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ART 425 Artist in Context               

 

Intention Statement Assignment

 

What is an Intention Statement?

 

Address the Global through the Local

Unlike a more broadly based artist statement (which we will try a bit later), an intention statement specifically addresses a single work or group of works. Not unlike your analysis writings, it can address content by commenting on how specific elements within the work and how they give rise to meaning (effect/cause). That doesnÕt mean that you should not also attempt a broader characterization of overarching issues informing the work. But I would recommend that you try to articulate those broader issues by beginning with a careful consideration of specifics.

 

Intention Includes Analysis

To write effectively about a workÕs meaning necessitates we understand something about the nature of that meaning. What is intention and where does it come from? Is it simply a set of explanations justifying our choices or is it something larger, something that defines the goals and purpose of a work. How do we come to understand the aim of our work? Do we know it from the beginning-- a goal we set and then follow? Or is it something we come to understand by responding to the work after we produce it, live with it, and question it? Understanding a workÕs intention isnÕt as easy as knowing your own mind you also need to study, analyze, and learn from the artwork youÕve created (know its mind?).

 

What might an intention statement include?

- A characterization of the issues, ideas, goals, or expressive meaning that the work raises.

- Comments on specific qualities within the work and how they contribute to its expressive qualities.

- Remarks as to how a work is made including creative approach and or technical process (and how that relates back to its expressive effect)

- A recounting of sources and motivations

- Supplying important information or comparisons (art and or non-art)

- Remarks about the relationship between audience and artwork

 

Voice and Audience

Remember, the way you choose to discuss your work can, in many ways, embody the personality of the work. Is the work essentially narrative? Then maybe you want to tell its story. Does the work rely on visual metaphors? If so maybe using analogies and metaphors are good ways a way to make your point.

This writing should be engaging and clarifying more than obscuring. That doesnÕt mean that you need to dryly explain or, at the other extreme, entertain. Art writings that are intellectually convoluted and use big words are written for a limited, overeducated (and often unhappy) audience. On the other hand, it is difficult to engage in meaningful, limited discussions about art without making a certain amount of specialized references. For our current purposes IÕd recommend you consider your own direct community as your readers.

 

Content Development Phase:

See below for detailed instructions, submit step 1B and 2 in a single word doc titled yourlastname_intentcontent.doc

 

Step 1. Initial Observation

A. Cause and effect observations notes

B.  Nutshell main theme(s)

Step 2. Discovery Draft

 

 

 

Step 1. Observe and Respond (on paper!)

 

Use visual analysis to understand the relationship between your workÕs content and its form.

No, you probably donÕt already understand your own artwork! You need to ask questions, respond and analyze, organize and reorganized your observations until you begin to detect bigger themes and patterns that lie behind the concrete and direct elements (sound familiar? Just like our visual analysis activities). There are many levels of meaning in any work of art. Helping your audience understand some of the larger themes and issues at play (those things that often lie implicit, beneath the surface) is what artist statements are for. So the question remains, How do you get in touch with these larger themes and implications?

 

A. Create a double column list of observed effects and their causes and then begin to reorganize those observations by

1. Finding common themes by exploring the relationships between things (connections and parallels but also contrasts!)

2. Seeing things in terms of each other (bring one thing to bear upon another)

3. Going beyond generalizations by forcing yourself to make important distinctions.

4. Broadening the scope of your observations by considering implications.

 

B. Conclude this exploration by nutshelling the most important theme/ implications your analysis notes reveal. Is writing a thesis relevant for an intention statement? Maybe not in an academic argumentation way, but ultimately isnÕt it a thesis that completes the phrase ÒThis work is aboutÉ So consider your nutshell a type of thesis where your ÔevidenceÕ is a combination of explaining to your readers how your work achieves the expressive content that it does (visual analysis), and supplying background information on motivation, sources, process etc.

 

 

 

Step 2. Write a Discovery Draft (no less than 5 pages)

 

A discovery draft is an excellent way to get a lot of what is in your head out on paper. It is similar to free writing in that you can write quickly without worrying about structure or even syntax (but always use full sentences). A discovery draft is Òlike free writing with an agendaÓ 1. Approach writing your discovery draft as if you are writing to a friend, try to get as much on paper as you can.  In this letter you should:

-    Explain what the work is about on a specific level but also in terms of its broader implications

-    Explain how the work specifically communicates/manifests its content naming examples (cause/effect)

-    Define the terms/ideas that are central to understanding the workÕs content

-    Talk about what motivated you to create it, what sources you used.

-    Explain how it does or does not relate to your larger concerns/interests

-    Name the things that you think a viewer has to know about to better understand its content and references.

-    Talk about the type of experience you are trying to create for your audience, who is your audience? Why will they care?

-    How might you get readers interested in reading about this work of art?



Structure Development Phase:

See below for detailed instructions, submit step 1 and 2 in a single word doc titled yourlastname_intentstruc.doc

 

Step 1. Outline

Step 2. Assess your Outline

Step 3. Redraft your outline

 

 

Step 1. Write a full sentence outline w/ opening paragraph

 

This step is just like your visual analysis writing prep. Your discovery draft should be too much for what will ultimately be a four-page statement. So one primary goal in proposing a structure is narrowing your discussion to those things that get to the heart of the work by still grounded in example.  Each paragraph entry all in full sentences)

should include:

 

á        A summary of the purpose the PP serves in the essay

á        A full topic sentence that would lead off the PP

á        A list of component ideas (written as full sentences) that would need to be included in the PP to substantiate and or illustrate the point that the PP is making including specific examples.

 

This outline should also go one step further and include:

á        A fully written opening paragraph with your thesis in italicized text.

 

As always, a good first test for the coherence of your argument is to cut and paste together your thesis all your topics sentences to form a paragraph. If this paragraph makes sense you are off to a good start.

 

 

 

Step 2. Assess your outline

 

Write an assessment of your outline using the assessment prompts listed below. The goal of this assessment is to improve both the base content of your argument and its organization.  It is very hard to self-assess your own ideas. (in your mind they always make perfect sense). The prompts bellow are not meant to be just answered yes or no. The question is what could be better and how. Avoid being overly general (Òneeds moreÓ isnÕt enough say how) name no less than 8 specific changes you will make. Redraft your outline making improvements based on this assessment.

 

I also serious recommend rereading the two Dartmouth writing web pagesÉ

On structure: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/write.shtml

And on thesis development: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/develop.shtml

 

 

 

Step 3. Redraft Your outline

 

 

 

 

Assessment Prompts

 

Thesis Assessment:

  • Does your ÒthesisÓ directly address a primary condition of this artwork? How could it be rewritten to better align with your intentions?
  • Is your thesis complete in that includes both your proposition and provide your reader with some sense of the structure of your essay?
  • Is your focus too general or too specific? How might it be better focused? How might it be broadened?
  • Is it written in a way that is both clear and engaging? What keeps it from being engaging?

 

Argument (Thesis Support) Assessment: Are the points you make to support your thesis as represented by each paragraph topic well selectedÉ

  • Do they address a diversity of elements in the work (subject matter, material, rendering style, formal properties, title, context, attitude etc)                                                   
  • Do they address the most relevant elements? Are you missing obvious things or do you include things that are not as important?
  • Is your argument well grounded in examples? Do they make the point you need them to make? In other words, is the purpose of an example clear?
  • Are there gaps in your thinking? Is there a coherent cause and effect relationship between your thesis and supporting elements?  Do you assume things that are left unsaid?

 

Consider Your Paragraphs

  • Does each paragraph have a topic sentence that clearly controls the paragraph?
  • Are your descriptions/examples simply factual or are they written in a way that supports the point you want to make?
  • Are the paragraphs internally coherent?
  • Are the paragraphs externally coherent? (That is, have you made adequate transitions from paragraph to paragraph? Is each paragraph clearly related to the thesis?)

 

Consider Your Opening Paragraph:

  • Does it introduce your audience to the work
  • Does your introduction draw your reader in?

Does it lay the groundwork for your thesis by defining key terms as you intend to make use of them in your argument, introducing foundational ideas or assumptions etc.

 

Consider your Conclusion

  • Is your conclusion appropriate, or does it introduce some completely new idea?
  • Does your conclusion sum up your main point?
  • Does your conclusion leave your reader with something to think about?
  • Does the language resonate, or does it fall flat? On the other hand, have you inflated the language ridiculously to try to pad a conclusion that is empty and ineffective?

 

Consider the Clarity of your Writing:

  • Are your ideas written in a clear and understandable manner? Which need improvement?
  • Do your descriptive passages just describe or are they written in such a way that they anticipate and advance your thesis?
  • Are you choosing language and vocabulary that says what you mean to say? Is your language consistent? Have you defined your terms?
  • Are you writing your ideas in such a way as to engage your audience? Does your writing seem dry and technical or does it communicate the expressive character of the work? 

 

Consider your writing style and grammar:

  • Is each sentenceÕs relationship to the paragraphÕs topic evident? How can it be improved?
  • Are ideas repeated? Can sentences be combined simply by adding a clause or word?
  • Are sentences clear?  Is the main actor and action of a sentence clear and contained in the sentenceÕs main clause?
  • Is language vivid and concrete? Are sentences passive or active?
  • Are sentences concise? Are there unnecessary phrases?  Multiple adjectives and verbs? How can things be said more directly?

 

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