Well, I completely forgot about this thing. Which is probably why I've never kept one of these things. Basically, I use the internet to check my e-mail and that's about as much as I do online.
I'm actually really interested in this ethnography assignment. Ever since I took a couple of socialogy classes, the study of different groups and cultures has interested me. Having just spent 5 days in Chicago at the Southern Graphics Council Printmaking Conference, I've decided to do mine on printmakers.
Just watching all these artists interact with each other and what types of activities they engage in was so interesting. Printmaking has its own language, while most of it is technical terms, there are things I can only talk to other printmakers about. While printmakers belong in the larger category of artists, printmaking is a world unto itself.
There were so many things I observed that the bulk of my research time will just be organizing everything!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Full Text HTML
Lacayo, Richard. "What Women Have Done to Art." Time 169.14 (02 Apr. 2007): 66-67. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Baron-Forness Library,
I'm pretty sure this was what I was supposed to do...Oh well, we'll see!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Evaluating Sources
I've checked out some sources on my potential research topics and found a few interesting books in the library.
Baker, Elizabeth C., and Thomas B. Hess, eds. "Art and Sexual Politics; Women's Liberation, Women Artists, and Art History". New York: Macmillan, 1973.
It's a book I found at the library. It consists chiefly of revised essays which originally appeared in Art news, v. 69, no. 9, Jan. 1971. Art News is a publication that is more general interest but borders on scholarly as its a go-to reference for many artists as well as my art professors-its a highly reputable publication.
Since its a collection of essays, each has its own bibliographical information. There's a lot of information to cover within but there are quite a few essays that seem like they would be credible and useful.
Baker, Elizabeth C., and Thomas B. Hess, eds. "Art and Sexual Politics; Women's Liberation, Women Artists, and Art History". New York: Macmillan, 1973.
It's a book I found at the library. It consists chiefly of revised essays which originally appeared in Art news, v. 69, no. 9, Jan. 1971. Art News is a publication that is more general interest but borders on scholarly as its a go-to reference for many artists as well as my art professors-its a highly reputable publication.
Since its a collection of essays, each has its own bibliographical information. There's a lot of information to cover within but there are quite a few essays that seem like they would be credible and useful.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Research Topics
So, I went back through the initial lists that we made for class and just chose three possible topic ideas.
The first one is from my personal interests and I touched on it in my last blog.
Popular Culture
America's obsession with celebrities, what's the deal? I would want to approach this idea from a sociological view point. Perhaps start off by researching the origin of the celebrity and what exactly that means. A quick glance at history would show that it started off as a class difference, 'peasants' and lower class individuals gossiping about nobles and the upper class of society. Celebrities are just the modern day version of nobility. People find celebrities interesting because they have what we don't, their day to day lives are different from ours and therefore interesting. The problem with this topic is credible sources. I think it would be difficult to find scholarly articles on this topic. It'd make for an interest opinion paper but not so much for a research paper.
The second topic idea is from my academic interests.
Art & Feminism
How has contemporary art influenced feminine culture in the last 50 years? Now, 50 years is just a jumping off point because it takes awhile for artist to have an impact on the public. Off the top of my head I can already think of a few artists that have a focused body of work on feminism and the female role in the art world as well as the general population. The Guerilla Girls were a group of women artists that took to the streets with hundreds of posters that addressed the disparity between male and female artists in the art world. I'd want to start my research with them and see where it went from there. There are a few artists working now that focus on women and their roles in society today. Lauren Greenfield is at the top of my list-a photography and documentary film-maker that looks at female culture in a constantly changing world. I think this topic has a lot of potential and is something that I would like to learn more about.
The last and third idea comes from my Things that Bug Me list...
Overpopulation
What are the problems stemming from overpopulation and what is being done to address it? In many of my classes, spanning multiple disciplines, the problems of overpopulation have been discussed. As the world population continues to grow the threat of starvation, disease, overcrowding of cities, and loss of nonrenewable resources becomes increasingly real. Since we live in a first world country, these things are not as out in the open as a third world country. Yet, this is a problem that everyone must work together to solve. I want to look at what kind of problems countries are facing because of overpopulation and what measures are being taken to fix it. I've briefly read some studies that were done in India in small villages-it was determined that if women were allowed to receive an education up to a 4th grade equivalent then the Total Fertility Rate would stabilize. I believe that this topic has the most potential for research and it is something I would like to know more about.
After some preliminary research on all three topics, I'll figure out which one will work the best.
The first one is from my personal interests and I touched on it in my last blog.
Popular Culture
America's obsession with celebrities, what's the deal? I would want to approach this idea from a sociological view point. Perhaps start off by researching the origin of the celebrity and what exactly that means. A quick glance at history would show that it started off as a class difference, 'peasants' and lower class individuals gossiping about nobles and the upper class of society. Celebrities are just the modern day version of nobility. People find celebrities interesting because they have what we don't, their day to day lives are different from ours and therefore interesting. The problem with this topic is credible sources. I think it would be difficult to find scholarly articles on this topic. It'd make for an interest opinion paper but not so much for a research paper.
The second topic idea is from my academic interests.
Art & Feminism
How has contemporary art influenced feminine culture in the last 50 years? Now, 50 years is just a jumping off point because it takes awhile for artist to have an impact on the public. Off the top of my head I can already think of a few artists that have a focused body of work on feminism and the female role in the art world as well as the general population. The Guerilla Girls were a group of women artists that took to the streets with hundreds of posters that addressed the disparity between male and female artists in the art world. I'd want to start my research with them and see where it went from there. There are a few artists working now that focus on women and their roles in society today. Lauren Greenfield is at the top of my list-a photography and documentary film-maker that looks at female culture in a constantly changing world. I think this topic has a lot of potential and is something that I would like to learn more about.
The last and third idea comes from my Things that Bug Me list...
Overpopulation
What are the problems stemming from overpopulation and what is being done to address it? In many of my classes, spanning multiple disciplines, the problems of overpopulation have been discussed. As the world population continues to grow the threat of starvation, disease, overcrowding of cities, and loss of nonrenewable resources becomes increasingly real. Since we live in a first world country, these things are not as out in the open as a third world country. Yet, this is a problem that everyone must work together to solve. I want to look at what kind of problems countries are facing because of overpopulation and what measures are being taken to fix it. I've briefly read some studies that were done in India in small villages-it was determined that if women were allowed to receive an education up to a 4th grade equivalent then the Total Fertility Rate would stabilize. I believe that this topic has the most potential for research and it is something I would like to know more about.
After some preliminary research on all three topics, I'll figure out which one will work the best.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Starting a Research Paper
When you're given the option of writing a research paper on anything you want, it can be hard to narrow down the options. Do you take the opportunity to learn something new? Do you cover a topic you already know a lot about but would like to know more? Or take advantage and work on a paper you can use in another class?
I think I'll go with option 2 and delve further into what I already know-the public is creepily obsessed with celebrities.
There's evidence of this all over the place-magazines devoted to celebrities, gossip shows on TV, the E! network, and of course, the ever popular celeb-reality shows. You poll a room full of people and I'm betting more of them will know the names of Brangelina's kids than the names of the Supreme Court Justices.
So here's my research question-Why is the American public so obsessed with the personal lives of celebrities? There's many different ways to go: the psychology behind this almost voyeuristic behavior, the history of the 'celebrity', the growing intrusiveness of the press, and how all this invasion of privacy affects these people.
I think I'll go with option 2 and delve further into what I already know-the public is creepily obsessed with celebrities.
There's evidence of this all over the place-magazines devoted to celebrities, gossip shows on TV, the E! network, and of course, the ever popular celeb-reality shows. You poll a room full of people and I'm betting more of them will know the names of Brangelina's kids than the names of the Supreme Court Justices.
So here's my research question-Why is the American public so obsessed with the personal lives of celebrities? There's many different ways to go: the psychology behind this almost voyeuristic behavior, the history of the 'celebrity', the growing intrusiveness of the press, and how all this invasion of privacy affects these people.
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