British cities."

5

Stephen Conroy (1964-) Artist Restoration: a modern concern? "The purpose of this dissertation is to try to place restoration and its practices into some kind of historical context. Tracing its origins from the early Renaissance with the birth of western pictorial art, that is, technically, with the introduction of oil painting."

Ken Currie (1960-) Artist Art and politics: the cultural road to social change "This essay is about art and politics. It is not a piece of idle academicism, nor is it a militant manifesto, but lies somewhere between the two."

Kate Davis (1977-) Artist British print(making) in the expanded field "Rosalind Krauss's concept 'Sculpture in the Expanded Field' is a seminal tool for positioning sculpture within the context of contemporary visual arts. Could it be adapted with similar value, to reflect print production in Britain over the last decade?"

6

Jacqueline Donachie (1969-) Artist A toy with glaring colours: a study of the effects of an enforced morality on the issue of abortion "Within the last year, the issue of abortion rights in this country has gained increasing prominence due to a variety of contributing factors."

Graham Fagen (1966-) Artist Sectarianism in Glasgow "The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century wiped out every sign, sound and sight of Papery in Scotland, leaving isolated pockets of Catholics in the Hebrides and Highlands (Aberdeenshire and Banffshire). An anti-Catholic tradition began to dominate Scottish life with John Knox replacing Catholicism with the severe and uncompromising morality of Presbyterianism."

Douglas Gordon (1966-) Artist From anthropology to performance art: a sensibility of ritual "In studying an area where a definition will always be ambiguous I have tried to explore and exhibit a personal awareness of the value of ritual. In attempting to broaden my knowledge, and that of the reader, I have investigated both traditional definitions and classical socio-anthropological interpretations, applying the results to a particularly ritualist art practice - performance art."

7

Muriel Gray (1958-) Writer and commentator William Blake: innocence and experience "For many years it was rumoured in my mother's family that they were direct descendants of William Blake, the great poet and painter. Indeed, my grandfather was in some ways akin to Blake, though of course to a much lesser degree in that he too painted and wrote poetry of a visionary or mystical kind."

Jim Hamlyn (1966-) Artist Snapshot art "This dissertation explores the premise that the concepts of the snapshot and of art are not irreconcilable, by offering a historical background and critical study of the work of several photographers: Paul Martin, Alfted Stieglitz, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and Emmet Gowin, all practitioners who did not necessarily consider themselves as either artists or snapshot photographers."

Bob Hardy (1980-) Bass guitarist, Franz Ferdinand The rise and the rise of 'low culture', with reference to the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Clement Greenberg: or, Why my Dad prefers Ashley Jackson to Jackson Pollock "Over recent years there has developed a culture of artists whose work falls outside of the accepted 'high art' world. Their work is often scoffed at by the academy and people who would generally associate themselves with the contemporary avant-garde."

8

Peter Howson (1958-) Artist Max Beckmann "Most admirers of Max Beckmann would agree that he cannot be categorised. He remains one of the very few lone figures of this, or any other century."

Kenny Hunter (1962-) Artist Armageddon and the anxious mind "The function of this essay will be to examine the role of economic power in US society, to analyse the causes of capitalist expansionism into the Third World and its effects therein, to extract the linear qualities of American foreign policy, what affects and shapes it, in order to illuminate its inherent contradictions that lead both America and the World into an inevitable tyranny of avarice, disorder and inequity."

Chantal Joffe (1969-) Artist Going to the lighthouse: an examination of travel writing "Travel books have never been so popular; whole sections of bookshops and libraries are devoted to them. In my dissertation I initially look at travel writing in general and discuss the nature of its appeal. Then I examine my own motivations for reading and writing about travel."

9

Janice Kirkpatrick Designer, Graven Images Dub poetry "At a Glasgow University fresher's dance in September 1983, Benjamin Zephaniah, a skinny, black man of West Indian origin, came skanking on stage to a rhythm in his head. He spoke with a continuous unaccompanied Jamaican tongue, compelling the audience to listen."

Jim Lambie (1964-) Artist The placement of art "Context has the ability to control and render, meaning the significance of a work of art is interpreted through its placement within the given context."

Alistair McAuley Designer, Timorous Beasties Scottish witch hunts "This is a study of the witch persecutions in Scotland between the 15th and 18th centuries. The essay focuses on two main witch trials namely, the betwitching of Sir George Maxwell of Pollok in 1676 and the torment of Christian Shaw, an eleven year old girl, which happened twenty years later in the area of Renfrewshire."

10

Victoria Morton (1971-) Artist Abstract transmigration "To examine the ways in which art, reproduced both manually and mechanically, has been adopted as a strategy by specific contemporary painters as 'appropriation art' in order to criticise modernist abstract painting and as 'simulacrum' to comment of the complex relationship of various modes of technological reproduction to the traditional craft of painting."

Toby Paterson (1974-) Artist Masses brought together in light: the grain elevator and the rise and fall of modernism "The object of this dissertation is to trace the connection between the development of European modernist architecture and certain aspects of transitional American industrial building: namely the grain elevator."

Dougie Payne (1972-) Bass guitarist, Travis This can be read or not read: an essay on language and what it can make us believe “In recent decades, it appears we have passed into a new world. This new world closely resembles the modern world which preceded it. We have all of the belief systems which constituted the modern world still in place."

11

Lesley Punton (1969-) Artist James Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon "Between the years 1928 and 1935, James Leslie Mitchell published sixteen books, thirty-nine short stories and at least twenry non-fiction articles. Among these, only the 'Scottish' work produced under his pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon - with the possible exception of 'Spartacus' - is considered of high quality. 'Sunset Song', the first novel in his trilogy 'A Scots Quair', is generally accepted as one of the finest Scottish novels of the twentieth century"

Julie Roberts (1963-) Artist Consumer playschool "Play, once considered a triviality, unworthy of serious study, is now recognised as the most important childhood activity, imperative for optimum physical, cognitive and emotional development. Although our society does give its children plenty of opportunity for play, the tools it deems necessary for that purpose often have deeply sinister aspects. The best sellers of the past few decades reflect our ever increasing dependence on a false glorification of material wealth, glamour, greed and power."

Jonathan Saunders (1977-) Fashion Designer What is beauty? An analysis of fashion photography "The aim of this study is to examine the concept of beauty in a western, media-dominated society and to explore both how we come to have an accepted beauty standard and who, if anyone, is challenging it. I intend to illustrate a calculated manipulation of the consumer through fashion photography and how this in turn is being challenged by maverick photographers who, despite ultimately being absorbed by the beauty establishment themselves, are nonetheless forcing change as they become imitated by mainstream fashion publications"

12

Andy Scott (1964-) Sculptor Art as gimmick "The dissertation that follows deals with the subject of art in the public area. To begin with I will deal with the relevant topics of architectural collaboration and funding on an historical and international basis, with emphasis on the situation in the UK. Using this as a background, I intend to investigate the implications both artistically and ethically of the the (proposed) direct Government-sponsored commissioning of public artworks, using two recent commissions in Glasgow as case studies"

Louise Scullion (1966-) Artist with Dalziel + Scullion The great Garden Festival plot "A study of the Glasgow Garden Festival, considering the social and cultural implications it has for the mood of the new image-conscious Glasgow."

David Shrigley (1968-) Artist A brief history of science "This essay aims to briefly trace the roots of scientific knowledge from the earliest forms of religion to what we now know to be modern science. It also aims to analyse how both religions and science have changed through time and their characteristics as the two most important types of human knowledge."

13

Lucy Skaer (1975-) Artist The interface between reality and fiction in advertising "This essay is concerned with definitions of reality within television, particularly within advertising, and how they affect our overall view of reality as a whole, and how we act (or don't act) on information that we receive through television."

Alexander Stoddart (1968-) Artist John Mossman, sculptor, 1817-1890 "Having viewed the prospect of recent trends in building, we must now be confident in the realisation that much of the charm lost goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the ancient principle of decoration within the past fifty or sixty years. I propose to study the career of the sculptor who, from the 1840s to the 1880s, took responsibility for a large proportion of Glasgow's architectural sculpture: John Mossman."

Alison Watt (1965-) Artist The formation, history and purpose of the McLean Museum & Art Gallery "This dissertation examines the origins of the McLean Museum and Art Gallery in the nineteenth century. It then deals with many diverse aspects of the history of the Museum from that time until the present day. It probes into many interrelated subjects such as finance, staffing and control; as well as choice, care, protection and promotion of the exhibits."

14

Adrian Wiszniewski (1958-) Artist Mods and modernism: a correlation between subcultural activity and avant-gardism "In the early sixties the youth culture brought 'avant-gardism' onto street level. Through a boom in the economy, a liberation of youth and the exploration of the mediums of communication, popular culture was firmly set into public consciousness as a means of self-expression."