Florida Institute of Technology-Melbourne Final Project Proposal – Description
OVERVIEW
This is an outline of the technical points and steps for your Proposal, for the full instructions see the Final Project Phase 1 page.
PART I: SELECTING AN ARTWORK
Which artworks can I pick? The artwork you research for your project has to intersect some aspect of the “American experience,” but what does that mean? While you have a lot of latitude to pick an artwork that interests you personally, there are some basic constraints and guidelines regarding which artworks are acceptable choices:
The artwork you choose should connect to some part of America’s rich history. This project is your chance to explore one aspect of the country’s rich cultural and historical diversity through art. So the artwork should be connected to an issue relevant to the American past or present: a particular American identity, a social or cultural issue, or a particular perspective or viewpoint.
You should not pick an artwork from some other historical context (Europe, for example) that deals with broad human issues that can be connected to the United States through analogy. For example: Picasso’s Guernica is a scathing portrait of war, and there have been wars in the United States. However, you may NOT use Guernica as an artwork to addresses an aspect of the American Experience. There are many amazing artworks that are impossible to understand outside of the context of the American experience; pick one of those.
The artwork you choose can NOT be included in this (PDF 1) that feature in this class’s lectures, but it can be any OTHER relevant artwork from your textbook.
The artwork must be made by a prominent artist, be of museum quality (either in a museum or very well-known) and written about in plenty of scholarly sources. This means that you should NOT pick an artist whose work you can only learn about through social media or an artwork without existing scholarly research.
How to pick an artwork? Picking an artwork that you would like to learn more about is the best way to get started on the right track for this project. However, you might not be sure where to start to look for artworks related to America’s past, present and future. If you aren’t sure where to start, you can do the following:
You may want to pick more than one in case your research leads to a dead end, you cannot find enough sources, or find it does not suit the project as well I you first thought.
Pick a historical moment or issue from America’s past. You can start with a moment in American history and search for artworks that were part of it. Are you interested in Dine’ (Navajo) culture, in the Great Depression, or in the civil rights movement, for example? A quick search combining those terms with the word “art” will get you started down a good path.
Explore museums, collections, and online resources. I have compiled a long list of amazing resources below. Explore and look at their online collections until something catches your eye!
note: check (PDF 2) for artworks from the book you can NOT select)
https://www.nga.gov/learn/teachers/lessons-activit…
https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/
https://crystalbridges.emuseum.com/collections.
https://whitney.org/collection/works?q%5Bhas_image…
https://americanindian.si.edu
https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/…
https://www.elmuseo.org/permanent-collection/
National Gallery of Art, “Uncovering America” This is an excellent collection of American art broken down by categories of theme, time period, and artists’ background https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/uncovering-america.html
Smithsonian American Art Museum https://americanart.si.edu/art
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery https://npg.si.edu/online-exhibitions
Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/visual-art-and-american-experience
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/collections/search
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions
The Getty Museum https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/Art by Asian Americans in Smithsonian Collections https://americanart.si.edu/art/highlights/asian-american
Seattle Art Museum (contains some exhibitions by Asian American Artists) https://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibitions
Museum of Latin American Art (contains exhibitions on US Latin American Art) https://molaa.org/
National Gallery of Art, “Immigration and Displacement” https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/uncovering-america/immigration-displacement.html.
How to secure a high-res image? You will need to secure a high-res image for your presentation (and so that you can really see all the details as you analyze the image). I suggest the following approaches:
Visit the website of the museum or collection that owns the museum, and check whether they allow for image downloads for educational purposes. Many do, and that is the best source for reliable, high quality images.
Artstor is the world’s largest database for images and artworks. The https://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/az.php has a subscription, and you can log-in and search for images within that database. (Note: If you are off-campus, you need to https://uflib.ufl.edu to use some library resources.)
You can search on https://artsandculture.google.com Their collection of digitized images is growly daily, and its easy to use.
Lastly, you can use a https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en and refine the search terms to include only high-quality images and those that are allowed for non-commercial re-use.
PART II: RESEARCHING AN ARTWORK
ONCE YOU HAVE SETTLED ON AN ARTWORK TO STUDY, YOU CAN BEGIN YOUR RESEARCH IN EARNEST. BELOW, I HAVE INCLUDED A BASIC STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO HOW TO PROCEED IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHERE TO START.
Look at a few of these bibliography starters. Your bibliography must include at least one of these. They are of scholarly quality (written by respected scholars in their field, professional, and peer-reviewed). You can glean general information on the time period and style of art. Your artist may have a section in the book, or even your particular artwork. Read the whole section to gain context and get a sense of what makes your artist unique. (Download PDF 3)
For other sourcesCreate a list of search terms. By creating a list of terms that you want to search, you can improve the thoroughness of your investigation. Write these down and keep refining them as you proceed. The list should include:
the name of artist
the title of the artwork (include all alternate titles)
the names of any historical figures represented in the artwork
key terms associated with its social and historical context.
Do general web searches. Let’s be honest, you are likely going to start with broad inquiries using some very familiar search engines and websites. These days, everything starts with Google it would seem. That is fine, as long as you use these broad searches carefully and as a launching pad for subsequent scholarly research. So try these steps:
When you do a search in Google, carefully review the results to try to sort out the most scholarly resources. You should look for museum websites, for example. Also look for information at Smarthistory, the Kahn Academy, and the https://www.metmuseum.org/toah Set aside blogs and other personal websites.
Can you find the website of the museum or collection that owns the artwork? These sites are often a great source for basic information.
Check to see if the artist or artwork has a Wikipedia page, and consult the references section at the bottom of the entry for insights into the scholarly sources that the authors of that page used to inform their writing. Wikipedia might be a good place to get background information, but it is NOT an appropriate scholarly source for your final project and bibliography. Use it only as a springboard.
Wikipedia, Smarthistory, Kahn Academy, and museum web pages do not count as scholarly sources will NOT count as scholarly sources for your bibliography, but will give you a general place to start and see if it is an artwork or artist you are interested in.
Consult scholarly sources. After exploring the basics for a bit, you MUST turn to more scholarly sources. Here are some suggestions for resources:
Start with the library’s OneSearch function (you can find it on the https://uflib.ufl.edu to find resources within the library’s collection. You can refine your search to limit the materials in helpful ways (to include, for example, only online texts).
There are many databases that you have access to through the UF Library. These databases are key to taking the next step in your research. The University of Florida has a special library dedicated to Art and Art History (located in Fine Arts Building A) and they have created a https://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/Art-ArtHistory that helps you know which databases are relevant and what to use them for. This is a great place to get oriented and to put your search terms to work!
On the research guide, I want to highlight, in particular, Oxford Online as a wonderful source that can replicate–but with more scholarly rigor–the type of encyclopedic entry that we are now accustomed to finding at Wikipedia.
You may not have finished gathering all the sources you need for the final by the proposal, which will require 3-5 scholarly sources. You also may not have read through all your sources by the proposal. This is totally fine and expected. This part is to make sure you are on the right path.
You may start your search by using things such as museum websites, Khan Academy, etc., but these do not count as scholarly sources. Scholarly sources means they are written by expert scholars in the field and reviewed by their peers. These sources can be found in the UF library.
Unless it is a very famous work of art, there might not be a book or article solely about that piece. Start by looking at some general books about that period and artist; it may contain a section on your piece, but it also will give you a better idea of the artist’s general work and how they are similar and different to other artists of their time. See below for bibliography ideas.
The bibliography can be in any scholarly format: MLA, Chicago, etc.
For example, see some of the bibliography starters below. These are only suggestions and examples.
Have questions about how to carry out research? The librarians at the library are there to help! Try the chat function on the homepage; it’s quick and easy and always helps.
Part III: Create your slide show
Create an outline for your proposal. Explain why you chose this artwork and why you think it relates to the American experience. Organize your information from your preliminary research. Reflect a critical approach to thinking about its history and message. Your proposal needs to between 1:30-2:00 minutes. Make a slideshow with one slide for the image and one for a bibliography. Your first slide should be the image and a complete caption. Use the following format: Artist’s Full Name, Title (italicized), date. Media, dimensions, and location (the current museum collection and city the artwork is in). Try to use a slide design that does not distract from the image.The second slide should list a bibliography of at least three [3] scholarly sources including one [1] from the list of Bibliography Starters that you can use for your research. Make sure the font you use for your bibliography can be seen clearly in your presentation.
PART IV: RECORD FOR THOSE PARTS YOU DO NOT NEED TO RECORD A VIDEO. I WILL DO IT BUT LET ME KNOW WHAT SHOULD I SAY.
Record a brief presentation using your slideshow (1:30-2 minutes of presentation) of why you chose this artwork. Your explanation should make clear how this artwork reflects an aspect of the American experience and reflect a critical approach to thinking about its history and message.
Summary of the assignment
For your final project, you will pick a single artwork that reflects an aspect of the American experience and carry out basic art historical research into that artwork. Toward the end of this course, you will create a video presentation on your artwork, wherein you will analyze the artwork’s formal qualities and explain its connection to the American experience. For this proposal assignment, however, you will simply be identifying an artwork that you would like to learn more about and explaining why you have selected it as the focal point for your research. And to practice making and submitting a video presentation, you will be recording your proposal as a video.There are no limitations for where you find your artwork, as long as it is of museum quality and has enough scholarly sources written about it.
INSTRUCTIONS
For this assignment, you will need to complete the following tasks:
Pick an artwork connected to the idea of the American Experience that you want to research.
That artwork must be integral to the American Experience.
It muse be of museum quality and sufficiently written about in scholarly sources (see instructions below).
It must NOT be on the list of artworks covered in class( PDF 4). 2. Make a slideshow with one slide for the image. Your first slide should be the image and a complete caption. Please show the image in high quality and large enough to see clearly in the video. Use the following format: Artist’s Full Name, Title (italicized), date. Media, dimensions, and location (the current museum collection and city the artwork is in).
3. The second slide should list a bibliography of at least three [3] scholarly sources that you can use for your research.
Your bibliography page must be formatted in MLA or other standard style, and the font large enough to read on the video.
Please show the slide in the video long enough for your TA to see it.
It must include at least one [1] from the list of (PDF 5 ). 4. Record a brief presentation using your slideshow (1:30-2 minutes of presentation) of why you chose this artwork. Your explanation should make clear how this artwork reflects an aspect of the American experience and reflect a critical approach to thinking about its history and message. (See below for technical instructions)
5. Speaker video: You should enable speaker video and locate the image of yourself in one corner. ( I will do this part but please mention it on the word)
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