At first, the thought of being part of a critique session can be a daunting concept. The very idea of having your work critiqued by your peers and your tutors on a mass scale can make anxiety sensations rise. As part of TMA1431, Creative Studio, we will be taking part in group “crit” seasons. Sessions such as these mirrors those practised and used within the creative industry as a whole, giving us as MA students a chance to experience them in a friendly and safe feeling environment.
Crit sessions allow for the chance to share ideas, concepts, designs, concerns and to answer questions. They also allow realignment and grounding. Prior to the session, we were tasked with creating one to two images that reflect our creative intentions for the coming term. These could be created using a variety of styles and could use any imagery we like, as long as it conveyed our intentions. Our group tutor, Anneke, lead the session for my group and gave us a set of questions that we would be asking about the works we were viewing. The questions were the following:
What is your immediate impression?
What are the processes in play?
What message is being conveyed?
What further questions do you have about the work?
To ensure that the room felt like a safe environment to share in, the work was shared anonymously. Personally, I enjoyed this first crit session. I believe that this allowed for us to not only be exposed to each others work but also allowed for a dialogue to be created. It allowed us to get a true sense of what people see in the work and thanks to the messaging feature in Microsoft Teams, we now have a documented account of our peers' reflections and answers to the questions. This experience was not as intimidating as I first believed it, or perceived it, to be. I would be interested to know how this process and concept could evolve over the rest of the MA course. For example, could the crit sessions become slightly more formal? Students could share four to five slides that share our most recent work for our major projects or areas that we would like feedback on. Communication is key in any area of professional life and I believe that these sessions will aid the development of soft skills in giving and receiving feedback and open communication.
Through this experience, I learnt that it is not always obvious to others the concepts that are shared in your work. Throughout the work being shared, various students shared contrasting concepts of responses to the work. To the artist/designer, the message is clear and obvious, however, to others who have not created the work or know the background of the work, it is completely open to interpretation. This concept is something that will be key to keep in mind not only for the work created but also for when the work is being presented. How clear is the message? How will others read/view this? How open is this?
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