Colleague Peter DiMuro and I were at Rhode Island School of Design (a.k.a. RISD) last month for a day of CRP activities. Critique is such a pervasive aspect of the academic experience at this elite art school that how it's handled -- good, bad, supportive or brutal -- becomes a central dimension in the lives of students. That is why it was the School's Office of Student Life that took the initiative to bring us in.Two of the three workshops we conducted opened with the Dance Exchange's "Blind Lead" movement structure, which as usual got people talking about issues and preferences related to leading and following. It was interesting to see the students draw the parallels between this exercise and the experiences they have in critique. One of the questions that came up was, who is leading and who is following, who should be leading or following, in the process of critique? The artist? The people with opinions? The teacher? A facilitator?
The answers were varied, but the one that has stuck with me came from a young woman who said, "Maybe it's the art that should lead the process. Maybe we all could be led by what we see and how we experience the art."
Food for thought.
