Welcome events for the School of Arts and Architecture

Read

• General articles from Arch Daily 
• Specific cabin articles from Design Boom

Do

Select a favourite cabin each day from Design Boom and make a sketch diary recording key features such as overall form/shape/composition, interior plan and ranges of materials used.

Choose

• Your favourite building built within the last 100 years in the place you are from.
• Your favourite building from any preceding historical period in the place you are from.
• Take photos, make sketches and do some research on who built them, when and why.  

Here are some things you might like to read that will set you up well for your first year studying drama at Kent and beyond.

Read

• Augusto Boal (1992), Games for Actors and Non-Actors, London: Routledge. This is a terrific book that not only introduces you to some fab drama games but also offers thought-provoking ideas about what theatre is and hopw it can create change in the world. A new copy will be expensive, but you should be able to find a secondhand copy online for under £5.
• Adam Ainsworth, Oliver Double and Louise Peacock (eds.) (2017), Popular Performance, London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. A collection of essays on types of performance you might not expect to find on a drama course, including stand-up comedy, magic, street theatre and pantomime. Two of your Kent drama lecturers are among the authors. It’s an expensive book, so your best bet is probably to look for it in your local library.
• Kenneth Pickering and Jayne Thompson (2013), Naturalism in Theatre: Its Development and Legacy, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. A book that you’ll encounter in your second term. One of the authors is Head of Drama at Kent Jayne Thompson.
• Isabelle Defaut, Generation FOMO. This brilliant play is written by Isabelle Defaut, who runs one of our Graduate Theatre Companies, Portrait Theatre. It’s a verbatim play that uses words taken from interviews with young people and focuses on the problems caused by smartphones and social media. And it’s been a massive success, featuring in a Channel 4 documentary and has even been performed in Parliament. Copies of the script are available online.

Watch

Start by checking out what’s on in your local area in theatres and other venues. Seeing any theatre or performance will; help set you up to study drama at Kent. If you’re stuck for ideas, here are just a couple of suggestions.

• Tiny Planet by Half a String. This is a brilliant piece of puppet theatre created by a company whose artistic director is a Kent drama graduate. 
• bOing! Family Arts Festival 2026. bOing! Is a fantastically diverse festival of performance that happens on the University of Kent campus on 29 and 30 August.

Do

Here are a couple of suggestions for things to do that will get you excited about studying drama.

• See the V&A Theatre & Performance Collection. The V&A is a fantastic museum and its Theatre and Performance is a real treasure trove. 
• Listen to The Comedy Bureau podcast. The Comedy Bureau is a nerdy podcast in which comedian (and Kent drama graduate) Laura Lexx talks to Kent drama lecturer Oliver Double about the nerdier aspects of comedy.

There are two things you can Read/Watch/Do this summer to help prepare you for studying Film at Kent:

• Start a reflective film diary, writing your thoughts on a range of Hollywood films across the last century  
• As an introduction to Hollywood film,  listen to It Happened in Hollywood podcast.
• Watch Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Rear Window (1954), or Babylon (2022).

Or, alternatively, you can:

Choose a location that is meaningful to you: the town where you live, the place where you work, or somewhere you are spending your summer holidays before starting university in September. 

Research whether your chosen location has been featured in a film, television programme, or other form of media. You may find the IMDb Advanced Title Search useful for identifying productions and filming locations.

Once you have identified a relevant film or media text:

1. Watch the film.

2. Read background information about the film, including reviews.

3. Visit the filming locations in person and document your observations.

Consider the following questions:

• How is the location represented on screen?
• How does the location appear today compared with its portrayal in the film?
• Have there been significant physical, cultural, or social changes since filming took place?

Finally, write a review on Letterboxd that reflects on both the film and its use of the location. Your review could critically compare the real place with its cinematic representation and discuss how visiting the location influenced your understanding of the film.

You can also follow our subject Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/unikentfilmandmedia/ where we will be posting regularly with updates about our programmes, including recommendations for things you can watch, read, or do in advance of joining us in September.   

READ - Books:

• Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips
• Graphic Design Idea Book by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson
• Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students by Ellen Lupton
  

REVIEW - Online Publications:

• It's Nice That 
• Creative Review

LISTEN - Podcasts:

• DesignThinkers Podcast
• Graphic Design Is Fun
• The Creative Boom Podcast

WATCH:

• Abstract: The Art of Design
• Helvetica
• Objectified
• Why Man Creates
• Exit Through the Gift Shop
• Logorama
• Milton Glaser: To inform and delight
• PressPausePlay

COLLECT - Everything!

Collect, draw, photograph, or record a range of visual material that appeal to you. These could be as simple as visually stimulating packaging, striking photography, engaging signage, beautifully crafted poster designs, dynamic magazine spreads, innovative music videos, a cutting-edge immersive experience, beautiful production design. Anything that visually excites you and which makes you feel and think.

ENGAGE AND FOLLOW

• Exhibitions
• Online resources and tutorials
• Design competitions
• Designers and Artists Social Media

Keep a 'Media diary' of content you watch or engage with during the summer - what online content have you seen that had an impact on you? What online debates or controversies did you follow? What streaming shows, TV shows, or video games did you watch of engage with? Try to include a short sentence on why you were drawn to it and what was compelling about it. 

If you are particularly interested in video gaming, you could;

• Visit: Take a trip to the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield
• Play: Detroit: Become Human (2018), Until Dawn (2015/24), or Red Dead Redemption II (2018)
• Read: Brendan Keogh, Game Studies: A Critical Introduction (2026)

If they are a joint honours applicant, use the 'Media diary' task but include films within it too.

You can also follow our subject Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/unikentfilmandmedia/ where we will be posting regularly with updates about our programmes, including recommendations for things you can watch, read, or do in advance of joining us in September.     

See our Spatial and Interior Design summer inspirations booket to help you get prepared to study with us in September.