Cinzia Cremona/ Manuela Zechner/ Neil Cummings/ Mary Anne Francis/ Ian Drysdale/ Marsha Bradfield/ Critical Practice have been regularly conducting collective conversation sessions reflecting on the future role and aspirations of "Critical Practice", their positioning within a large commercialized educational institution, etc.
Critical Practice is a self-governing cluster of artists, researchers and academics, hosted by Chelsea College of Art And Design. Through its Aims and Objectives the cluster supports critical practice.
This Wiki and the Mailing List are the primary channels of communication, as well as regular meetings held in London. You can get involved by registering as a wiki user, subscribing to the list and joining a meeting.
Critical Practice:
"We recognise dramatic transformations in creative practice, these transformations affect creative practice on a multitude of levels - social, political, aesthetic and financial.
One of the most obvious affects, is that as artists, curators, designers or theorists, our practices, or their interpretation, or how they are theorized, historicised or administered, are no longer separate concerns, or indeed the prerogative of different disciplines. It's clear to us that artworks and artists exist within an ecology - an ecology built from an interrelated web of exhibitions, museums and galleries, places of education, communities of enthusiasts, forms of funding, friendships, catalogues, bodies of knowledge, theorists, critics, advertising and so on.
The research elements pursued under the auspices of Critical Practice therefore, 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.
Critical Practice 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, web cast media and funders; while actively seeking to collaborate."
Critical Practice is currently holding a series of future conversations, whereby questions around critical practice, Critical Practice, self-organization, collaboration, art, practice, research, govenmentality, open source, education and many other things are discussed. These sessions take place about once a month, and are available as video on this website- if you wish to come along, just get in touch or check the Critical Practice website for dates.
The future archive has been generousely and enthusiastically supported by Critical Practice, financially as well as through help with development.