Critical Response Process

Module code
M-JP-CRP
Curricular domain
Practical Classes
Credits
1
Group size
1 or more
Number of course weeks
1
Class duration
45 (one student), 60 (two students) or 90 (more than two students) minutes, a 20-30 minutes presentation inclusive
Total contact hours
1-1.5 hours
Study load
26.5-27 hours

Form / content / level

Prerequisites
Admitted to the second year. Please mind that this module is a mandatory part of the second year. This means it can only be chosen as an elective in year three or four.
Competencies
See Competencies Matrix.
Aims
Learning to ask the right questions and respond to feedback given to a student or a group of students after a presentation in order to develop it further.
Relation to other modules
Mainly all practical and educational modules.
Content
Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process is a method for giving and getting feedback on work in progress, designed to leave the maker eager and motivated to get back to work.

Through the supportive structure of its four core steps, Critical Response Process combines the power of questions with the focus and challenge of informed dialogue. The Process offers makers an active role in the critique of their own work. It gives makers a way to rehearse the connections they seek when art meets it audience or a product meets its purpose.

Critical Response Process instills ways of thinking, communicating and being that enhance all kinds of human interactions, from coaching to community dialogue, from artistic collaboration to family conversations.

In CRP there are three roles.

1. The artist offers a work-in-progress for review and feels prepared to question that work in a dialogue with other people. The student(s) who does the presentation is in this role. The presentation lasts roughly 20 minutes with one student in the artist's role, 25 minutes with two students in the artist's role and 30 minutes with more than two students in the artist's role;
2. The responders engage in dialogue with the artist, with a commitment to the artist’s intent to make excellent work. Typically four teaching staff members are among the responders. Additionally responders (staff members, students, etc.) are welcome to join;
3. The facilitator (a teaching staff member) initiates each step, keeps the process on track, and works to help the artist and responders use the process to frame useful questions and responses.

In CRP there are four steps.

1. Statements of Meaning: responders state what was meaningful, evocative, interesting, exciting, and/or striking in the work they have just witnessed;
2. Artist as Questioner: the artist asks questions about the work. In answering, responders stay on topic with the question and may express opinions in direct response to the artist’s questions;
3. Neutral Questions: responders ask neutral questions about the work, and the artist responds. Questions are neutral when they do not have an opinion couched in them. This step is one of the most fundamental, challenging, and misunderstood steps of Critical Response Process;
4. Opinion Time: responders state opinions, given permission from the artist; the artist has the option to say no.

More: click here.
Mode(s) of instruction
A presentation by a student or a group of students, followed by a CRP session, a facilitator inclusive and open for four to fifteen responders. Among the responders are normally four scheduled teaching staff members. Which other responders can join in is to be decided by the artist and facilitator together.
Material & Tools
n/a
Student activity
Preparing the presentation in every respect.

Examination and assessment

Mode(s) of assessment
Participation.
Criteria
Participation.
Pass requirements
This module is passed if the student has prepared and performed a presentation and joined the CRP afterwards in the role of the artist.
Examination procedure
A schedule of CRP’s, including the facilitator and four scheduled staff members, is made by the educational office. The CRP’s facilitator reports back afterwards whether or not the CRP took place.
Resit options
See the Education and Assessment Plan.

Module summary

All students Jazz & Pop do a presentation followed by a CRP by the end of the second year. Students from year three and four can choose a CRP additionally as an elective.