Description
The Museum Project Part 1: Curating
For the museum project, you will create a presentation that demonstrates the historical development of an idea through two different humanities disciplines. For part 1, do the following:
- Choose an idea.
- Choose a specific historical period.
- Identify the Humanities disciplines you’ll use to inform you perspective (See Unit 1)
- Write a thesis.
- Curate images.
- Create an outline.
The historical period you choose should be specific and rather short (you cannot choose “the history of humans” or “history since the year 100 CE”). And the humanities disciplines must both directly address the idea. (We were introduced to humanities disciplines in Unit 1). For example, if you were to choose “the divine right of kings,” you might compare the political writings of people like Algernon Sidney and John Locke and the religious writings of people like John Knox and John Milton. Or you might explore the divine right of kings through the artwork of the late 1600s and early 1700s. Other ideas might include political individualism, controversies over divine texts, evolution in philosophy and religion, the nature of “truth” in historical accounts, the rhetoric of nationalism, and how history is portrayed as linear or cyclical, the relationship or evolution of modernism and postmodernism. Or any other idea that you’ve seen emerge from this class. You’ll be “reading” the artwork for its significance, meaning, and importance for your presentation’s thesis. Much like you practiced in this unit’s discussion, the images you select don’t simply illustrate, they must have meaning. A painting of John Locke with his biography is wrong. An explanation of the painting of John Locke — or a painting from his era — and how the image illustrates or suggests ideas evident from his writings is right.
Once you have your thesis, construct a rough outline of the content you would like to include. You must have at least three main points to support your thesis and each of those main points needs to have at least two sub-points/details. (That’s a total of six-eight images). Then visit at least three virtual museums. Curate materials that support your project from both of the humanities disciplines you will be using. Download .jpg images of the images or provide a direct link to the image. (No less than two images/texts for each section of the outline. No more than four.) Remember that the images need to do more than simply illustrate historical people or ideas. You need to “read” the images, in order to explain what they mean and how you know what they mean. Then, the meaning you assign the image needs to support the thesis of your project.
Important to note: You are not writing a history report; you’re creating an argument and supporting it.
The Museum Project Part 2: Creating the Project
Remember that you are required to do research for this assignment and should include at least three researched sources other than the images or course materials.