report

Online Reports: General Overview and Instructions for Report 1

Online Reports: General Overview

The purpose of the Online Report assignments is to have students actively engage with works of art that they encounter in their physical environment and to relay and discuss their experiences with their classmates. There is a profound difference between experiencing works of art in a first-hand or direct manner versus the mediated experiences we have when viewing works in a book or in an online presentation. This excludes, of course, those works of art specifically created for experience in a digital environment, which are, indeed, "direct" experiences! The Online Report assignments provide us with a way to consider and reflect on the different natures of the direct versus mediated experience of art. An important goal for the Online Reports assignments is that students will have fun with the experience and that, through direct experience, discover new ways of seeing and thinking

about works of art. Students will also share their experiences and thoughts with their classmates and instructor. The Online Reports are associated with several of the themes we study. Online Report 1 relates to the Identity and Body themes; Online Report 2 relates to the Time and Place themes. The two reports share similarities in the manner of presentation but will differ with regard to the prompt questions used to help focus your thinking. You will be asked to do the following for each assignment:

Document your experience in one or more photographs; Write a brief statement about your experience (prompt questions will be provided); Post your photograph(s) and statement to the respective Online Report Forum located in CANVAS; and For Bonus Credit: Review and respond to your classmates' Reports.

Special tip Follow-up Responses: It's important that you participate in a consistent and ongoing manner during the Follow-up Response period. Review and respond to the different Online report original postings periodically during the Follow-up Response period. Try to be generous in your comments and remember that honest criticism can and should be expressed in kind and respectful ways. Try to review each of the reports and be sure to select at least several reports to comment on. Pace your reviews and response comments and resist the temptation to "bunch" your Follow-up Responses by hurriedly posting during the last few hours of the Online Report period.

Successful participation in the Online Report assignments will demonstrate the student's ability to:

Interpret, assess, and evaluate the diversity and complexity of the contemporary art world and its interrelationships with the world at large and express his / her thoughts in written and visual form.

Reflect on the issues that affect the role of contemporary artists and

art in society and express his / her opinions about those issues in an interactive, online discussion environment.

Evaluation Criteria

Each student is required to participate in both Online Report assignments. You may review the Evaluation Rubric for this assignment here.

Online Report 1 (Identity As Melange): Instructions

Who are you? Who are you right now? For most of us, our sense of identity is a rumbling mixture of factors of influence--gender, age, cultural identification, religious or spiritual affiliation, social affiliations, body shape/size, etc. One's sense of identity can be described as being made up of a melange of influences and factors that come together to make us who we are as individuals. All of these different factors circulate within a complex and, sometimes, a olatile web of interactions.

There are two course themes that are particularly relevant to this assignment--Identity (Module 2) and Body (Module 3)--and we will find that the textbook chapters for these themes provide a rich and diverse introduction to how contemporary artists explore, challenge, and define the complexities of identity and body. We will also discover the different ways the two themes interrelate.

For this assignment, you are asked to explore how you might convey who you are (as an individual) through the presentation of a collection of objects composed as a still life. The objects to be chosen for the assignment will be ones that are in your everyday environment and which represent some aspect of who you are in real or symbolic ways.

Steps for "Online Report" 1:

[. Identify and select at least 5 objects from your everyday life that in some way represent meaningful aspects of who you are. You may, if you wish, select more than 5 objects but 5 is the minimum number. Select objects that are purposeful in terms of how they represent your sense of self. Consider the objects that you carry every day, the things you keep by your bed, the articles of clothing that you turn to again and again, or those items or objects you keep close because you consider them to be talismans of some sort. As you collect your objects, try to avoid selecting items that will seem trite-- remember, everyone carries cell phones!

\. Using the items you've selected, create a composition of the objects in the manner of a still life. Experiment with the composition of your objects, consider how the objects interact with each other when placed within varying degrees of proximity. For example, how does placing one object closer to another change the meaning one could associate with those objects? You can visit this site (http://www.nortonsimon.org/significant-objects-the-spell-of-still-life) to find out more about the role of still life in art history.

]. Create a photograph of your still life. You may create more than one main view of the composition so that you will have multiple images to choose from for submission to the Online Report 1 Discussion Forum.

_. Use the following guidelines to prepare your image for submission to the Online Report 1 Discussion Forum.

Edit/adjust/crop your images to meet the following standards:

Maximum image size - 1024 X 768

Maximum file size - 1 Megabyte (1024 k)

Save your file in a common image format such as .jpg, .jpeg, or

.png.

f. Reflect upon your immediate impression of what you've created. Consider what drew you to each particular item you selected for your still life. Why are they important to you? How do the different objects signify you as an individual? How do you feel about the composition you've created? What do you think about the still life as a whole in relationship to the individual objects within it. What does the "wholeness" of the still life convey about you (as an individual)?

h. Write a statement that discusses your reflections about the still- life you've created using the questions posed above as prompts for your statement. The statement should be 300 - 400 words long and carefully edited and reviewed for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

i. Post your written statement and at least 1 photograph of your still life composition to the "Online 1" Report Discussion Forum. It is preferred that you embed your image directly into your Original Report post but you may submit it as an attached image file in .jpg, .jpeg, or .png format. Do attach files in a non-image format.

Respond to Your Classmates' Reports for Bonus Points!

[. Review the different reports posted by your classmates.

\. Post response comments to at least 3 different Reports. Response comments should be substantive and strive to introduce thoughtful observations, ideas, or questions that go beyond simple congratulations. Strive for building on the classmate's report to which you are responding by identifying and discussing points of connection with your experience in creating your still life. It's perfectly fine (and gracious) to offer complimentary comments but it's also important to post comments or observations that introduce new ideas or avenues

for discussion.