Aesthetics @ AIP: Journal Guidelines

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Journal Guidelines

Below are the journal assignments. The due dates for the following questions appear on the class syllabus. Be sure to read this page in full before doing your first journal entry. Take note of the citation requirement and the grading rubric at the bottom of the page.

Journal Questions:

• Journal 1: Plato claims that art is imitation, a direct, inferior copy of reality that cannot reveal absolute truth. Do you agree? Why or why not? (Use Plato and Picasso)

• Journal 2: Are there any great women artists in your field? If so, name one and discuss what you like about her work. Is the artist's work related to his/her gender? If you believe that gender does influence creativity, state how the process works and why gender has such an influence. (Use Nochlin's critique to formulate your counterargument that there are great women artists.)

• Journal 3: Does photography qualify as art? If so, what makes a photograph into a "work of art?" Discuss some criteria that might help us distinguish between amateur, commercial and artistic styles of photography. (Use either Benjamin or Cohen's article as a starting point for your discussion.)

• Journal 4: Choose one

  • Is the Allegory of the Cave appropriate for describing the realities of modern society? Do most people choose to stay in the cave? If so, why? Where do artists fit into the scheme of possible roles in, or outside, the cave? OR

  • How does Baudrillard's description of the hyperreal and hypermarket help us to deal with virtual realities and virtual communications in the information age? Give specific examples of how simulations are used to represent complex environments or describe how the hypermarket [the mall, either online or bricks & mortar] changes the ways in which we move through our communities. 

• Journal 5:Describe Carroll's erotetic process for story delivery be detailing how it was used in at least one movie. Was the process effective for keeping your attention riveted to the story? Describe an effective use of at least one of the three techniques: scaling, bracketing or indexing.

• Journal 6: Two Choices - choose one 1)  According to Langer, how does architecture create an "ethnic domain"? What are the significant features of an ethnic domain? Describe a few places [other than the examples discussed during lecture and in the article] that would qualify as ethnic domains by highlighting features that make the space uniquely designed for its intended use. OR
  
  2) IDEO Video - The two videos of product design company IDEO illustrate the company's design process in detail. Find an everyday product that could use a redesign and articulate the following:
  A) the faults or weaknesses of the current design,
  B) the core adueince for which you would be designing,
  C) the new features/ideas you would incorporate into your redesign and why they are necessary. Use the processes ideas you saw in the video to help you think about the above challenge. You should cite the video if you use information paraphrased from either show.

Journal Formatting Requirements:

Throughout the class we will be considering theoretical and applied approaches to aesthetics. To help you incorporate your study of aesthetics into your experience at AIP, we’ll be doing journals covering issues raised by weekly readings. You do not have to do all five journals.  You must turn in at least 2 quality journal entries on their due date to receive a passing journal grade. 

One of the requirements for receiving a good grade is a willingness to explore your ideas. Take some time and think about what you are going to write before you begin writing. I am not interested in your personal opinions concerning the journal question. Rather you should evaluate your “intuitive” response and rationally integrate it with material from the appropriate unit.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of doing journal entries is twofold:

1. It helps you to integrate theoretical material into your everyday understanding of aesthetics. In so doing, you become better acquainted with your own artistic disposition and those of others with whom you must interact (e.g., other students, co-workers, instructors, parents, siblings, etc).

2. Writing builds language skills and language skills are a critical piece of your education. Studies on job placement and career advancement consistently show that the best communicator is the most likely candidate for lucrative positions/contracts; the best communicator may not necessarily be the best skilled applicant for the position. In short, this means that if you are good at what you do, but not a good communicator, you will be excluded from many opportunities. Individuals who cannot write and speak well are often  perceived as functionally illiterate.

FORMAT: 

1. FORMAT: All journals must be typed and uploaded on the due date (see our syllabus schedule) @ http://www.turnitin.com/static/index.html. You can upload Word or PDF documents. No handwritten work will be accepted. Your log in information is as follows: class ID: 2335524 enrollment password: fallcolors08

2. Minimum length for a journal entry to receive a passing grade (D or better) is 2 pages doubled-spaced with 1-inch margins. Font sizes should be 12 point or less. Please use easily readable text fonts. Please note: Just turning in a minimum length paper does not guarantee a passing grade. If you want to earn an A or B your paper should be at least 3 pages but no more than 5 pages.

3. Your name, class, section, journal assignment, and date should appear on one line at the top line of the page.

4. WHEN ARE ENTRIES DUE? Journals are due at the beginning of class on Wednesday of weeks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7. and 8. The time of your submissions will be catalogued by Turnitin.com’s site.

5. HOW MANY JOURNAL ENTRIES MUST YOU DO? You must turn in two journal entries on time and receive a passing grade on them (70% or better) to earn a passing grade for the journal portion of the course. You have six opportunities to get journal entries in on time so no excuse will be accepted for late entries.

6. Late journal assignments: No late journal entries will be accepted. If you know that you will not be in class, upload your entry early on/before the day it is due. Journal assignments not turned in will receive zero credit and negatively affect your final grade.

7. Extra Credit Journal Entries: You may not do journal entries for extra credit in this course.

8. Grammar, punctuation and usage count. You are responsible for proofreading your entries before you turn in them in. Journals that contain multiple mechanical writing errors (3 or more) will not receive a passing grade.

9. The quality of your journal entries matters. When grading your entries, I must be able to see that you have read the assignment in your critique and that your entry is relevant to the reading. You should cite the theorist you are discussing and use textual examples from the reading or lecture to support your claims. Please see the attached journal grading rubric for guidelines on grading criteria.

10. Plagiarism notice: If you quote/paraphrase the author’s ideas, or my lecture, you should include the source’s name in parenthesis after the sentence where the material appears.

11. All journal entries will be checked for plagiarism using TurnItIn.com’s web site. If your entry consists of material largely copied from web sites, (i.e., more than 25%) it will receive a failing grade.

12. In order to avoid plagiarism, make sure you are using small (i.e., 1 or 2 sentence quotes). Do not copy entire paragraphs as quotes; summarize them in your own words and cite the source parenthetically immediately after the sentences that summarize the material and be sure to list the source in your bibliography.

13. Instructions for doing citations appear on the journal guidelines page (on the class web site). Journals without proper citations will receive a failing grade.

14. Students who copy or turn in work from:

    1. another’s student’s entry (present or past quarters), or

    2. information bought/copied from the Internet

will receive a failing grade for the course and face disciplinary policies outlined under plagiarism in the AIP student handbook.

15. In addition to having proper citations within the text of your entry, all journal entries must contain a bibliography (i.e., works cited page) that lists all sources (including the class text) that were used within the entry. Formats for bibliography entries for our class notes, internet resources and text appear on the journal page of our class web site. You must tailor the examples to fit your particular needs. Journals that do not include complete bibliographies, or include incorrectly formatted bibliographies, will not receive a passing grade. If you are having trouble generating the proper format for your bibliography visit www.easybib.com for help with MLA formatted bibliographies.

16. If you receive a failing grade on a journal entry for any reason, there will be no opportunity to make it up or do extra credit.

 Note on the difference between Guide Questions and Journal Entries:

There is a sharp difference between the guide questions and journal entry assignments. Guide questions are designed to help you navigate and understand the challenging readings we cover each week. If you do not read and do guide questions, you will not understand the lectures or perform well on exams. In addition, your participation grade will be affected when perform unannounced notebook checks.

Journal questions are designed to help you apply the concepts learned from each week’s lecture.  They represent mastery level learning of the subject matter in that they ask you to develop your own view and to provide examples to support your argument.

Entries that do not meet the above requirements will not receive a grade and will be returned. For those students who do not have home computers or adequate word processing programs, AIP labs are equipped with Internet access and Microsoft Office.  

Citing Sources:

You are responsible for citing sources in you journal each time you either summarize or quote the ideas of another author. The author's name, not editor's, is used in all citations below. Here are three examples taken from our course:

Example #1 Citing an Internet web site or source found on the Internet:

• Summarizing or quoting uses the same format; the author's name, not the web address should appear. Every web page has an author/organization that created it. If you can't find the author, use the organization's name: Picasso finds that research can be tiresome if one does not leave room for improvisation.(Smith)

Example #2 Citing works from our class text, Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy

• Summarizing: Benjamin argues that the mechanical reproduction of artwork, especially mass productions, devalues the original work of art. (Benjamin, 85-86)
• Quoting: Benjamin argues that, "The situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated."(Benjamin, 86)

Example #3 Citing works from our class lectures.

• Summarizing: Plato is worried that citizens will not be able to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Hence, his divided line analogy places imagery at the bottom of the levels of understanding because it is a rudimentary mode of portraying reality, not at all subject to the dictates of the real which he prizes for its capacity to foster understanding.(Bowser)

Doing a bibliography:

Every research paper should include a bibliography page; some instructors call this a "Works Cited" page, but the content is the same. Note that a bibliography is quite different from a citation and both should appear in your paper. If you are having trouble generating the proper format for your bibliography visit www.easybib.com for help with MLA formatted bibliographies.

Here are three of the most common bibliographical entries you will use in our course.

Example #1 Internet web site or source found on the Internet:

• Russell, Bertrand. Philosophy for Laymen. Downloaded from http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2528/br_ph4laymen.htm on 9/4/01.
• Other web sites such as news sites or sites put up by individuals should include the web site author's name [usually found at the bottom of the web page] and/or the organization that sponsors the site. The title of the web page functions like the title of a text or article from a journal and should appear after the author's name.
• Remember to include the web address [http://www.something.com] and download date at the end of the entry.

Example #2 Bibliography for our class text, Aesthetics: A Reader In Philosophy of the Arts

• Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts, 2nd Ed. Goldblatt and Brown, Eds. New Jersey: Pearson, Prentice Hall, p. 72-76. 
• You should use this model for all readings in our text and readings located in a compilation  text with multiple authors and/or editors.

Example #3 Bibliography for class lectures

• Bowser, Diane. Lecture on Plato's Cave. The Art Institute of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA). Given on December 20, 2006.

Grading Rubric:

The table below summarize my method for evaluating your journals. When you read the table, it should be easy for you to see the criteria necessary for receiving various letter grades.

home | guide questions | journal guidelines | syllabus | contact dr. bowser

Journal Info:

Here's a list of recent readings covered in class :

Journal Questions | Journal Formatting Requirements | How to include citations | Doing a bibliography | Journal Grading Rubric | AIP Writer's Center |