This wiki will be locked as read only, on the 1st March (St David's Day)
About
Critical Practice are a self-governing cluster of artists, researchers and academics, hosted by Chelsea College of Art And Design. Through our Aims we intend to support critical practice within art, the field of culture and organization.
Register to contribute to this Wiki and join the Mailing List – they are the primary channels of communication.
We recognize dramatic transformations in creative practice. Transformations instigated by, and a reflection of wider social, political, technological and financial changes. One of the most obvious affects, is that as artists, curators, designers or theorists, our practices, or their interpretation, or how they are theorized, historicized or organized, are no longer separate concerns, or indeed the prerogative of different disciplines. Currently, we are concerned by the threat of the instrumentalisation of the artistic field through the internalisation of corporate values, methods and models. This can be seen everywhere, in funding agencies, at art schools and academies, in museums and galleries, and even in the studios of artists!
Therefore, we seek to avoid the passive reproduction of art, and uncritical cultural production. Our research, projects, exhibitions, publications and funding, our very constitution and administration become legitimate subjects of critical enquiry.
All art is organised, so we are trying to be sensitive to issues of organisation. Governance emerges whenever there is a deliberate organisation of interactions between people. We are striving to be an 'open' organization, and to make all decisions, processes and production, accessible and public. We will post agendas, minutes, budget and decision-making processes online for public scrutiny; as advised by open-organization.org
The research elements pursued under the auspices of Critical Practice will engage with the various forces that are implicated in the making of art, and the increasingly devolved experience of art made available through art institutions to their audiences.
We will explore new models for creative practice, and look to engage those models in appropriate public forums, both nationally and internationally; we envisage participation in exhibitions and the institutions of exhibition, seminar and conferences, film, concert and other event programmes. We will work with archives and collections, publication, broadcast and other distributive media and funders; while actively seeking to collaborate.
We are currently in the process of defining our aims and objectives.
