“The great error always exists in or consists of this: that the critic asks, 'What should the artist do?' It would be much more correct to say, 'What does the artist desire?' or even, 'What must the artist execute? '” and “He who expresses the most, and the most significant, with the fewest and simplest symbols, he is the greatest artist.” Heinrich Heine
When it comes to critic, many students are stressed out beforehand, moreover after critic you confront many students who are emotional and it takes a few days for them to go through it. Here in this post, I am going to introduce some of strategies about critics and the possible answers you should have first of all for yourselves and second for your audience and critics.
1. What you should do about critic in advance;
First, ask about the time you will be given. For instance, if the total time is 50 minutes (you might have 15 minutes for presenting your work, you will end up with 35 minutes to have other's thoughts on your work).
Have some prepared questions that you might have. For instance, I am stuck in this phase of my work and I do not know how to further it?
I would love to hear your interpretation or overall feelings about the project that I have just performed or projected.
You might also ask the crit panel if they are fine, if you send them a follow up email in next week and see what they have left from a memory of observing your performance?
Have some friends to take note for you or record the panel's audio for you of course you should ask them if they are fine with you to record them?
If your work and project have any similarities at some points to the other artists, do research about their project and be prepared to have possible answers for those who point out this similarities and they might ignore or do not have done enough research to have enough information about that work's concept.
1. Some of possible questions you might receive from the panel;
Where is a specific place that you are considering to display your work?
You can make your point to be "Specific." They might ask you about being specific. However, it also depends on your goal.
Can you explain about your idea? (in this case some students are open to explain but you might also decide not to, again depends on what you are looking for).
Who are your audiences?