HUM117 the arts
the senses &
the imagination
The basic assignment: go to an art museum and write a description of your experience.
Your choices: Legion of Honor, SF MoMA, Cantor
Center at Stanford University, the Asian
Art Museum or the de Young
Museum (follow links for location,
hours of operation and ticket information).
(Other choices are possible, such as in Berkeley or San Jose. Contact me for approval.)
Basic guidelines for your paper: start with a general description of your museum experience. Consider the museum as a whole. How does the architecture prepare you and guide you for looking at art? Notice the building itself. How is scale used? Is there interesting texture to the building? What is the lighting like? How does the museum itself that or detract from the experience of viewing art? Next, select three works of art and describe them. How do they intensify the experience of vision? Use the concepts of design presented in class and in the vision assignment, but feel free to go beyond that and add your personal interpretive reactions. Finally, conclude with a summary of your personal reaction to the overall visit. The final paper should be about 4-5 pages, double spaced. That works out to about a page about the museum, one page per work of art, and a page of summary.
The above is the BASIC guideline. You may choose to do a creative approach, such as taking three works of art and creating a story that connects all three. Your story would be like a building structure that houses the works of art. In any case, make sure your writing conveys some of the experience of looking at the works of art, even if it is a struggle to capture in words we see.
A+ = vivid writing that is emotionally engaging.
A = clear writing that conveys a good mix of detail and overview.
B = adequate writing that lacks detail or is missing an overall perspective.
C = generally adequate writing but incorrect or confusing use of terms
D = incomplete work; poor writing
F = does not meet standards for college work, but much better than zero points for the assignment
DC Meckler
Feb 2008
the arts the senses & the imagination