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Lloyd Sealy Library
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
OER Open Educational Resources

ART 101: Faculty Resources: Unit 8 Assignments

Unit 8 Assignments

8.1

Artists of Hispanic descent, especially those in the Chicano Art Movement, often create images inspired by the pre-Columbian art of ancient Mesoamerica. Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicano_art_movement for more information (or https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cfb4/e9d79dccbe80be8003cb894d3f5ac0c35787.pdf for a deeper discussion). Then, find an example of modern or contemporary art inspired by ancient Mesoamerica by searching online - or you can probably spot an example on a mural wall in Brooklyn, hanging in your favorite Mexican restaurant, or even as a tattoo or t-shirt worn by a friend.

Next, please click “create blog entry,” enter a descriptive title for your new blog post that includes the title of your chosen work, and then type a post of at least 150 words. Your post must:

  1. Include an image of the artwork you found;
  2. Identify what Mesoamerican model it is inspired by, or your best guess; and
  3. Describe why you think the artist and/or owner or user of the art is interested in emphasizing their connection to ancient Mesoamerica.

To attach an image to your blog entry, first make sure that the image is saved to your computer. Then, when writing the blog, click the “Browse My Computer” under “2. Blog Entry Files” and follow the instructions. To find images of artworks in the textbook, use Google Image Search (https://images.google.com/) and type in the caption of the image from the textbook.

To comment on a classmate’s blog entry, click “comment” underneath that entry.

This is a graded assignment. See the associated rubric for grading details (click “View Rubric” in the Blog Grade section to display the rubric).

 

8.2

Read this article, “Africanizing Wikipedia,” written by Alexandra Thom for the Brooklyn Museum’s website: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/2013/07/02/africanizing-wikipedia/. Next, explore some of Wikipedia’s pages on African art. A good place to start is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_art - then keep clicking on links. You should also search for various objects and terms from the African art sections of your textbook to check if Wikipedia has entries for them.

 Next, please click “create blog entry,” enter a descriptive title for your new blog post, and then type a post of at least 150 words. Your post must:

  1. Summarize Thom’s argument: what does she think is wrong with Wikipedia’s treatment of African art?
  2. Discuss, with links, the Wikipedia posts you visited. What sort of information did they give? Is Thom’s criticism justified?; and,
  3. Answer the question of which page would you revise the most - or create, if Wikipedia has no page on a topic at all. Include links to the top three images you would include on the new page and list the top three things most important things to communicate to readers about this topic.

To comment on a classmate’s blog entry, click “comment” underneath that entry.

This is a graded assignment. See the associated rubric for grading details (click “View Rubric” in the Blog Grade section to display the rubric).