EAAE flynn-dunn-price-oconnor
Rethinking the Crit

Authors

  • Patrick Flynn Technological University Dublin
  • Miriam Dunn University of Limerick
  • Mark Price University College South Denmark
  • Maureen O'Connor Cork Institute of Technology

Downloads

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51588/eaaeacp.61

Keywords:

rethinking the crit, feedback, student led

Abstract

Assessment in architecture and creative arts schools has traditionally adopted a ‘one size fits all’ approach by using the ‘crit’, where students pin up their work, make a presentation and receive verbal feedback in front of peers and academic staff. In addition to increasing stress and inhibiting learning, which may impact more depending on gender and ethnicity, the adversarial structure of the ‘crit’ reinforces power imbalances and thereby ultimately contributes to the reproduction of dominant cultural paradigms. Our collaboration on an alternative to the traditional model was supported by the Teaching & Learning National Seminar Series fund which helped us organise an international symposium to debate the ‘crit’ in 2016. We have recently been awarded further funding which has allowed us to pilot alternative feedback methods.

How to Cite

Flynn, P., Dunn, M., Price, M., & O'Connor, M. (2020). Rethinking the Crit. EAAE Annual Conference Proceedings, 176–187. https://doi.org/10.51588/eaaeacp.61

Published

2020-12-29

Issue

2020: The Hidden School Papers. EAAE Annual Conference Zagreb 2019 - Proceedings

Section

The Process

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Patrick Flynn, Miriam Dunn, Mark Price, Maureen O'Connor

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Patrick Flynn, Technological University Dublin

Head of Learning Development College of Engineering & Built Environment & Lecturer School of Architecture TU Dublin, Ireland. Patrick Flynn is an architect and educator with an interest in the environment. He teaches on the BArch and MArch programmes and holds an MA in education. He has served on the Board of Architectural Education in the RIAI. His professional experience includes working in New York and Dublin. He has chaired visiting boards to UCD, SAUL and CCAE schools of architecture on behalf of the RIAI.

Miriam Dunn, University of Limerick

Lecturer School of Architecture SAUL Limerick, Ireland. Miriam Dunn is an architect and lecturer in Design Studio and structures at the SAUL, School of Architecture, University of Limerick. Miriam is in private practice and is currently completing a PhD on the overlap of engineering and architecture entitled “Drawing as thinking: Structures and Design.” Miriam is also a guest tutor in UCD and TU Dublin Schools of Architecture.

Mark Price, University College South Denmark

Tutor at the School of Architecture UCD, Ireland. Mark Price is an architect working in Dublin. He has contributed to various conservation and affordable housing campaigns, such as the Save Moore Street and Irish Glass Bottle Housing campaigns. He co-organised with Patrick Flynn the symposium What Are Crits For? which was held in TU Dublin in 2016.

Maureen O'Connor, Cork Institute of Technology

Lecturer in Fine Art, CIT Crawford College of Art & Design, Ireland. Maureen O’Connor works as a painter and as tutor with the First Year Team at CCAD. Her practice embraces how thought and feeling can be fractured and edited constantly, using painting methods that improvise to explore a disruptive syntax of pictorial composition. She holds a DIP FA (with Distinction) and MA Fine Art. Painting Fellow at LSAD, Visiting Lecturer NCAD, External Examiner at CCAM, Galway and Year Tutor 2nd, 3rd and 4th Year Fine Art at CCAD. VAI membership.

References

Anthony, K. (1991). Design Juries on trial. London: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Banham, R. (1996). A Black Box: The Secret Profession of Architecture, in: Banham, M. et al, eds., A Critic Writes: Selected Essays by Reyner Banham, University of California Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1990). Reproduction in Education, Culture and Society. London: Sage Publishing.

Dutton, T. (1991). Voices in Architectural Education, Cultural Politics and Pedagogy. New York: Bergin & Garvey.

Ralske, K. (May 2011). ‘The Crit,’ retnull.com/index.php?/texts/the-crit/ (accessed .08.13.19)

Various students, (May 2018), interviewed by Patrick Flynn, Dublin School of Architecture.

Various staff, (May 2018), interviewed by Patrick Flynn, Dublin School of Architecture.

Webster, H. (2005). “A Study of Ritual, Acculturation and Reproduction In Architectural Education,” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 4: 3.