Object

The first paper asks you to find an object of sufficient complexity to write about. This complexity could reside in the object itself or the richness of meaning it has in the world. One way to find out if the object is complex, or if your knowledge about it is, is to try out two prewriting or heuristic techniques, Tagmemic analysis and semiotic analysis. These sets of questions will allow you to look at the object in different ways and to ask interesting questions about it. See the How to Be Brilliant handout for these questions (here's an example of me trying tagmemic questions on a Pepsi can and one based on a videogame ).

Another technique we'll use extensively later is semiotic questions, but you might want to use it now in helping to pick an interesting object.  Semiotics is about thinking about things as if they are signs, that is words or symbols. If someone you didn't know walked into your room, what could they tell about you by the objects you've collected? You can "read" a room or clothes, just as you can read a book, if you know the code. Semiotics is the investigation of these codes, that is the underlying system that gives an object meaning. So look around at what you own. Is there one object that really stands out, that's telling? If so that might be a good candidate to write on. You don't have to write on an object you own, but you should have access to it and an understanding of it, or at least a curiosity that can lead to an understanding.

Be careful: stay away from objects that have a sentimental meaning to you alone: yes it's a symbol of your love, and you'll cherish it forever, but it's a pine cone for crying out loud. Also beware of functional reasons people might have for owning something; they're almost always rationales/covers for our choices. Yeah, you're wearing that cap because of a bad hair day, but that doesn't explain why it's black, why it has that emblem and not Cyrus's Irrigation Supply on it, and why it's on backwards, eh?

Try hard for four pages; anything less and you don't get to use all that interesting detail you generated in the prewrite, and you'll probably only tell us what we already know. What we're trying to get to is the social significance, which often involves the history of the object and its relation to power, as you can see by nearly all the readings in Signs of Life. Try to use a quote or concept from the readings in your paper.

In the past people have written interesting papers on Irish dancing, aliens, Doc Martins, shoes worn by people into Gothic/vampyre style, clove cigarettes, Bic lighters, Coke bottles, fake aquariums. I'm waiting for the definitive work on the Pez dispenser.