Arts and creative industries facilities

In our fully-equipped workshops you can work with wood, metal and plastics and the latest technologies, including a computer-controlled 3D printer.

Among the specialist equipment you will have access to are:

• 5 Dimensional milling machines
• CAM-CAD lathes
• Mig, Tig and Arc Welding equipment
• Large CNC Router
• Computer controlled lathes and saw tables
• Laser cutters
• Perspex oven
• Vacuum-forming machines
• Ceramics and glass kilns
• Body casting facilities
• Traditional potters’ wheels

We have dedicated facilities in the Grove building for animation, graphic design and illustration. You can explore traditional hand-drawn 2D animation, digital 2D animation, stop-motion and 3D animation.

Our studios feature:

• Over 40 iMac workstations with software including Adobe Creative Suite, TV Paint and Maya
• Drawing display Wacom Cintiq tablets
• Flatbed and batch scanners
• Traditional lightboxes
• Nine stop-motion capture booths with iMac computers and Dragonframe software
• Multiplane and rostrum rig
• Camera arms and tripods

DSLR cameras and lights available for loan.

Our fashion facilities are equipped with everything you’ll need to hone your skills as a fashion designer and maker.

You’ll be able to use:

• Industrial sewing machines
• Overlockers
• State-of-the-art press and heat press equipment
• A range of specialist machines for working with different fabrics and techniques.

Housed in our Grove building, students and staff have dedicated space within the fine art studios, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in your work.

The studios offer a vibrant artistic community and provide you with a unique studio space in which to make, show and think about ideas.

You’ll also have access to all of our other workshops in the Grove building, encompassing everything from 3D design, printmaking, 3D printing, ceramics, photography and much more.

Our Interior Architecture and Design studios are organised to mirror the environment of a commercial design studio preparing you for your professional career after Middlesex. We have five studios available for both individual and group work.

The studio spaces are designed to enable students to express their own creative vision.

Features include:

• Apple iMacs fitted with an array of design software
• Storage for models
• Our own library of Design and Architecture books.

You can explore the Special Collections held in the Materials Room in the basement of the Sheppard Library for your artistic projects. This is a supervised room for research and inspiration, open every day during term-time.

Collections held in the room include:

• Fashion Collection: garments and accessories from the Victorian era to the present day
• Samples Collection: a broad selection of manufacturers' product samples that can be borrowed by students
• Comics Collection: cult, political, Japanese, American and children’s comics
• Ephemera Collection: the Middlesex Ephemeral Collection holds Art & Design student show publicity and the general paper Ephemera Collection holds miscellaneous items such as flyers and greetings cards
• Special Books Collection: a small library of rare and fragile items that includes artists' books and the fashion publication Visionaire.

The Hornsey College of Art Archive and the John Lansdown Archive are also held in the Materials room.

As a photography student you will work in a broad range of studios and facilities, including four professional studios.

The studios include:

• A large-scale infinity cove for portrait, full figure or group photography
• Extensive overhead lighting track and colourama systems for flexible professional lighting options and easy change of background colour and effects
• State-of-the-art digital editing and printing facility
• high-end Apple Mac workstations and scanners
• Professional-level photographic printers equipped with the latest software,
• Expert technical staff, trained to help you get the most out of your design and photography work.
• Digital darkrooms
• Analogue black and white and full colour darkrooms
• A wide range of high-end enlargers at various formats using traditional high quality wet process methods
• A large format colour print processor and a film processing room.

You’ll be able to explore the medium of print in a wide range of traditional and modern formats in our print rooms.

Techniques you can use are:

• Screenprint
• Intaglio
• Etching
• Engraving
• Stone litho
• Dye lab
• Textile printing.

You’ll have access to:

• Printing tables
• Etching presses
• Aquatint cabinets
• Lino and litho preparation areas
• Letterpress typographic area with a range of wooden and lead moveable type.

Our digital media workshops have high-end work stations for all kinds of digital media, from video editing to 3D graphics and music composition. All the equipment and software you’ll use is industry-standard including:

• Graphics studio
• Video and audio editing studios
• Music production studios
• Multimedia computer rooms
• High quality computer monitors for colour work
• Wacom Cintiqs
• Music MIDI keyboards
• Creative software including Maya, Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve and Avid Media Composer.

We house a bespoke newsroom with dedicated studio, green screen and professional software including Avid, NewsCutter and iNews. You can hone your skills using our industry-standard equipment and software, ensuring you’re ready for a career in news.

As an arts and creative industries student, you can use our two sound-proofed studios to broadcast live shows. They are equipped to the same standard as independent local radio stations.

Highlights include:

• Our two radio studios are both identical in their set up, each holding one presenter and two guests
• Both are sound-treated to ensure broadcasts are fully self-contained with no interference from external sounds
• Both radio studios are interconnected, enabling up to 5 guests to be interviewed by one presenter simultaneously
• Each studio has various light settings and controllable air-conditioning/heating

Streaming is available through Middlesex University's network or over the internet via a Shoutcast server.

Our recording studio houses industry-standard equipment, with a dedicated technician on hand to train and support you. You will be able to use:

• An Avid HDX2 system running Pro Tools HD 12 for recording, editing, sound design, audio transfer/ restoration and mixing projects
• A combination of analogue and digital technologies
• A large Doepfer A-100 Analogue Modular Synthesiser for creative sound design work
• A C|24 control surface, with access to AudioEase, Avid, GRM Tools, iZotope, Native Instruments and Sonnox
• An ever-expanding library of sound effects (combining those from our in-house and commercial libraries).

Specially designed for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries by Sony, our television studio complex is a self-contained facility and provides an environment identical to most broadcast installations.

We have:

• Two television studios
• Three dedicated control rooms (production, sound and vision/lighting galleries)
• A VTR area
• A central apparatus room
• Comprehensive lighting support and control systems
• Lighting systems with a mix of conventional tungsten fresnels, fluorescent soft lights and a variety of DMX intelligent lights
• Fully-equipped post-production and editing suites.

Our media and VFX studio is home to a wide range of sophisticated technology, enabling you to create rich visual effects.

The studio includes:

• A greenscreen cove
• 20 camera Vicon Bonita motion capture
• Comprehensive lighting system
• Jib with pan tilt head and dolly and track.

As an arts and creative industries student, you will have access to our media store, with a range of industry-standard video, audio and photography equipment for loan.

Our four fully-equipped dance studios are the perfect complement to one of the most respected dance departments in the UK.

You’ll use the studios for independent rehearsal, classes in technique and choreography, and public performance in a range of styles. Features include:

• Sprung wooden floors
• Mirrors
• Double barres
• Pianos
• Sound, lighting and video recording systems.

The flagship Grove Dance Theatre also includes:

• 144 seating capacity
• Dedicated dressing rooms with lit mirrors.
• ​Specialist lighting rig
• High-end PA system and audio mixer
• Stage manager’s desk with intercom and cuelight system
• Broadcast and intercom systems linked to the TV studio gallery for co-productions.

You’ll also have access to a sound editing studio, as well as a first-class costume workshop with a large stock of costumes, cutting tables and sewing machines.

As part of the music community at Middlesex you will become part of a culture of excellence driven by first-class equipment and production facilities.

The 100-person concert room includes three grand pianos, and the music studio control room is jam-packed with professional mixing equipment. You will also have the opportunity to rehearse individually and in groups in sound-treated rehearsal studios with an array of instruments and amplifiers at your disposal.

Theatre Arts students have access to some of the best theatre facilities in the UK. Our extensive multi-purpose teaching, performance and rehearsal spaces are designed to facilitate every aspect of the theatre making process in-house, and are kitted out with the most innovative lighting, sound and video technologies available.

You will have access to:

• Five fully-equipped theatre spaces, including our main black-box theatre and four large studios, plus additional rehearsal spaces
• Mirrored spaces and mats for movement work
• Design studios, including resources and equipment for drawing, painting and modelling, and digital design equipment
• Creative Technologies Lab, including VR design software
• Set, costume and painting workshops
• Extensive props, scenery, costume and lighting stores
• Special effects make-up, armoury and pyrotechnics
• Access to KitHub for specialist photography, video, sound and digital equipment.