Based on my own lived experiences of art education I was immediately drawn to this text more so than the other available options, “the design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy” jumped out at me.
The discussion around disciplinary differences is the most salient to me, as I’ve been taught and taught in, two separate fractions of the art world, Fine art as an artist and Fine art fabrication. The experiences have been starkly different, essentially one is based in intellectual conversation and flowery concepts and the other based in the starkest of realities. Bronze as an artist medium and bronze as the molten liquid screaming out of a crucible are two separate realities entirely,
I once read how language dictates your personality, as each language has its own rules and nuances that form the way you see, narrate and how your inner monologue absorbs the things around you. Certainly, we can extrapolate disciplines as languages, each with its own cultures and rules, slowly forming the individual to conform (in the most evolutionary and often delightful!) ways possible.
Again I related to the question of supportive critiques and how they should be managed, I experienced a rather brutal and deliberately destructive crit style during my MA which has made me extremely cautious not to repeat this same style with my own students. I like to see my students happy and engaged, not afraid or desperate for my validation as if I’m some temporary god in their lives. I’m very big on the ‘Good job buddy’ approach, naturally, it can come with it’s own consequences of being too ‘meak’, as the text mentioned, we must be careful not to overcorrect and loose the value of critique to the student as a way to respond to our own pain, but the utilitarian within me notices that an encouraged student comes up when they have questions and isn’t defensive, thus opening them up to more interaction and therefore opportunities to learn.
Overall this text touched on some really salient issues as an art teacher, but as always, teachers aren’t immune to pressure, culture and more concerningly personal bias, I fear studio critique cannot ever be a truly ‘safe space’. Art is too subjective, the rules non-existent and the interpretation ever-changing, if studio critique is the ultimate art standard I fear we must accept the crueler teachers. It’s too liquid a subject to enforce a strong set of rules for studio critique, we have to navigate the waters and respect the sharks that live here.
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