"Yes: the public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."
-OSCAR WILDE: THE CRITIC AS ARTIST: WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING NOTHING
The Critic as Artist is a art larp piece made by J.Tuomas Harviainen. It's written for 3 - 10 players and takes around 1 - 2 hours. It's available from us as Human|Culture piece (as in free of charge) and can be used in schools, institutions as well as by friends or total strangers.
Piece is available in English as well as in Finnish. Easiest ways to get it are either by email ( info@raakaidea.fi ) or by stopping by in our gallery space in Tainionkoskentie 6 (Imatra).
Introduction to the game by J.Tuomas Harviainen:
"The purpose of this live-action role-playing game is to play a group of critics. They go around town together, visit public spaces and look for potential art in those areas. Or, at the very least, something they themselves think is art. While doing so, they will judge, maybe condemn, occasionally even praise each others’ points of view.
The Critic as Artist takes place as something happening between lectures of a big critique conference, which all the characters are attending. As a part of the event, conference attendees have been divided into small groups. These groups are expected to go to various public spaces and to ponder their concepts of what is art there. So they are supposed to head anywhere – supermarkets, restaurants, open city squares – and to discuss whether something there fits the definitions of art. Is at in can only art when placed within a museum or copied by Andy Warhol? Is a busker’s off-key rendition of a Finnish tango an artistic experience of a kind, or not? How many empty pints do you have to pile up, and in what sort of a formation, for them to become an artwork and not just remnants of last night’s drinking binge?
The key point of this game is not “what is art”, but rather the way people experience that issue and discuss with others. These are not critics who stay silent and then write furiously when they get home. These are people who want to speak about their own – far superior – views with others."
