Professional Diploma in Digital Making
4 Dec 2024
- 17 Oct 2025
Format
Blended
Louth CoCo Bursaries /CCI Skillnet Funding Available
Apply By
04/12/2024
Apply To
NCAD
ECTS Points
20 ECTS
Duration
1 year
Fees
€1,200* or €2,200
Blended
04/12/2024
NCAD
20 ECTS
1 year
€1,200* or €2,200
Join Adam Gibney – Academic Lead, NCAD, Oscar Diaz – Education and Operations Manager, Creative Spark and Bernie McCoy, Academic Lead, CFA@NCAD as they give an overview of the content for this fast-paced 1-year programme, in which participants will learn how to design for and utilise foundational digital fabrication tools.
In today’s digital era, the importance of understanding, interrogating, and mastering our tools cannot be overstated. These tools are not just external entities but pivotal instruments that shape our thoughts, aspirations, and interactions.
Through this fast-paced 1-year programme, participants will learn how to design for and utilise foundational digital fabrication tools. Learners will conceptualise, design and fabricate their own tools for research that will be employed in their own creative practices and processes, harnessing the opportunities opened up by digital, technological and ecological fabrication.
Delivered in partnership with Creative Spark – The Centre For Creativity and Innovation, this programme is accredited by NCAD and delivered at The Enterprise Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab, Dundalk). Creative Spark’s state-of-the-art technical prototyping and fabrication space offers more than 200 sq. meters of full equipped space, digital fabrication machinery, power tools and technologies including: FDM 3D printing , SLA 3D printing , SLS 3D printing , 3D scanning , Laser cutting, Waterjet cutting , CNC milling, Moulding and casting, Vinyl printing and cutting , Sewing and embroidery, Electronics workbench.
Delivered by academic staff and technologists who are leading practitioners and researchers in their specialist fields, the Professional Diploma is centred on contemporary creative practice and discourse.
This programme embraces a pedagogy rooted in self-directed and life-long learning, echoing the ethos that has fuelled the growth of fab labs globally and resonating with the spirit of “How to Make Almost Anything.” Over the programme students will be guided through a blend of one-on-one and group crits, virtual lectures and discussions. The programme seeks to instil an attitude of proactive engagement and curiosity, equipping participants with the mindset needed for innovative digital making.
In partnership with Creative Spark – Dundalk, our programme offers participants a unique opportunity to engage in research, discussions, and hands-on projects. This collaborative experience aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of key theories and approaches, highlighting the interconnectedness of technology, ecology, and society.
The programme comprises of four 12-week modules:
Technologies taught on this programme include:
The Professional Diploma in Digital Making is for artists, designers, all kinds of makers from amateur to professionals such as people tv, film and theatre, crafts people, and researchers which could include anyone from ecologists to experimental musicians.
Learners will situate their own digital making within contemporary frameworks that emphasise our intricate entanglement with the world and the objects we create, challenging traditional notions of progress in fabrication and making.
This way of thinking through making can be useful for professional teams, life-long learners, educators, as well as independent artists, designers, makers, researchers and creative practitioners with a backgrounds in 3D forms, bio-materials.
In course of the second module learners will explore avenue into the world of Digital Making, with a particular focus on electronics and coding. Participants will be introduced to Arduino micro-controllers, with the aim of providing them with a highly modular and extendable approach to electronic design.
Module 3 delves into the intricate web of relationships that bind human and more-than-human entities, challenging students to reframe their understanding of collaboration, extending it beyond human-centri paradigms to include more-than-human partners. Digital making skills will continue to be honed through a lens of ecological consciousness and sustainability.
As the capstone module of the Digital Making diploma, “Structures of Presence” serves as a culminating experience that synthesises the key themes and skills acquired in the preceding modules. Building upon the foundational digital making skills from “Tools for Research,” the exploration of social material assemblies in “Electric Things,” and the more-than-human collaborations in “Instruments of Entanglement,” this module provides a platform for students to delve into a chosen network of connections among humans, the more-than-human world, society, and technology.
On successful completion of 20 credits of the programme learners will be awarded an NCAD validated award “Professional Diploma in Digital Making.” They will have acquired a comprehensive set of independent learning competencies, including research-based and professional skills, equipping them for a seamless transition to doctoral studies or the professional world.
In person session will take place at Creative Spark Fablab
Clontygora Drive, Muirhevnamore Dundalk Louth, Ireland A91HF77
We want to encourage all types of practioners to enjoy the benefits that digital fabrication tools and processes can bring to their practice.
Pre-requisites
All applicants are expected to present an approved Bachelor degree at minimum level of 2nd class honours (2.2)
As part of your application, you will be asked to upload the following supporting documentation:
You can see the full list of the English Language Qualifications NCAD recognises at this link.
All new and continuing students will receive information by email on how to register and pay fees. For information on Fee Payment and Grant Eligibility go to NCAD Fees & Grants.
NCAD Students Handbook
The Handbook is available for download here
Continuing students and new postgraduate students who accepted the offer will start receiving ‘Invitation to Register’ emails from the week beginning 19th August.
More on the NCAD website.
From the internal pilot run of the programme at NCAD
“The course has had a significant and positive impact on my learning in the area of Digital Making. I had a basic level of skills and knowledge in digital making before the course and I feel I have advanced my skills significantly over the course duration”.
“The Digital Making course was really well structured and delivered. It enabled me to update my skills and opened up new possibilities for prototyping and producing work”.
“Great introduction to new techniques; the workshop environment; shared learning”
“Excellent demonstrations by academic staff. Clear communication via VLE and in-person. Coherent course structure”
Adam Gibney – Academic Lead, NCAD
A multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and researcher with a Master of Arts by Practice-Based Research Degree and First Class BA(Hons) in Visual Arts Practice.
With extensive experience utilising coding, electronics, digital fabrication techniques, and more traditional new media technologies such as video, sound and photography to create conceptual artworks and engaging experiences.
Through art-practice, honoured to have received several prestigious awards, including the Aileen MacKeogh Award for the most outstanding graduating creative student at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design, and Technology, the Siamsa Tíre Emerging Artist Award, and the Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary award.
A rich experience of exhibiting both nationally and internationally, most recent solo exhibitions include “Can_you_breathe_for_me?” (Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin, 2021) and “Projective Verse 9: Deep Breadths” (Daegu Foundation of Culture, South Korea, 2017).
Currently, lecturing in Interaction Design and Fine Art at NCAD with previous experience in visiting and assistant lecturing in New Media, Fine Art and Interaction Design at IADT, TUD, NCAD, and UL.
Oscar Diaz – Education and Operations Manager, Creative Spark
Oscar Diaz is versatile practicioner with a Bachelor of Architecture, a diploma in Urban Innovation and Energy Efficiency, and advanced digital fabrication and parametric design certifications from the FabAcademy (Academany) and CONTROLMAD Advance Design Centre S.L. With extensive experience in FabLab management and network, advanced prototyping, and instructional roles like FabAcademy globla diploma instructor (2018,2019 and 2024), Oscar has refine his skills in design, project development, and digital fabrication. His expertise spans electronics design and production, programming, CAD, and both additive and subtractive manufacturing.
Oscar has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Fab Foundation scholarship in 2017 and the Chevron STEM Education Award in 2019. He is also noted for his previous roles where he played a key role in pioneering digital fabrication initiatives and promoting local innovation.
His professional journey includes impactful positions as Project Manager at AQUA.LUX, Consultant Architect for the Merida Municipality, Director of Fab Lab Yucatan, and Project Coordinator at Fab City Yucatan, focusing on urban planning, technology integration, and climate action initiatives.
Currently, Oscar continues to drive forward digital fabrication and STEAM education as the Enteprise FabLab Education and Operations Manager at the Creative Spark Dundalk, leveraging his extensive experience to develop training programs and foster innovation in the SMEs and entrepreneurship fields.
Carl McAteer – Technical Manager, Creative Spark
Carl McAteer is a experienced designer with a Bachelor’s in Product Design and a recent Certificate in Design and Parametric Fabrication.
With a unique skillset in additive and subtractive manufacturing, CAD, and digital design, Carl is an expert at integrating problem-solving and design thinking into practical solutions using digital fabrication.
His career highlights include roles such as Designer and Junior Production Manager at PWS Signs, Design and Production Manager at O’Connors Kitchen, and Designer and Advanced CAD Technician at Farrell Furniture, where he led R&D and trained junior staff.
A notable achievements includes securing funding for a circular economy project with OPW and ATU and completing the Innovation for Growth Programme with Farrell, facilitated by the Irish Management Institute and Enterprise Ireland.
Currently, working as a Enterprise FabLab Technical Manager at Creative Spark Dundalk, where He expertly oversees equipment operations, ensuring top-notch safety and fabrication standards while guiding team members through complex design and manufacturing challenges.
There is a fee of €2200 for this programme. Financial supports are available see below.
Apply via NCAD (applications open in September – click APPLY NOW above, to register your interest)
Joanna Crawley crawleyj@staff.ncad.ie
Adam Gibney gibneya@staff.ncad.ie
Creative Futures Academy is delighted to collaborate with Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet to offer a special partnership rate for this course. This course is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union (eufunds.ie) so you may be eligible for a partnership rate of €1,200 if you are a successful applicant (employed / freelance / sole traders that are ROI residents). Terms and conditions apply.
The Arts Service of Louth County Council has joined forces with our partners Creative Spark to offer bursaries to Louth-based artists seeking to gain new qualifications and skills to expand their practice through the Professional Diploma in Digital Making with NCAD and Creative Spark.
There will be four bursaries of €500 which will be awarded through an application process.
