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this page tests | profile, timelines | glossary art reports | presentations | reflective pieces analysis of art work | analysis of musical instrument | essay attendance | timely completion | self-assessment |
Rather than structure the course around a textbook, I'm structuring the course around a project. The information retrieval, analysis, evaluation, and presentation skills needed for this project are used throughout organizations. They are transferable skills; you can take them from the marketing department, to production, to finance, to personnel and use the same skills and software.
How to submit these assignments. I will distribute and collect the tests via email. You will post your three reflective pieces on the wiki's discussion forum. Everything else, you will submit by adding them to the wiki pages in your country's profile.
| in class | % correct, up to 10 points | 10 | February 10, 24 |
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You will take two tests on the information and ideas presented in my lectures during the first three weeks of the course. The tests will ask for objective responses, that is, data -- names, dates, places -- instead of the more subjective approaches asked for in your written assignments below.
The first test will be on geography, testing your ability to memorize some of the most basic geographical information about the world we live in. You'll get a blank outline map of the world's land masses and a list of the 26 countries that we are studying this semester.
- one point for locating the country correctly on the map
- one point for roughly drawing the general outline of the country, giving at least a sense of its magnitude in relation to its surroundings; in other words, get its size roughly correct if but not its exact shape
- one point for naming the country's capital and spelling it correctly
- one point for locating the capital more or less accurately within the country
The second test will be a take-home test about your country's profile, the information that you put on the wiki home page.
| wiki | 10 items for a timeline, 1 point |
12 | February 10 for profile February 17 for timelines |
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To help understand the geo-political and historical context of your country's arts, you will make three bullet-point lists. The country profile will have the same format at everyone else's so that the data will be comparable. The two timelines depend on the country you are researching, but they are basically lists of years and the people and events that occured then.
a profile, that is, the basic geo-political and demographic information about your country, including its place on various lists
a timeline, that is, a chronological listing of the most important political and cultural (non-arts) events and periods in the history of your country
a timeline of the most important arts events and periods in the history of your country
While the lists will be on your individual country's profile pages, we will consolidate much of the geo-political and demographic information into one table. It will display on the wiki home page and I will make a sortable Excel file out of it that we can examine it in class in mid-February.
note: on February 15, I halved the number of entries required for these two timelines.
| wiki | 10 entries, annotation, 7 points 15 entries, developed annotation, 8 points 20 entries, well-developed annotation, 9 points 20 entries, insightful, interesting annotation, 10 points |
10 | February 22, March 15, April 19 |
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To help understand the often unfamiliar objects and processes assoicated with the arts around the world, you will make an alphabetized list of art-related terms relevant if not unique to your country. With only two dozen items, you will not be exhaustive.
You might want to choose terms that relate to your other reports. For example, when during your research you run into terms that you had to look up, make them part of your glossary.
The insightful, interesting part will come in your comments. Insightful and interesting means answering the questions like the ones in the box down this page a little on the right.
format:
term, image or other media, definition (what), when, who, your comment, links to more info
Dutch Golden Age genre painting
The Dutch ruled the world of commerce, education, and visual arts in the 1600's, their Golden Age. They had a society that was noted for its lack of interest in religion, its tolerance, and its (relative) empowering of women. The religiously themed paintings that were produced in other European countries were replaced by genre paintings in the Netherlands. Genre paintings depict scenes from everyday life, usually with anonymous subjects, such as this happy couple on the right. The Dutch could also deal with women painters, the most prominent of whom was Judith Leyster (1609 - 1660), who painted the happy couple as well as the self-portrait on the left. On the other hand, she did all of her famous paintings in the six years before she started bearing her five children, only two of whom lived to adulthood. She died at age 50.
| wiki | 5 (was 20) items, annotation, 2 points 8 (was 30) items, developed annotation, 3 points 8 (was 30) items, well-developed annotation, 4 points 10 (was 40) items, insightful, interesting annotation, 5 points |
15 | March 1, 24, April 14 |
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Note: in mid-March, I reduced these numbers to 5, 8, and 10 items instead of 20, 30, and 40.
On the wiki, you are steward of all the information about your country, spread over several pages. You should have a wiki page for each of the reports/presentations that you will make. The report will include all of the examples you will use during your presentation (see annotated items below), as well as many others. If your presentation intrigues some of your classmates to learn more, they will be able to come to your wiki page to launch their own exploration.
The purpose of these reports is exposing us to the culture of your country. A minor part of this assignment is choosing the several dozen items from the many times more than that you will run into during your research. The major part of this assignment is your annotation, which will contextualize each item. With so few items required, you will not be able to cover everything. A purpose or theme, perhaps relating to other assignments (essay, analysis of an art work, etc.), will help you decide what to include in your report.
Insightful and interesting means answering the questions like the ones in the box on the right.
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annotated items
format:
image(s) or other media, name of work, creator (person or org), medium/genre, date, your interesting description, your insightful comment, links to more info
Antonia's Line
The Dutch produce two or three dozen feature films per year that are listed in the INDB. Seven times, Dutch films have been nominated for Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Three have won, including Antonia's Line in 1996, written and directed by Marleen Gorris and starring Willeke van Ammelrooy. See the trailer on YouTube and the poster for the German version on left.
Often described as a "feminist fairy tale", Antonia's Line tells of a strong-minded, nonconforming Dutch woman and her daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. All the men in the film are either evil or in various ways mentally, emotionally, and physically deficient.
Movie critics everywhere gave Antonia's Line very rough treatment for its lack of realism and objectivity. Ms. Gorris, to them, had some feminist messages to send and she seems to have sent them too bluntly for these critics. Personally, I found the movie beautiful and entertaining and the performance by Ms. van Ammelrooy compelling. The view of Dutch life and character was illuminating, even though the film is set in the one tiny part of southeastern Netherlands that has some hills; the rest of the country is flat and largely below sea level.
Literature from any genre (fiction, poetry, etc.) and visual art (painting, photography, architecture, sculpture, etc.) They can be classics or contemporary.
Music videos, with or without dancing, from your country. Look for music concerts and dance clubs.
Trailers/clips from movies and segments from online video, preferably produced and set in your country. They don't have to be in English.
| in class | done with introductions, 1 point done, with introductions and some contextualizing, 2 points done, with introductions and insightful, interesting contextualizing, 3 points |
9 |
March 1-22, March 24-April 12, April 14-28 |
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The purpose is not a display of your presentation skills. The purpose is exposing us to the culture of your country. Ninety-five percent of your task is choosing what we're going to see and hear. Five percent will come during your fifteen minutes in front of the class, when you will use the art report (see above) on your wiki page to briefly introduce and contextualize each of your choices.
Insightful and interesting means answering the questions like the ones in the box above right.
Most of our class time in March and April will be spent on these presentations. We will write reflective pieces based on what you have us experience.
Alternately read first paragraphs from books and show a piece of art from a museum or gallery while we listen to instrumental music characteristic of your country. Do at least three books (in English or English translation) and three pieces of art during your fifteen minutes. They can be classics or contemporary.
For example, Jake could show four two-minute segments of these two videos, Pre-Columbian Art Museum in Cuzco, Peru and pre-columbian museum. Between segments, he could read the first page of three books that he learned about on Wikipedia's Peruvian Literature page.
Other examples of what you can read. Perhaps some of you have heard of the famous ancient Indian sex manual called the Kama Sutra. Tina could read some passages to us. In other words, you can read from ancient or classical literature as well as from contemporary literature.
Have you heard of the I Ching? Perhaps Tiffany could read a little bit from it.
And I'll bet none of you knows a word of Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, which just happens to be the Polish national anthem. Maybe Kathryn can enlighten us by reading the English and then playing a video of the Polish version.
TomM could go to the Wikipedia page on Turkish literature and learn that Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literaure a couple of years ago. Pamuk is Turkey's best-selling author and the first Turk to ever win a Nobel Prize for anything. What's all the fuss about? So Tom could read us the first two paragraphs of the first chapter (titled "I am a corpse") of Pamuk's My Name Is Red, which he will find at Amazon.com. "I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well."
The web site Words without Borders has a terrific selection of new, often experimental literature from around the world.
Show one or more music videos, with or without dancing, from your country. Look for music concerts and dance clubs.
Mbalax from Senegal
Reggae from Jamaica
What is the difference between the various Latin American beats, for example, salsa, merengue, bachata, tango, cha cha, samba?
Show one or more trailers/clips from movies and segments from online video, preferably produced and set in your country. They don't have to be in English.
| forum |
done, 1 point done with some insight and flair, 2 points done with great insight and flair, 3 points |
9 |
March 24, April 14, May 3 |
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A relective or reaction piece is not an essay in the sense of having a thesis, supporting data, and explanations. A reflective piece is 300 words about what you noticed and reacted to while you watched and listened to the presentations. What did you like or not like? What was the most interesting / compelling / odd / hard to listen to parts? How was it similar to what you already know? What did it make you feel / think? Why do you think it's popular in that country?
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Spelling and grammar are important, of course, but a reflective piece can be structured any way you want. Insight means you saw below the surface and the obvious and that you made connections to other things we have been talking about and experiencing in this course. Flair means that you wrote with an engaging, vivid voice. Don't write a stiff, formal thing for school. Instead, talk to us, one human to another. Write it like a chatty email to a friend who couldn't attend.
I expect them to be as varied as the individuals who wrote them. When I read them, here's the scenario I imagine. You and I are part of a semester abroad program in your country, you the student and me the faculty advisor. We go out with some people who were born and raised in that country. We go somewhere where we experience the art of their country -- a museum or performance or gallery or club or just on the street.
Then we all go to a café for whatever the local brew may be. I took the photo on the right one sunny February afternoon in 2008 in Leiden, Netherlands. Someone turns to you and asks, "What did you think about" whatever we just saw?
The reflective piece is what you would say to them, natives of that country, what you were thinking about when experiencing the art. So my question is whether your reflective pieces, in the words of our official course objectives, show that you can "communicate with reflection, sensitivity, and intelligence about the arts in non-U.S. cultures because of your increased awareness of cultural diversity." Sensitivity and intelligence are the key words.
We will have three rounds of presentations, and you will write one reflective piece for each round: literature and visual arts, music and dance, movies and video. You are welcome to take notes during the in-class presentations, but you should write these reflective pieces very soon after class. The due dates for posting them on the wiki are the first class day after the end of that round of presentations.
The points above are for each of the three, totalling 9 points.
| wiki | artwork, critical perspective, and outline approved by February 17, 1 point finished (500 word min), 7 points finished and developed (750 word min), 8 points finished, developed and insightful (750 word min), 9 points |
10 | March 3 |
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Pick an art form practiced in your country and a specific example of that art form. Analyze the art work, that is, describe it and break down the formal and thematic elements from one of the critical perspectives discussed in class at the beginning of February. You should get your artwork, critical perspective, and outline (list of relevant formal and thematic elements) approved by me before you go too far researching it.
This is a factual report and not an essay in support of a thesis statement. However, this analysis should use complete sentences and paragraphs rather than bullet-point lists. Lots of pictures, of course, and lots of links to your sources and to additional information are very important.
To get started, you may want to explore the art history of your culture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.
| wiki | subject approved by March 3, 1 point |
10 | March 29 |
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A report, not an essay, describing and analyzing a musical instrument originating in your country or region. You should get your instrument approved by me before you go too far researching it. I am especially partial to ancient musical instruments that are still used today.
Depending on the instrument, the analysis may include but is not limited to technical details, specifications, materials, methods of use, processes of construction, procedures, pictures, audio files of its pronounciation and music files of its sounds, videos, history, significance, and musicians and composers associated with the instrument. Also depending on the instrument, the minimal/adequate quantity of information will vary. Some of you will find too much and spend most of your time reviewing and selecting. Others will find too little and spend most of your time looking.
Since this is a report, bullet-point lists and picture captions will go a long way. Lots of links to your sources and to additional information are very important. Roughly speaking, it should be twice as extensive as any one of the art reports above. In other words, give us a lot of detail about that instrument. Check with me if you are unsure.
Here's an example of the kind of report I'm talking about: Mbira
If you can find one of these instruments to bring to class, that would be terrific!
| wiki | interesting, useful thesis, 5 points finished (750 word min), 8 points finished and developed (1000 word min), 9 points finished, developed, and insightful (1000 word min), 10 points |
15 | March 24 thesis, April 21 finished, May 3 revised |
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This assignment asks you to research and write an essay, that is, a thesis statement supported by evidence and explained in an engaging voice. It should have an introduction and conclusion. Spelling and conventional punctuation and grammar count, as does an MLA-formatted Works Cited section. I encourage you to use images and videos that you refer to in your text.
For this essay, I would like you to grapple with some messy ideas that don't have easy answers. In the arts of all the cultures we are studying, we see forces driving change and forces restraining it.
| PHATES | Forces | |
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| driving --> | <-- restraining | |
| Political | less powerful people | more powerful people |
| Historical | modernism; globalization | tradition |
| Artistic | ? your country ? | ? your country ? |
| Technological | electronic; internet | analog |
| Economic | poor | rich |
| Social | young; out | old; in |
Thesis: Somewhere in that nexus of ideas -- applied to the country you have researched, the countries you have been exposed to by other students' presentations, and our own culture -- you need to find a thesis. The thesis statement, perhaps more than a single sentence, should characterize the arts in other countries. Because most of your research was in your country, I would expect that most of your essay would focus on your country, too. However, you should feel free to include anything that you learned or were exposed to in this course.
Audience for your essay: fellow students who are going to study abroad in your country for the next school year. Or perhaps they want to study abroad but aren't sure which country to choose. They have already read everything on your wiki pages, so they are better prepared to experience and enjoy the arts in that country. Finally, they are going to read your essay.
I am not expecting you to be an expert in your country or in the arts. But I do think it's safe to say that you know a lot more than you did when you started this course and you thus know a lot more than the students who are interested in studying abroad. Give those fellow students the benefit of your learning this semester.
Purpose of the essay: to help them adapt to their foreign culture more quickly and intelligently. After reading your essay, they will be able to impress natives of that country with how deeply they have thought about the arts in that society as well as other non-U.S. societies. You will not be able to cover all the arts in all the countries throughout all of history, so explain the focus of your essay in the introduction.
Remember that this is not a stand-alone essay. You do not need to repeat sections from other writing on this wiki. You are welcome to link to pages about other students' countries as well as your own. You should refer to these other sections and link to them, but assume that the readers have already read them and can click to quickly learn more. The purpose of your essay is to help them make sense of what they have read, seen, and heard on the wiki in preparation for their own year abroad.
Examples of what you can do to make this an essay, not a report. Explain things to your audience, evaluate things for them, tell them the story of the culture, make connections to other arts and other cultures, relate it to U.S. culture.
Organizing principle: How will you organize the body of the essay?
One way would be classifying things according to the arts: a section on music, a section on movies, a section on dance, etc.
Another way would be to compare and contrast: compare your culture to other cultures, although I would avoid comparing it to the "home team", the United States. The terms of comparison might be the arts or the PHATES. Or you could compare the traditional arts to what has happened under the influence of modernism.
Another way would be cause-and-effect. What's important? What caused it? What did it lead to? That is, what did it cause. (Just become a first thing comes before a second thing does not mean the the first thing caused the second thing. If you're writing about causes and effects, stick to causes and effects.)
Another way would be a process analysis. Trace the development of something over time.
Beyond specifying the audience and purpose, I want to give you room to develop your ideas and experiences into a thesis statement. By March 24, I would like to see your thesis statement.
| in class | 0 absences, add 2 points to final grade |
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After the first couple weeks of lectures, almost all the rest of the class time in HUM 300 will be spent listening to music and watching videos from foreign cultures. We are tightly scheduled, so you can't make up a missed presentation (though you are welcome to trade with someone from another day). Also, watching the videos on your own is important and encouraged but can only supplement, not replace, the communal classroom experience. Thus attendance is very important.
Beginning with your fourth absence, for whatever reason, I will start to deduct points from your final grade.
What I mean by "intensive, concentrated experiences" is a mental focus and as few distractions as possible. Thus: no cell phones, no texting, and no talking to your neighbor while other students are presenting and we are watching and listening. When we are discussing things, it will be very clear, and your participation is encouraged. But when we're listening and watching, we all need to listen and watch with purpose, not be distracted.
| wiki | 1 or 2 late, no change 3 or more late, subtract one point from final grade for each late assignment and one more for each late week |
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I can predict from experience that many of you are highly skilled procrastinators, so you'll be happy to know that this course is a procrastinator's delight. There are more than a dozen deadlines, that many occasions for you to procrastinate. However, doing an assignment at the last minute before it is due is very different from doing it late. In this course, you can revise all your written work, so there is even less reason not to post whatever you have on the wiki when it is due.
In addition, everything on the wiki is time-stamped, and every page has its history available with a click, so lateness is a factual matter of matching dates, not a matter of opinion.
Beginning with your third missed deadline, I will deduct one point from your final course grade. I will deduct another point for each week it continues to be late.
Did I emphasize that enough? Let me try again. Careful and effective students are, at times, very self-conscious. I highly recommend that starting now you write about your work in some form of journal or file. After you have done everything else for the course, answer three questions:
You must email this self-assessment to me. It's your way of telling me that you have finished the course. When I have the self-assessment, I will turn in your course grade based on everything you did before that date.
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