Crits, consensus, and criticality

Abstract

Crits, also known as critiques, are a form of teaching contemporary art, architecture and design. They involve relatively unstructured conversation about student work, between the student and a group, often including students as well as teachers. This chapter examines crits in art schools. It argues that, so far as they are a distinctive form of teaching, they operate in a way that has not been clearly articulated before: they rely on the development of a consensus in the group. It also demonstrates that the structure and dynamics of crits promote a pluralism in art: the idea that, with some qualification, art can be about anything, and can take any form and medium. Finally, it shows how this sits in an uneasy tension with another kind of criticism widespread in art schools’critical theory.