The Department of Service and Technology of Material Artistic Processing of the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service teaches students, majoring in 29.03.04 Material Artistic Processing Technology, practical skills of realistic and stylized drawing, painting, composition, sculpture, image of an architectural landscape, techniques for developing sketches of art products. Real specialists of their creative profession are trained here!
The technology of artistic processing is aimed at studying the work with various materials, both metallic and non-metallic, in order to create products with high artistic value and consumer properties. Students receive professional creative training, the necessary amount of knowledge in artistic materials science, technology for creating and restoring design objects, quality control and evaluation of art and jewellery, engineering and technological equipment and information technology. Materials artists work in large manufacturing enterprises, in small and medium-sized businesses. Such specialists are required for jewellery factories, workshops for artistic processing of stones and private art companies.
Students majoring in this field will have an idea of technical design, as well as know how to replicate art products, and progressive methods of operating equipment.
“We have our own history at the department. We are different from everything in Russia. Since if all other departments entered our field through the course of Materials Science, we had a different path. The department has existed separately, and we do not have this materials science heritage. If you look all over Russia, then very often universities are more likely to train a process specialist under this program. That is, a person who understands how to operate machines and is a little trained in the field of artistic creativity. Our program is the following: we consider students to be designers who must not only be able to draw beautiful pictures, but can also do everything that they have drawn with their own hands. That is, the artistic part with the study of various technologies prevails. They are more designers than specialists at the mechanical level,” says Pavel Pisklakov, Associate Professor of the Department of Service and Technology of Material Artistic Processing.
The training program “Material Artistic Processing Technology” includes three blocks of courses:
- Artistic courses that provide skills in the field of fine and applied arts (drawing, painting and colour science, composition, design, sculpture and modelling, history of styles);
- IT courses that form the ability to work with modern graphic programs (vector and raster editors, desktop publishing systems, 3D editors) is an integral part of the skills of a modern designer;
- Process courses that provide knowledge and skills in two fields – the interior (interior decoration technologies, technologies for the manufacture of decorative products, art products from glass and wood), and the textiles (design and manufacture of fabric products, artistic knitwear and embroidery, batik and felting).
This program combines the visual skills of a modern designer and the ability to work with a variety of materials. At the end of the training, the student performs qualifying work, which includes not only the creation of a project of an art product, but also its independent production (embodiment in the material).
In order to become a student of the Department of Service and Technologies of Material Artistic Processing, you must pass the Unified State Exam in the Russian language, special Mathematics and pass the entrance test by submitting your own creative project. In 2020, the program of the internal entrance test has undergone some changes, and now students prepare 5-7 related drawings on the indicated topic in the format of a “manual technique” (without the use of digital technologies).
Practical use of knowledge
The department and its staff are organizers of a great number of significant events in the region, and there are many creative and scientific achievements among teachers and students. In addition, participation in big international competitions and projects is already built into the learning process of students, which allows them to implement their creative plans. Thanks to the worthy results of students and graduates, the department is known in the professional community not only in Russia, but also abroad.
“Generally speaking, the work of our graduates can be seen almost everywhere at SUSU. On the 12th floor, curtains, tapestries, everything that is installed there, and all the decorations inside of this area is the work of our students. In Sigma, the decorations of the conference hall on the second floor (paintings, curtains made in the batik technique) were also done by our graduate students. The entrance group in the second building is painted by our students,” says Pavel Pisklakov, Associate Professor of the Department of Service and Technology of Material Artistic Processing.
New victories in international arenas every day
Students became finalists and shortlist competitors of international poster competitions in Russia (2014, 2018), Macedonia (2013), France (2013, 2015, 2016), Greece (2016), Cyprus (2016), Italy (2017), Mexico (2017), Ukraine (2018, 2021).
The graduates of the department continue their creative searches and also become winners of various international competitions, for example, one of them won the Silver award at the International Design Competition A’Design Award and Competition (Italy) in 2017 and became a laureate of the competition in 2018 and 2019.
In 2019, at the C-IDEA Design Award 2019: 37 countries, 406 universities, 1783 works, 2198 participants took part in the competition. The students of the Department of Service and Technology of Material Artistic Processing (4 of their works) were the only Russian winners. Exhibitions of the winners' works were held in Chelyabinsk and Taiwan (offline), in Poland (online).
South Ural State University is a place where every amateur can become a professional, thanks to a competent, high-quality training system and opportunities for creative self-fulfilment!