Critical Art Ensemble - CAE's Success

CAE's Success

• The CAE have been successful due to their structure which has contributed to positive attitudes throughout the group. The number of members, ranging from three to eight and known as a ‘cellular structure’ has managed to be sustained without members feeling isolated. As each member has the opportunity to show off their individual strengths and weaknesses, the risk of conflict and mistrust is reduced. They do not believe in equality; rather that every member has ‘a voice in the production process however the member with the greatest expertise in the area has authority over the final product’.

• CAE have also stated that amateurs have the ability to see through dominant paradigms, are more free to recombine elements of paradigms thought long dead, and can apply everyday life experience to their deliberations. Most important, however, amateurs are not invested in institutional systems of knowledge production and policy construction, and hence do not have irresistible forces guiding the outcome of their process…'.