Critical Thinking Workshop

I was pleased to have the opportunity to attend this session on critical thinking and research by Emma Drye who generously travelled to present this to the London group of students. This is an area where I feel my knowledge is lacking and I find research and note taking particularly difficult as a dyslexic.

We did some interesting exercises, analysing texts in groups. We discussed how we could find relevant texts using bibliographies and citations, how to measure their strengths and weaknesses and reliability. We discussed what research could be, why we undertake it, and how broadly it could be defined. One of the revelations of my current course is that research linked to a project does not mean just looking at the art history context, as course research points often direct us, but at the total context of my subject. Research means I have to ‘begin in the middle and work outward in all directions’ (Somerson and Hermano, 2013).

We identified the pitfalls of mining research materials to find information which supported you view whilst ignoring information which didn’t, and how, whilst one often has to take a stance, it can be much more interesting to identify alternative views and explore them.

Emma presented us with an interesting exercise in which we wrote for 15 minutes, without pause, on our current projects. We then analysed these texts by phrase or word into ‘Visual’, ‘Material’, Process’ or ‘Idea’ and I think this might be a useful tool for the future.

I explained to Emma how very difficult I found academic writing, in particular structuring my thoughts and arguments, and she directed me to the website of the Royal Literary Fund, which has information and tools for helping. I am already finding their essay guide helpful, especially on what characterises academic writing, and their online/app tool ‘Alex’ for essay writing looks excellent.

We used several texts in the workshop which I would like to consider further. Sadly ‘On Not Knowing: How Artists Think’ is now out of print, but ‘Thinking Through Art: Reflections on Art as Research’ is available through the UCA library service.

It is unfortunate that we ran out of time to cover all the material which Emma had prepared, but we all came away with avenues for further enquiry.

References

Fisher, E. and Fortnum, R. (Eds.) (2013) On not knowing. London: Black Dog Publ.

Macleod, K. and Holdridge, L. (Eds.) (2005) Thinking Through Art : Reflections on Art As Research Florence: Routledge Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [7 May 2019].

Somerson, R. & Hermano, M. (Eds.) (2013) The Art of Critical Making : Rhode Island School of Design on Creative Practice New York: John Wiley & Sons Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [7 May 2019].