** Assignment **

Your assignment is to contribute to a history and understanding of suburbia by reporting the results of your analysis of an artifact or set of artifacts that form a part of the material context of suburbia. You may choose artifacts that belong to a past decade of suburbia-- like Populuxe artifacts, for example, or artifacts from present-day suburbia. You may select something small, like a barbie doll; symbolic, like a backyard BBQ; big, like a Ford Taurus wagon; or complex, like a suburban yard or home. You may also select an ensemble of artifacts, like a set of lawn ornaments, or the contents of a suburban garage or family room. Whatever you choose, you will need to be able to observe the artifact "up close and personal."

1. Take a few moments to think about the kinds of objects and landscapes that typify suburbia. Decide upon an artifact(s) that seems to you to best capture an important part of suburban experience.

2. Study and analyze the artifact(s) you have chosen. You may use Thomas Hine's Populuxe as a model for studying artifacts. I will also teach you E. McClung Flemings's "Model of Artifact Study" to help you systematically study your "things". You will need to do some additional library or primary research to discover fully what your artifacts convey about suburbia--its people, its values, its lifestyle, its meanings.

3. Develop a virtual exhibition mounted on the World Wide Web in which you describe the artifact(s) and summarize your analysis of it. Be sure to state your conclusions. What knowledge does the artifact, as a piece of historical evidence, provide us about suburban life and the suburbanites who created or consumed it (Fleming calls this cultural analysis)? What is your own point of view about this particular artifact(s) (Fleming calls your personal response interpretation)?

4. Using the html that you learn in class, please mount your report on a page named project.html and link it to your honr259j homepage. The exhibition should form the equivalent of about a 4-6 page paper, but you need not present it in a linear fashion. Feel free to make use of hypertext capability--just remember that your project needs to communicate a coherent body of knowledge about suburbia derived from your analysis of artifacts.

5. The final version of this assignment is due on Thursday, October 7th, but you must have a rough draft of your exhibition mounted on the web by the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 5th.

** Additional Tips **

6. Your exhibition should include images of your artifact. You will learn how to link to and/or download images that you have found elsewhere on the web. If there is sufficient demand, Arthur will be willing to hold a scanning workshop outside of class.

7. Be aware that you're writing history or, in some cases, cultural criticism. Try to be as careful and accurate a historian as you can so that the exhibition that you create will convey an insightful understanding of American suburbia.

8. Pay attention to the quality of your writing and your formatting. Make sure that they do justice to the quality of your analysis and your ideas. Remember that Pico has spellcheck (^T).

9. If you need assistance with html, be sure to make appointments with Mary or Arthur for extra instruction and some one-on-one help. Don't wait until the last minute!

** Criteria for Evaluation **

1. Demonstration that you understand how to analyze an artifact(s).

2. Quality of your research and analysis of suburban artifacts. Your project should demonstrate that you have performed some library research and incorporated insights from the class readings into your analysis.

3. Quality of your argument; are your conclusions substantive and do they follow logically from your analysis?

4. Quality of your writing; do you express your ideas clearly and in an organized manner? Is your writing technically correct (correct grammar, syntax, spelling, etc.)?

5. Quality of your html formatting; is your report well presented, clear, easy and interesting to browse?