The new needs friends: On the academic as a critic and a public voice

Abstract

Abstract This discussion is concerned with looking at the academic as a ‘critic’ in the service of becoming a public voice, and in conducting production-based work that is directed at social issues and public engagement. The analysis draws upon a variety of definitions of ‘criticism’ from both a scholarly and journalistic perspective, eventually developing two kinds of criticism – the auto-critique and the procedural-critique – that play out the relationship between ‘the creative’ and ‘the critic’, essentially defining a theory of practice, and the practice of theory. These theorizations are then illustrated through the projects described in the following essays, seeking to show that the academic practitioner/creative must necessarily cultivate a model of ‘critique’ that both self-consciously monitors process while creating a practice outcome that speak to research questions. This then becomes comparable to external critical agencies that engage in the analysis of process in order to articulate its critical context in the service of evaluating outcomes. The essay essentially explores the complex relationship between these two models and their place with regard to institutional, social and cultural roles.