Each entry write 200-300 words, total two entry, so should be at least 400 words.

For this paper, please more focus on personal feelings and thoughts after you read and watch these artworks.

ENTRY 1:

Title: “An Introduction to Looking Again”, from Ways of Looking: How to Experience Contemporary Art (pp. 6-27)

Reading see attached file.

Author: Ossian Ward

ENTRY 2:

Title: “An Aesthetic of Blackness: Strange and Oppositional” from The Object of Labor: Art, Cloth, and Cultural Production (pp. 315-332)

Reading see attached file.

Author: bell hooks

Instructions:

Once again, the purpose of the Reading Response is to engage intellectually and personally with the topics presented in each assigned reading. You will need to use your skills at analysis, critical thinking and creatively drawing connections between the readings’ specific content and your own thoughts, observations, impressions, experiences, studies, etc.

Your task is two-part: first read each entry, and then writing a 200-300 word response based on your personal interpretations of its content (Note: the word count should not include in-text citations if you use them – the body of your writing should be counted and noted on the assignment template for each entry). Every week there will be two entries to read and two responses to write. Some weeks an entry may be multi-part, asking you to read and view several interrelated links. Please ensure you look at ALL material linked and make sure it’s clear in your written response that you have done so. I strongly recommend taking notes, making annotations, and marking passages that stand out to you and feel significant to respond to. Jot down your thoughts, questions, criticisms, “aha” moments, things that surprise, challenge or excite you, etc. as you are reading.

Please make sure you discuss at least two specific references to content from the readings in your responses. We need to see evidence that you have read/viewed all materials and engaged with the core messages/themes of each reading. For example, if one entry asks you to both read an interview with an artist and look at their project website, please make sure you discuss things present in both those sources.

Please focus your attention on the core messages or themes in the reading, as they relate to some aspect of artistic process and materiality, creativity, the dynamics of the art world, ideas about art, themes in art, etc. Essentially, I’m asking you to avoid writing about mental tangents that take you away from a focus on art, which is of course the topic of this class, and central to each of the assigned readings. Many of the artists/artworks you read about will deal with broader topics not directly related to art – please make sure you are responding not just to the topics addressed by the artists/artworks, but how their art or the themes about art present in the reading relate to the broader topics.

Please do not use your writing to simply summarize or restate what the reading was about without giving any personalized response or interpretation (this will disqualify you from full points!). Please instead foreground your own original thinking, questions and reflections about the content. Take your initial or superficial reactions always one step further in complexity. For example, if something surprises you, spend the time reflecting on and explaining why it is surprising – what previous assumptions of yours did the passage shake up, WHY? Always be specific and relate your reflections back to the content of the reading!

IMPORTANT: remember you must attribute, quote and paraphrase anyone else’s thoughts or writing properly when referring to their ideas (give the author’s full name and title of the article/essay/book/etc.) See the “How to Avoid Plagiarism” page in the Welcome Module for guidelines.

Here are some sample prompts if you could use help focusing your interpretation:

• What are your overall impressions of the reading, and what particular passages or details stood out to you most? WHY???
• In what specific ways does the content of the reading challenge/expand/complicate/frustrate your understandings about art and how art functions in the world? Cite specific passages in the reading to support your thoughts.
• How do your personal experiences or background relate to the content of the reading? Where do you see yourself or your own experiences reflected or not reflected in the material? Be specific and explain these connections or disconnections as clearly as possible.
• How does the reading as a whole and specific parts of the reading make you FEEL? Explain why and cite specific passages in the reading to support your reactions.
• What questions do you have about the reading? What passages or ideas challenged you? WHY???
• What are you critical or skeptical about in the reading? WHY? Be specific!

The sky is the limit with how you respond to the readings! I’ve made these instructions purposefully open so that you can each come to the interpretive process from your own standpoints and experiences.

Reading Response Rubric