In the Bathtub with Andrew Sullivan

I was in the tub last night reading an article in The Atlantic by columnist/pundit Andrew Sullivan. His subject was blogging, and the piece was resonant with Sullivan's enthusiasm for this burgeoning mode of communication. For me his thesis was best summed up in the passage where he likens traditional journalism to scored classical music, blogging to improvised jazz. I rose from my bath with my dormant curiosity about the form re-stimulated. I'm ready to give it a try. (I wonder how many other new blogs that article will spawn?)

My subject is critique, and the intended centerpiece for this new-born blog is Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process. In my capacity as Humanities Director for Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, I have been actively involved for almost ten years in training, facilitating, and writing about this four-step process that helps artists get functional feedback on work-in-progress by harnessing the power of dialogue and inquiry. Fresh from a trip to the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado in Boulder where Liz and I led training and discussion in the Process, I'm convinced that there's a role for a forum about this widely-embraced mode for critical dialogue.

So here goes.