Jump to content

Critique - Worst You've Heard


Recommended Posts

I went to college at a school that had the majority of the art faculty were against recognizing pottery as fine art so there were lots of bad crits., eventually i learned to give them what they wanted but still make pottery. They loved the my last project...framing pretty shards in shadow boxes...finally they saw the subtle movement of colors and line they admired in my fellow students paintings, all it took was a frame ;) They gave me cudos for being brave enough to break my pots and to expand my horizons, it remained a secret between me and my pottery prof that i had 9 pots that self destructed after being removed from the last kiln firing and those framed shards were the results.

 

Then there was the critiques i got when visiting schools looking for a grad program i fit in. At one school i brought my slides and the prof. commented i was all over the place, i needed to focus and narrow down. So i went back and spent a semester focusing and narrowing down. The next school i visited and upon seeing my new set of slides commented that everything was too similar that i needed to show a broad range. Oh well. Lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After 3 1/2 years of studying my Master of Design where lecturers focussed on sustainability, ethical trade practices, smart packaging, multi-discipline project collaborations, new technologies etc, etc........basically the whole  'Cradle-to-Cradle' design principles (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle-to-cradle_design),..... we were asked for our final projects with assessment to be made by the Head of the Design faculty, herself a textile designer.........much blood, sweat and tears ensued for 45 students for 6 months!!

 

We were a multi disciplined class including jewellery, computer programming, 3D modelling,  fabric and textiles, graphic design, architectural and environmental design, furniture, lighting......and 2 ceramicists!  My fellow ceramics student designed and manufactured the prototype for a ceramic/charcoal water filter for containers used in developng countries without a clean water supply.

 

I developed and prototyped a segmented and proportioned dinner plate illustrated with the foodstuffs to go into each segment, to be used by people without nutritional knowledge or the ability to fully understand nutritional information such as children, people with interllectual disability, limited learning skills etc The plate was based on the needs and proportions of a Western diet as recommended by the Australian Health Department.

 

Most of the students for the other disciplines also followed similar types of sustainable design concepts. Presentation and packaging were part of the assessment too. We set up en-masse in the lecture hall and were asked to leave during the assessment process.....nervous, nervous, nervous!!!  I knew mine wasn't the best my last firing had bubbled and changed one colour but I saw some amazing and genuinely clever, clever ideas in that room!

 

Results were posted 2 weeks later and a howl of disbelief went up with the 11 other students I stood near, when the only High Distinction was given to a girl who designed frilly fabric wristbands with photos of her dead grandmother on them!!!!.......think 16-24 y.o girlie Etsy stuff!!  We were outraged!! 3 years of sustainable design principles to be beaten at the end by 'pretty', frilly crap!....but protests fell on deaf ears as she was the Head of the Design Faculty, very influential in her field and the Uni would not take issue with her.

 

My particular critique was that my plate design was unsuitable for an Asian market!!! eventhough it was not designed or promoted for that.....I still, 4 years later, find the results and my particular critique unfathomable.....the degree lost it's value for me.... though to be fair, I learned HEAPS that changed my outlook on design and still influences my work practices today and that learning makes much of my resultant uni debt bearable.

 

Have never again trusted a critique by anyone without a CLOSE look at a person's own creative preferences and priorities.

 

Irene

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Mudslinger Ceramics  I cannot image an academic assessment in a design program that appears to lack conversation between the faculty and student on a final project.  I have seen this before and there is no win for either the student or the program. Regrettably, a great university career and a relationship with the institution is tainted by these kinds of experiences.

 

Cornerstone projects, like the one you describe here, involve a process and a final project.  Certainly, a fair assessment of the final product/project should represent your standing in the program...particularly if it is a representation of your best work.  More importantly (to me at least) is the measure of the process in determining just what was actually learned from the process and the project.  There should be a place in design programs where projects are juried and recognition is given based upon a juror's decisions...that is how things work in real world shows, galleries, proposals for public commissions, etc.  In academics, however, I believe it is more important for the student to demonstrate growth in skills, critical thinking, process, and personal reflection...grading should represent that growth (or lack thereof) and those things should be what that piece of paper with the degree represents.

 

Sadly, I believe the pressure in higher education to use retention as a measure of an institution's success is hurting many students.  In too many cases, retention means keeping a student in one program rather than advising them to pursue better options...that's probably a whole different topic.

-Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Paul

 

Am quite competitive but I didn't expect great marks, I liked my concept alot but I knew with such a diverse group in the class across so many disciplines that the assessments would be somewhat subjective, that bit was ok. We did have a 1 hour discussion session with the lecturer near the beginning while we outlined and explained our projects. She did say she didn't 'get' ceramics so I expected she wouldn't love my plate but I did think we were on the same page about the whole concept. So the comment in the review about the plate not suiting the Asian market was so left field!

 

What shocked the class was that the sustainable design taught by some genuinely remarkable designers and acedemics for 3 years did not match the concept of 'design' expected at assessment.  Had 'Etsy' design (for want of a better word) been what was wanted from us then we would have obviously approached the final projects quite differently.

 

Love study wont put me off, just a bit wary

 

Irene

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ew, that reminds me of a mandatory course for all MFA grads where I went to school. Conceptual Art History and the final project that would be a grade for TWO quarters would be based on that project.

Three Art Historians taught the class. They wanted to start a Conceptual Art Journal from that Univ.

The projects were graded on a Bell curve.

22 out of about 30 grads took up issue with the Ombudsman without results. 22 left the program out of 30.

My piece was a large ceramic sculpture with a tree planted inside in the ground. It would eventually break free. I for get what I got for a grade and I don't remember the critique but I dropped out for a year. The highest regarded project was one student got on his motorcycle and drove away.

Rest assured, not all academics are bad. But some are.

 

Marcia

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the lowest moments in my career was overhearing another ceramics professor and his class-- I had been in the glaze room and he was unaware that I was on the premise- he had his whole class gathered around a table and on top of it were several pieces that he was holding up and absolutely RIPPING apart as examples of poor craftsmanship, terrible technique, spouts that were awful, unacceptable handles,  etc.... I listened from the back as he went on and then finally realized that the items he was showing his class were mine. 

 

I never confronted him about that moment, and I tried to direct the hurt feelings I had towards growing and developing.  It was an AHA moment for me because I realized that some of the aspects he was criticising were techniques I was experiementing with and truly finding my own unique voice with- had I taken his critique to heart I may have had a much harder time discovering my own style and unique way of doing things.  The drummer who marches to the beat of his own drum is going to hear that he/she is not playing the proper notes in relation to the rest of the band. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you have a good point. Also..because you were not there as far as he/she knew, the professor was able to review the pieces without worrying about subjectivity and personal feelings which never should be involved in a critique.It was probably a good chance for the professor to be critical without intimidating students if it had been there work. It demonstrated objective discussion of technical aspects.

Marcia

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In regards to my ceramic work, my instructor was great. Throwing was only a small part of the class, and he didn't expect us to become uber-fluent in the short amount of time we had. As I mentioned in another topic, his comment of one of my thick mugs was, "Well, that's insulated!"

 

He was an adjunct. Contrast that with one of my peers, who had the same course, with the department head. My peer made a vase for flowers. I believe the instructor comment something along the lines of, "It's a good thing you are putting flowers in there, because it will actually make it look good/ pretty.

 

The worst critiques I've had, were from a couple different sources. One was from a Life Drawing class. The instructor gave me two main critiques the entire semester. One at midterm, and one at term. I got almost no feedback. He would start the class, make a pass around the room, and disappear for a half hour to forty minutes. And usually, when he did his passes, he would talk to the students he knew from previous classes, which I wasn't. It was not only my worst Art course grade, but my worst college grade. That is one thing I base my teaching and grading on. I vowed to never behave in such a way. I provide help and feedback to every student, so they know what to do, and how they can improve, even the students who have made it clear, they are just there for a credit, because they had nowhere else to go, etc.

 

The other bad critique was from the coworker, in my first job. I made something, and she said, "I wouldn't sign my name to that...". This is despite the fact, that she wasn't great on the wheel, and admittedly had others center her clay, when she took Ceramics in college.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm loving this thread!  As a nursing student in 50's England, you either passed or failed - no-one told you why either way (although we could usually figure it out!). When i started pottery classes with a wonderful and talented studio potter in my 50's, I instantly fell in love with clay, but it wasnt until my first week long workshop that i first learned how valuable a good critique could be... I mean the kind that asks questions about your work and how you, as an artist can develope it, and where you want to go with it.  Many classes (and years!) later I still value a critique that helps me grow as an artist.  Probably my best critiques come when other artists buy my work - the worst when people walk into my booth and tell me they "love my work, but are trying to downsize"! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.