Snail Scott on sat 28 apr 01
At 11:12 AM 4/28/01 -0500, you wrote:
While getting my last graduate degree in a school of architecture I wa=
s
first exposed to the concept of "crits" as we called them. That concept
carried forth into the professional world and became something all of us
sought out.
Bill-
My bachelors's degree was actually in architecture.
I find that the mental tools acquired studying
architecture still inform the work I do and the way
I approach it. Architecture, perhaps more than most
creative efforts, must take into account the response
of a great many people, both educated and not,
attentive and otherwise, who never chose to be in
the 'audience'.
I had observed that my engineering courses affect
the way I consider the structure of a piece I am
building; I never thought that all those crits in
school were an influence on how I judge criticism!
No one likes a negative critique, but an informative
one can be more valuable than a positive response
without comments. (Though less gratifying, to be
sure!)
I wish more show jurors had the time to provide
comments to entrants, both accepted and not. Whether
you consider the opinion valid or not, it at least
gives a notion of how the work was perceived by
that one person. If your work is consistently
misunderstood by your intended audience, perhaps
it's time to reevaluate the work. What is the viewer
missing, and how can you get your intentions across
more effectively?
You don't have to change your work to accomodate
every half-assed opinion. That would be absurd.
But if you're not reaching any audience but yourself,
you'll be working that day-job for quite a while.
I still get defensive as hell when my work is picked
apart, but I try to extract something from it, if
only a notion of how various personal biases affect
perception. I may not change my work accordingly,
(I'm as egomaniacal as anyone and more pig-headed
than most), but I'll take the concomitant responses
with open eyes, and learn from it.
-Snail
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