Object Paper

The purpose of this assignment is for me to get a baseline writing sample early in the quarter so we know what skills we want to concentrate on (because I'd like this quickly, we won't be workshopping a rough draft was we will the rest of the papers). We might get to know each other a bit, and you'll get a sense of the approach we're taking in this course: to try to understand what's going on in our culture by looking at the artifacts we produce and consume. It's also an introduction to the high-performance creative prewriting strategies we'll try out, in this case Tagmemic questions.

The products we buy have a function, but designers and often purchasers pay a great deal of attention to the message the product conveys in and of itself (often assisted by the packaging and advertisements).  Objects have always been important in signaling who we are, and who we aspire to be.  Many First Peoples have variants on the Vision Quest , in which young people go into the wild alone in order to discover their guiding spirit (often an animal).  Carvings and images of that animal would cement the relationship.  One option for a topic for this paper is for you to look at your possessions to find an object that symbolizes a "tribe" you are a member or aspire to be (skater, game designer, environmentalist, see course website for examples ; note that many of these have been revised/researched, and responded to somewhat different prompts, but still may be useful ).  It's especially fun if you correct some misconceptions about your tribe. Another option is to pick an object that represents some aspect of popular culture that interests, baffles or alarms you.

Prewriting:

You always have the option to use your own choice of prewriting techniques (in place of or in addition to the more advanced/specialized techniques, many of these general ones are described in the C1 section of A Writer's Reference ). However, the more common prewriting techniques are more about collecting (and sometimes organizing) what you already know, rather than getting you to think more creatively about a subject from multiple points of view. The semiotic questions we'll use in the next papers also have the advantage of helping to answer our basic question: what does this thing mean?

It's important to note that a prewrite is not a draft. Sometimes (and this varies based on the technique) you can selectively incorporate details you've generated in the prewrite into the draft. But mostly what we're going for from the Tagmemic questions is an approach, "angle" or questions. For example, I was intrigued by your ideas about the differences between a jukebox and an iPod. We think of mobility, having so many objects that we don't have to share them, and complete control as desirable, but in some respects have we lost something when we only have jukeboxes in fake 50's diners? Or when it's weird to walk into a room without an iPod? Also personally interesting to me was our brainstorming about what the iPod might evolve into, and what that might mean socially.

In the paper, describe the object enough so we can get a sense of it. If you've figured out what point you want to make, you might concentrate on the descriptive details that are most relevant. For example, if you wanted to explore the idea that that the iPod's dominance of the mp3 market is not based purely on how it functions, you'd want to describe the details that contribute to its visual appeal. You might also want to describe how they are displayed and accessorized.

Shoot for four pages (three pages is basically five paragraphs, even if you don't use that basic format, and doesn't give me much of a sense about development or organizational skills). If you have questions or suggestions, please let me know.