You are the Patron
VALUE: 20% of your class grade (please make sure you read over the TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS below).
Premise: For the paper, you will take on the role of a wealthy patron, able to hire any of the artists and architects from the entire period of the course (Renaissance through Modern). You will contract for what is often called a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) incorporating at least three different mediums/techniques (e.g. architecture, painting, sculpture, metalwork, landscape architecture). You should indicate WHICH artists/architects you intend to hire, WHY you have chosen each one, and WHAT each one should do for your design. Your paper should also indicate WHO you are, WHAT your motivation is, WHO would see this work, and WHAT you want their reaction to be (what the complex tells them about you). Feel free to even write contracts with each artist/architect based on the contracts we’ll study in this class (you don’t have to write contracts, but some students have had a lot of fun doing exactly that!). This is a work of fantasy, so you can come up with a completely false persona for yourself and freely combine different periods and styles. You must produce at least one drawing or diagram of your design (I don’t grade on drawing quality—this is just so I can better understand the design), and describe it in a 3-5 page paper. The point of this assignment is for you to demonstrate how well you understand the major concepts of the course by synthesizing them in your paper.
Some questions to ask yourself when you work on your design:
- Who am I? (Including your gender, your social, political and/or religious status, your age–if appropriate, your level of wealth, your profession)
- Which artists/architects am I hiring, and why? (What about the work of each artist/architect prompted you to choose him/her, and what are you asking each one to do for the overall design?)
- What do I want to communicate about myself with this monument?
- What is my intended audience?
- How will my audience interact with my monument?
- Where is it located?
- How is location significant?
Technical Requirements: Your paper will be 4-5 pages long, with double-spacing, 10-12 point font, and 1-1.25” margins. (Please don’t use creative formatting to make your paper look longer—we’ve been doing this a long time and we’ve seen all those tricks before). In order for it to be considered 3 pages, you must fill at least 75% of the third page. The first page must start at the upper margin, rather than having multiple lines skipped before you begin. Your title will be on a separate title page, rather than on page 1. You must include a sketch or diagram (we’re not grading on artistic ability, but we must be able to understand what you are talking about). Your sketch or diagram will be on a separate page from your written description, and will not count in your required page count. Feel free to include multiple drawings—anything that can help us to better understand your monument will probably help your final grade. They don’t need to be in color, and can simply be scans or digital photos of your own drawings. You will refer to at least 3 artists (some can be unknown artists, for anonymous works) that we have discussed in this class (use your ARTstor monument lists).
Grading: Projects will be assigned a letter grade based upon the quality of your project, the effort that you have put forth, and how well you have described your monument and justified your decisions. Next, a number will be generated from that letter grade, based upon where your work falls within the range of that letter grade. So an A+ can be a 98-100, an A between a 93 and a 97, and so on. Any deductions for technical issues will be subtracted from that number grade to give you your final score. As you can see above, the penalties for not following technical requirements can be very costly!
Penalties for not adhering to technical requrements: For each ½ page missing from the minimum requirement, your grade will be dropped 10%. If your margins are too large (over 1.25”), your grade will be dropped 5%. If your font is too large, your grade will be dropped 5%. Missing sketch will result in a 20% deduction, since it is crucial to have the sketch. Likewise, if you have fewer than 3 works of art that you refer to, the penalty will be 20% for each missing work.
Citations and Plagiarism: Since this is a creative project, you should not feel the “need” to plagiarize. Describe your monument and the works that you have based it upon in your own words! If you feel that someone else’s description of a work of art or architecture is crucial to your paper, you must give them credit with a proper citation (make a footnote in MLA or Chicago/Turabian format). Failure to properly cite the work of others will result in either a greatly reduced (at least 20% deduction) or failing grade, depending on the seriousness of the infraction.
MLA citation examples: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm
Chicago citation examples: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Turabian citation examples: http://www.libs.uga.edu/ref/turabian.html