GROUP PROJECTS
Class members should form groups
made up of two to four students who will work together to select a topic and
develop a research question(s).
Your research question(s) must be approved by the
instructor.
When forming your groups keep in mind that
group members will all receive the same grade for the
project, and everyone must do their part of the
work in a timely fashion to complete the project successfully.
Part of your supporting materials will include an
evaluation form of both your own participation, and that of your group members.
Time will be scheduled during class periods for
group meetings, but your group will also need to meet outside of class. It will
be much easier for you to stay in touch with your group if you exchange
telephone numbers and email addresses with each other now!
The Project consists of
four parts:
All groups must turn in a 1-2 page written statement of their project topic. It must include:
Topic statements will be worth
10 points and are due by the end of class on
Friday, October 2nd. (This is a change from the course outline).
The most important part of the
group project is to present what you have learned to the rest of the class. Each
group will give a 15 minute presentation and every group member must participate
in some way. Currently, presentations are schedule to begin on
Wednesday December 2nd
and end on
Friday, December 11th.
Three groups will present during each class period.
The starting date is based on the number of days needed to accommodate
approximately 18 groups.
If there are more or less groups the dates will be
adjusted accordingly.
Presentation dates will be determined by an in-class
lottery. You will have a total of five minutes to set up before your
presentation, and for the class to ask questions afterwards.
If your group is not prepared on your assigned
presentation date, five points will be taken off of your grade for the
presentation.
Presentations will
be worth 50 points to be evaluated as follows:
5 points
Creative approach to topic
10 points
Presentation of content
5 points
Description of methods of investigation (may include
examples of research materials)
5 points
Use of relevant literature and course content
5 points
Integration of content
5 points
Organization of presentation
5 points
Creative approach to presentation
5 points
Balance of involvement by group members
5 points
Appropriate use of time
All groups must turn in a
package of supporting research materials on their topic.
These materials must include but are not limited to:
While I think that there is
a lot of great information out there on the Web, there is also a lot of bad
information. You must always carefully consider whether or not the source you
are using is reliable and this is especially important for information obtained
from the Web. You should try to use the same standard as most news reporters who
get independent confirmation of the information provided by any single source.
Trade books, magazines, and
other “popular” literature are usually good sources of information, since these
authors often use the independent confirmation standard, and because these
sources are usually checked and re-checked by professional editors and other
workers in the publishing process.
Academic books and journal
articles are excellent sources of reliable information because academic
publishing is an artworld with rigorous conventions governing the collection and
analysis of data. Furthermore, many academic publishers require a peer review;
that is, a review and critique by other experts in the field.
Academic sources can be
useful even if you disagree with the author’s theories. You can use their
analysis and results as evidence for your own perspective! And now that so many
academic sources are available on the web, you don’t even have to go to the
library to use them!! So to encourage you to use at least some academic sources,
you will get one point on your group report for each one that you use up to a
maximum of five.
A word about Plagiarism -
This is a serious matter.
Do not try to present someone else’s work as your
own!
The prescribed penalty is an F for the assignment.
When you use a source other than yourself to write a
paper, you must cite that source.
Sources available on the Internet must also be
cited, including the Web address of the site.
If you take an original source and modify it to turn
in as your own work, you are also guilty of plagiarism.
Recently students have been caught downloading
essays from the Internet, making a few changes, and then handing in the papers
as their own.
They were easily detected and received failing grades.
Group supporting materials are
due by the end of the day (5pm) on Monday,
December 14th and five points will be deducted
for late projects. The supporting materials will be worth 50 points as follows:
10 points
Research summary
10 points
PowerPoint / presentation materials
5 points
Use of relevant literature review and course content
5 points
Description of methods of investigation (may include
examples of research materials), plus a critical evaluation of sources of
your methods
5 points
Annotated bibliography of all published materials
used
and
5 points
For academic sources (1 point per citation up to a total of five)
5 points
Organization and integration of report
5 points
Self and group evaluation forms
Each group will write four multiple choice or True/False test questions relating to the material covered in their presentation. These questions will be incorporated into the final exam. The questions are worth 10 points, and may be rewritten by the instructor for clarity or grammar.
What makes a
good research question?
The most common mistake
that students make in choosing a research question is that their questions are
too general. For example, you might be interested in the history of Egyptian
art, but this topic could fill up a whole book or even two! Your research
question(s) should be specific enough that you can give a substantial
explanation in a 20 – 25 minute presentation. You may decide to ask two or three
very specific but related questions in order to narrow your topic down. For
example, rather than discussing the art of Ancient Egypt you could discuss the
treasures found in the tomb of Tutankhamen.
One good way to narrow down a
topic that is too general is to choose just one type of art or one artist to
study. For example, you might decide to study the comic book artworld and
describe the people, collective activities and conventions of that artworld. Or
you could study the history of women in 19th century art, or how the
introduction of sound changed the film industry.
Or, you might decide to look at music CD cover art
and talk about how the images on the cover supports or detracts from the
material within.
Another option is two choose two types of art styles, or artists and compare them or study how they influenced each other. For example, you could compare the similarities and differences in the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements, or you might talk about the effects and ramifications of computer generated technology and images in the film industry.
Whether you choose to analyze an art genre or artist or to compare more than one, think about the evaluation criteria we have discussed in class, and use them to help you select your topic: Content and Context (historical, cultural, social and religious); the Elements and Principles of design; the function of the artist in each historical culture/time period; criteria for evaluation of art; comparison and contrast between one artist/genre and another; and conventions and structure within genres.
·
What kinds of artists are involved in making and distributing movies?
(Industry structure in one art world)
·
What are the social ramifications of personal expression being the primary
creative reason behind the creation of art?
·
If an artist was considered successful in their own time, what factors
contributed to their success? Did they adhere to social and political values
of their time? Did a private
patron fund them? Did their
skill outweigh all their peers?
If they were not successful in their time period, what factors contributed
to this state?
·
If an artist has a particular style that was consistent throughout their
work (such Salvador Dali), how were the elements and principles of design
manipulated to create this effect?
If an artist was known for a particular effect or technique, how did
they achieve it? When did they
discover it?
·
What are the differences and similarities in the in the philosophical ideals
and approaches of the artist in the Bauhaus and Cubist movements?
(Comparing conventions across two genres of art)
·
How do the conventions of Renaissance art constrain how the artists depict
their subjects? (Conventions in one artworld)
·
How are the conventions of opera different from and/or similar to the
conventions of musical theatre? (Comparing conventions across two genres of
musical performance)
·
How does fashion reflect the role of women in culture?
(Comparing social structure to art)
·
How does training of the artist differ in the Renaissance and modern times?
·
What are the similarities and differences in the technology used for making
photography and digital art? How
do the different technologies affect the final images? (Comparing technology
and content across two mediums of art)
·
Ho does the use of storyboards in film production design and directing
compare or differ from the types of storyboarding used in comic books?
(Comparing artistic tools and methods across two genres)
·
How does film production design differ or compare to scenic design for the
theatre? (Comparing similar
artistic activities across two genres)
·
How do environmental factors (race, culture, class, religion, upbringing)
contribute to the artist? Does
it affect their subject matter or their personal style?
What are
some possible methods of investigation?
Because you are looking at art, you are primarily going to be looking at Primary Source material. This means you will be looking at the actual works of art or photographs of the same, rather than another individual’s interpretation of that work.
·
Literature review
All of
the group projects will need some literature review, although your lit review can
be shorter if you also use one of the other methods as well.
·
Social history
Use published sources (newspapers, books, etc) to reconstruct the history of a type of artwork, a genre, an organization, or an artist. Relate events or trends in the history to more general historical events or social trends.
·
Content analysis
Identify common themes or elements of meaning in a style or movement of artwork, or an individual artist’s work. Interpret the meaning of works of art in relation to their social context.
·
Interviews
Interview people who work in an artworld, have a specific interest in one form of art, or are artists.