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From CT4CT: Creative Tools for Critical Times
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Creative Tools for Critical Times (CT4CT)
This wiki is designed to support artists, educators and others interested in developing and using Creative Tools for Critical Times (CT4CT). It was created by David Darts and is part of a larger research and book project about contemporary culture, education, and creative citizenship.
This project stems from the belief that:
- Creativity and culture are implicated in every major transformation (good or ill) happening in the world today.
- The intellectual and creative work undertaken by contemporary artists, teachers, and other cultural producers plays vital social, political, economic, and pedagogical roles in our society.
- Critical reflection on democratic life and the possibilities for our future is an essential obligation of responsible citizenship.
- Our shared future rests on a collective ability to develop, identify, and implement creative tools for critical times.
Participate in CT4CT
You are welcome to participate in this project. You can create an account here or by clicking on the log in/create an account tab at the top of the page. Before creating and editing pages, please read the CT4CT Editorial Guidelines.
Issues
Each of the CT4CT projects have been categorized around one or more of the following key Themes and Strategies and Tactics (see below).
- Environment
- Free Culture
- Health and Nutrition
- Homelessness
- Human Rights
- Immigration
- Propaganda and Public Relations
- Public Space
- Race
- Surveillance
- Torture
- War and Terror
Strategies and Tactics
CT4CT artists utilize a variety of strategies and tactics to develop and produce their work. These are not ends in themselves - but tools in the quest to create, shape, understand and improve our collective future.
Artists and Collectives
Grounded in questions and problems of people and society, these Artists and Collectives are driven by a quest for individual and social transformation. Their work extends beyond the creation of objects to include the formation of complex ideas, theories and concepts. It exposes social deficiencies and reveals new possibilities for the future. It helps us reassemble the mundane of our experiences, generates opportunities for creative action, provides critical vision, and establishes vital forms of human exchange.
Marshall McLuhan argued in 1964 that art can serve as a “Distant Early Warning System” that can be relied upon to “tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it." Today, contemporary artists continue to play a number of vital roles, serving as social critics, researchers, inventors, teachers, poets, provocateurs, philosophers, visionaries, witnesses, and activists.
Teaching Toolbox
There are a number of pedagogical approaches that can be used to help create and develop creative tools for critical times. The following is a list of strategies, assignments and resources developed for and by contemporary artists and teachers.
- Critical Design Briefs
- Missions
- Data Visualization & Mapping Assignments
- Lectures & Presentations
- Research Assignments
Exhibits and Events
There is a growing list of events, exhibitions and venues that support and highlight the work of contemporary artists who are developing and using CT4CT.
