To define: Critic, professional judge of art, music and literature, work that sets out to analyse, fault finding, examining and judging analytically without bias. Critique - art of criticising , critical essay or commentary. Evaluating objective criteria.
Critical - to separate or to choose, to prioritise.
Skepticism - having a Hypothesis, refusing to believe it until you have found no way of disproving it.
Reasoned thinking - Stepping away and using evidence and logic to come to your conclusions. To come from a clear focus.
Opinion - Be aware of perspectives, other sides. More than one way to read a situation. Be aware that we are approaching it with own assumptions.
Some perspectives that you might adopt or encounter - Marxist, Neoliberal, Sociological, Psychological, Postmodernist, Technological.
Arguments / counterarguments. Strengths / weaknesses of own or other peoples positions.
Have a take on something, evaluate own position through works of other - philosophers, artists etc. Evaluate against eachother.
Don't need to have a balanced argument, have a side but back it up with as much evidence as possible.Opinion needs to have gravity.
Where was the author / artist / designer/ / photographer situated?
Try to consider different points of view....where the creator was coming from intellectually; emotionally; philosophically; politically...
Consider text from as many different angles as possible, and the same for ourselves.
Where am I coming from?
How is my choice of topic influenced by my emotions; aspirations; context?
Think about why I'm writing - and for everyone else I'm looking at
Context is everything.
People accept information as fact, absolute - critical analysis is opposite to this. Challenging till you can't challenge any more.
Consider the influence of one or more of the following : the time, place, society, politics, economics, technology, philosophy, scientific thought.
EVIDENCE - REASON - LOGIC - ARGUMENT - Golden Rules
Argument
- What do I want to say? What is my opinion, how do I want to communicate, what evidence is there, where do I find it?
Triangulation - Theories interpreting against each other over same body of text. Using more than one position to evaluate subject.
Example of Triangulation:
Typically this would be something like this:
A number of authors have considered how (insert your particular idea/concept). Author1, (date), Author2, (date) and Author3 (date) have all commented upon the fact that (now use a specific example). For instance Author1 (specific example) writing in her account of (whatever you pick out) describes how (whatever). This is supported by the fact that Author2 etc
Now comment on a discuss their point
So how does this look when you put selected text into the brackets and make a comment.
A number of authors have considered how both phenomenology and existentialism have been used to develop aesthetic theory, Smith, (1984), Brown, (1997) and Jones (2004) have all commented upon the fact that aesthetic ideas can be related to embodied thinking and the primacy of perception. For instance Smith when analysing the work of Richard Serra writing in her account of art practice as a mode of experiencing reality describes how art can make a needed contribution to
the study of perceptual consciousness. This is supported by the fact that Brown in his study of art, light and phenomena also prioritises perception as being at the core of the aesthetic experience and that he believes that a parallel Existentialist reading can be developed from a close reading of Merleau Ponty’s text ‘Cezanne’s Doubt, (1945). This position is clearly further supported by Jones in her analysis of James Turrell’s ‘Dear Shelter’ where she highlights the importance of individual experience and the ‘authenticity’ of the confrontation with Turrell‘s work.
Comment
These three authors support the development of an argument for a deep relationship between phenomenology and existentialism as aesthetic positions. Both prioritise individual experience and allow for a reading of certain artworks that focuses on the physical facts of perception; awareness of weight, light, scale etc. measured against the human experience.
A CLEAR LOGICAL PLAN:
Keep it simple - refine what you want to say and focus on few key issue
Look into your key issues in depth and bring in the maximum evidence in to support your views
Discuss your issues and the evidence you have found in a clear and logical manner.
Move from general to the specific
Critical Analysis of a text step by step
1 - Identify an aspect of your specialist subject that you would like to explore
2 - Select a writer or theoirst, write about
3 - Make notes on text and key points
4 - What evidence is used to support
5 - Is it convincing
what else needs to be said in order to prove key points
6 - Write response and comment on....
Info in presentation....
Bibliography - A short guide to writing about art - Sylvan Barnet
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