Composer Maryanne Amacher. Image via sound-art-text.com.
As I watch students comment on each other’s work, I am sometimes horrified to see the writer scribble down every note of the conversation, nodding her head in anxious confirmation.
So many times I long to lean over and ask, “Are you simply going to act on every comment you receive here? Most of them are missing the point of your piece!”
When receiving critique from her colleagues, an artist must remember to absorb the comments by way of her intuition. Responses that resonate with her intuition may have something to tell her about how to proceed. Those that do not might be set aside and if not discarded at least examined before they are acted upon.
Bad critique has the power to pull an artist out of dialogue with her intuition, whereas the best critique informs and deepens that dialogue.
Imagine how resolutely in touch with her own intuition composer Maryanne Amacher had to be to produce this piece.
A detailed description of the piece can be found here.
Thank you for reading.