HUM 100 Project 1 Artifact Chart
Although you will work on various assignments throughout the course to support you in
completing this assignment, this project is not due until Week 6.
Artifact
What is your chosen artifact? Include a link to
or a picture of the artifact.
I. Describe the artifact in detail. For
instance, how would you describe it to
someone who could not see it?
II. Choose elements of the artifact that you believe are most important to how you
experience it and explain why. For instance, what particularly catches your senses or
makes you want to keep experiencing it? Does the choice of medium impact your
experience?
Assumptions about your artifact
III. State your opinion on what you believe is the purpose of this artifact and the success of
the creator in achieving the purpose. For instance, what message do you believe the
creator is trying to express, and is that message successfully expressed?
IV. Discuss how the artifact reflects the culture (or context) in which it exists. Be sure to
address what aspects of culture have relevance for this artifact: politics, history, religion,
social perceptions, technology, media, education, and so on. In other words, how do the
artifact and its culture interrelate? For instance, how would a particular form of body
modification reflect the urban culture in which you encountered it?
V. Use the artifact to discuss how acts of creative expression impact and are impacted by
the people and situations that surround it. How might the artifact and the person who
created it have impacted each other? For instance, how might the geographic location
where the artifact was made, the materials used to create the artifact, the medium of
the creative process, or the environment where the artifact is displayed influence the
creator’s life or future creative work? How might the artifact and the culture or context
in which it was created have impacted each other? For instance, does the artifact add to
the understanding of the culture from which it was created? What contributions does it
make to continuing on a dialogue about that culture and the importance of its artifacts?
VI. Questions: Pose questions you have after thinking deeply about this artifact. What more
do you want to know regarding:
A. The relationship between human culture and expression
B.
Question 1:
Question 2:
C. Your personal assumptions about artifacts of this sort and why they exist
D.
Question 1:
Question 2:
C. How your values have shaped and are shaped by your expression and that of others
Question 1:
Question 2:
E. The relationship between the possible intent of the creator and your own interpretation of its
meaning
F.
Question 1:
Question 2:
VII. Speculate on how you would go about answering these questions. For instance, what
sorts of things would you study about these kinds of artifacts and their contexts that
might begin addressing these questions?
