AMST 205

Project One

PAPER PLATE ANALYSIS

Due February 27, 1997



This is an exercise in "reading" an object. You are to use the three objects pictured here and analyze them using Fleming's model as a curator might for a museum collection.

Mount your project on your project1.html page. Your project should include the images of the three objects in appropriate places as well as images of the labels that you use as resource material.


Object #1

             
              

Object #2

             
              

Object #3


PART I - Five Step Classification Process


This basic identification is all most museums tell you about the objects they exhibit. They provide this information in small "identification labels." This exercise will help you expand your awareness of what you can see when you look.

Choose ONE of the three objects above and provide the following information about it:

a) History: Where and when it was made, by whom, for whom, and why; and any successive changes in ownership, condition, or function.

b) Material: What material/s is the object made from?

c) Construction: What are the techniques of manufacture employed? Is there any evidence about workmanship?

d) Design: What is the structure, form, style, ornament, and iconography involved in this object?

e) Function: What is the intended role(s) of this object in the culture it was made for?

PART II. Description


Now look carefully at the object. Consider its' form and decoration. It will help to try to draw it yourself in order to be able to describe it. Pretend that you are telling someone about the object in a letter or over the telephone. That person cannot see the object and is not familiar with it.

Describe it in your own words. Tell about the size and shape of the object and the pattern on the surface. How well can you convey the appearance of an object through words?

Test yourself and your description. Without looking at the image, read what you have written and try to draw the form and ornament precisely as you have described them. Have you said enough about the shape? Have you stated how the parts relate to each other or where the ornament is positioned?

Please note that while here you are asked to describe a single object so completely that you could then draw it, most descriptions are not as complete. They usually say only enough to satisfy the immediate purpose. Many descriptions use technical terminology that serves as a shorthand system for those well acquainted with the vocabulary of the decorative arts.

PART III. Comparing Similar Objects


Use Fleming's five step classification process to write a BRIEF description label for the other two objects. Which two objects are most like each other? What features establish their similarity?

Assess the way you look and learn most effectively. Some people quickly absorb and master new information by reading or looking. Others need to draw or to manipulate what they have seen or read into their own oral or written forms. In one or two sentances, briefly analyze which process, drawing or description, helped you most to see the objects.

PART IV. Fleming's Four Operations


Now turn to Fleming's four operations to answer some of the important questions we can ask about an object. Choose any ONE of the three objects for this part of the exercise.

A. Identification
Based on your identification label, how would you classify this object? Is it authentic? What is it?

B. Evaluation
How good an example is it of its' kind? How would you rate its aesthetic quality and workmanship?

C. Cultural Analysis
And now you are ready to explore the cultural context of the object. Because all three objects are contemporary, you can analyze them in terms of your own experience. For this exercise, you do not have to do historical research to become knowledgeable about a past culture to explain the way people used them or how they thought about the objects. Even so, some questions may be helpful in your thinking about cultural context.

Consider your object. Who might use it? What might they do with it? In what situations? What kind of human relationships does the object suggest? What is the significance of the relationships? And therefore, what does the object tell us about us and our culture?

Consider the object as a vehicle of communication - what does it say in terms of status, values, feelings, meanings?

Consider the object as a vehicle of delight - what does it say in terms of form and decoration?

In museums this kind of analysis is often included in so-called "content labels" rather than in the "identification labels" you constructed in Part I.

D. Interpretation
An artifact is not subject to just one `correct' interpretation. This will vary by audience and by the person interpreting it. What is your opinion of the object? "I like it because it reminds me of my brother" or "I don't like the color orange" or "I don't like eating off of paper plates because ...."

Each section of this exercise has introduced an important skill or concept that we will explore further throughout the semester. Later, you will be asked to choose an artifact from the Greenbelt Museum collection and you will write both a content label and an identification label for it.