Work Play Work – Crit

I thought the crit was really interesting.

I thought it lacked criticism and discussion somewhat, and could really have done with more structure and thought given to how much time each student was allocated. Because just like each crit in first year, the first few students get to talk for about twenty minutes each with in depth discussion, and by the end you’ve run so far over the last few students can barely present.

So it was mostly just a presentation of work, but even that was hugely interesting and inspiring. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I find crits exhausting because I’m just overloaded with inspiration.

Regarding my own zine, one student really liked the photographic, physical element – where I’d made the paper flames and edited those photos. I like that – I was glad I took it back to physical collage and play for a bit.

Jim noted that I could have made better decisions when choosing what content to keep, and that some spreads could be lost entirely. I think it would be more constructive to sit down with him and find out which spreads specifically, maybe, because I can’t improve my own eye with pure guesswork and I’m really interested in what the tutors think works and what doesn’t! Perhaps they’re loathe to sound mean and put students off crits, but I need to hear it.

In the whole project, I was probably happiest and most passionate when I was creating a narrative and writing for it in response to the text and my own work. I’ve emailed Jim the writing since. Maybe I’m supposed to be a writer!