Discuss how the artifact reflects the culture (or context) in which it exists.

Project 1 will assess the following course outcomes, which you focus on throughout
Modules One through Four:

 Develop questions about fundamental aspects of human culture that inform personal assumptions, beliefs, and values using evidence from cultural
artifacts and systems
 Determine fundamental approaches to studying the humanities in addressing questions about how cultural artifacts and the culture they are created in
have influenced each other
Prompt
Choose an artifact from the world around you that you could encounter any day.
Use the provided artifact chart to think deeply about the artifact and its
representation of
human creative expression. Your responses should be recorded in the Artifact Chart
document, linked in Module Six of your course.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Describe the artifact in detail. For instance, how would you describe
it to someone who could not see it?

II. Choose elements of the artifact that you believe are most important to how you
experience it and explain why. For instance, what particularly
catches
your senses or makes you want to keep experiencing it? Does the choice of
medium
impact your experience?

III. State your opinion on what you believe is the purpose of this artifact and the success of the creator in achieving the purpose. For instance, what
message do you believe the
creator is trying to express, and is that message successfully expressed?

IV. Discuss how the artifact reflects the culture (or context) in which it exists. Be sure to
address what aspects of culture have relevance for this artifact:
politics, history, religion,
social perceptions, technology, media, education, and so on. In other words, how do the
artifact and its culture interrelate? For
instance, how would a particular form of body
modification
reflect the urban culture in which you encountered it?

V. Use the artifact to discuss how acts of creative expression impact and are impacted by
the people and situations that surround it. How might the artifact
and the person who
created it have impacted each other? For instance, how might the geographic location
where the artifact was made, the materials
used to create the artifact, the medium of the
creative process, or the environment where the artifact is displayed influence the creator’s
life or future
creative work? How might the artifact and the culture or context in which it
was created have impacted each other? For instance, does the artifact add
to the
understanding of the culture from which it was created? What contributions does it make
to continuing on a dialogue about that culture and the
importance of its artifacts?
VI. Pose questions you have after thinking deeply about this artifact. What more do you
want to know regarding:
a. The relationship between human culture and expression?
b. Your personal assumptions about artifacts of this sort and why they exist?
c. How your values have shaped and are shaped by your expression and that of others?
d. The relationship between the possible intent of the creator and your own interpretation of its meaning?
VII. Speculate on how you would go about answering these questions. For instance, what sorts of things would you study about these kinds of artifacts and
their contexts that might begin addressing these questions?

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