Thursday, 29 January 2015

Critical Perspectives seminar 3: 29/1/15



Themes! → Skateboarding = Subcultures

Show evidence of research (citations) → Nod at the people you've hung out witth
Your bibliography is EVERYTHING you've read for the essay!

Jay Z's left nipple is a cultural text

Think about WHY you picked quotes
Saying things out loud can make you think

Key words [for the essay]: DETAILED, CRITICAL + ANALYSIS
What is it about the text? How it's drawn? How it represents people?
Think about what you do when you meet somebody new: ASK QUESTIONS
Focus on something manageable (standing on a pinpoint)

A good question is one you have a hope of answering
A bad question is “what was the artist THINKING?”

We [the university] celebrate subjectivity – mix your opinion in with everybody else's → Subjectivity is not verbal diarrhoea
Critical = EARNING your opinion

Stage 1: research your cultural text (1st round of research: factual stuff) → Don't present FACTS like they're something new – we're interested in what you put together
Stage 2: primary research: see the text in situ
  • At least live with it
  • Look at it until you're bored with it!
  • Understand how your text lives in the world
Stage 3: reflection – decide WHAT you want to analyse critically; review past lectures
Stage 4: more research – find out how and why that WHAT is significant
  • Signification = A SIGN
  • What's your thing signifying?
  • Your reading at this stage may not explicitly mention the topic, just the ideas
Stage 5: WRITING, editing, more research and more WRITING → [Rachel Miles calls this] The Tumble Dryer
  • Allow time to draft, edit and rewrite
  • Not PERFECT – just the best essay you can write

POSTER = collecting ideas together → Both words + images
  • A presentation of your preliminary work
  • An account of the rationale behind your choice (“because I like it” is not a rationale!)
  • An illustration
  • 4-6 keywords
  • Details of how you will be analysing it and with whose ideas
  • Layout and design should reflect the content of the text → What's appropriate?
  • Make it readable from 1-2 feet away

Decide on your text FOR SURE by next week!!!
What [text] will YOU get the most out of?

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