Formatting Criticism 

International Symposium in cooperation with the Association of Slovenian Theatre Critics and Researchers (DGKTS) 

The old format of theatre criticism has encountered a long series of changes, which have made it difficult for it to retain its place and reach. At the same time, the oft-used phrase "criticising criticism" presumes that along with the loss of place in the public sphere, criticism has also been left without its worth. In the fast-changing world, with a virtualised interactive media landscape in the eroded public sphere, we probably don't want to rehabilitate the sense of criticism in the old meaning of the word, because through the re-contextualisation of past decades the critical paradigm, which made the critic the sole arbiter of artistic worth, has also changed. 

Criticism has to be formatted and its possibilities re-thought. How should criticism reposition and re-establish itself? What instance of criticism would be in sync with the contemporary world and the contemporary media landscape? What are the necessary parameters to still consider a published text a form of criticism? Are there cases of texts that are no longer classical critical pieces in their format, yet function in this structural place? Who is the reader that criticism has to take into account? 

Prepared by Rok Bozovičar, Pia Brezavšček, Alja Lobnik