The Ariel Project Idea
My aim in The Ariel Project, is to create a website where we can share our images and texts, thus building a writing assignment that is polyvocal so that you can see interpretation at work, with artists, with scholars, and with each other.
My aim is to show you your work alongside others, so that you can start thinking of yourselves as experts in training, scholars of literature and of visual rhetoric who have a real voice to contribute to the conversation.
PROMPT:
For this assignment, you will interpret one of the works we read last semester through the process of creative adaptation. Then, you will write a paragraph or two explaining your thought-process as you were adapting your primary text.
There are two parts to the assignment: a creative component (you can pick from one of the six options below) and there is a required analytic component.
Creative component:
Option 1: Visual Arts
Illustrate one of our texts from the Fall Semester. You may approach this task through any of the fine arts: painting, drawing, photography, film, or sculpture. You should visually reference specific lines in your art. Digitize your work, and load it to our class’ website for your classmates to see.
Option 2: Performing Arts
Perform a short passage (~50 lines as a max) from one of our texts, recording yourself as you do so. You may approach this task through the following performing arts: acting or dancing. You should reference specific lines when you are making choices with how you perform a character with your body, even in non-verbal performance like dance. Make a video of your performance, load the video to YouTube (you can leave it unlisted if you want) and then include the YouTube video on our class’ website for your classmates to see.
Option 3: Music
Some of our texts from last semester already have music in them (see Ariel’s song, “Where the Bee Sucks,” in The Tempest). You may either perform a song from one of the texts through playing a musical instrument, singing, or rapping; or you may write an original score to one of our texts from Fall Semester. If you are writing your own song, you should consider the tone set by certain lines of the poem, and use that as a starting point for your own music. Record your song (I think YouTube will work best on Weebly even though you don’t need to video record yourself), and then post it to our class’ website for your classmates to listen to.
Option 4: Design a Game
Adapt one of our narrative-based texts into a video game concept and story-board the game. You may have to consider such questions in this adaptation as the following: 1) who is the hero, 2) what is the style of game—a quest or a fighter game (for example), and 3) what is the central conflict and its resolution: how does the hero “win” in this adaptation? What lines of the original text are you going to use as a starting point for your adaptation? Find or create at least one visual to accompany this game concept.
Option 5: Creative writing
Write a short story or a poem that is either in the style of one of our texts or that adapts a character from one of our texts in a new way. Before you start writing your short story or poem, think about which lines of the original text will serve as a touchstone for your character.
Option 6: Choose your own adventure
You can develop your own creative assignment as long as you are starting from one of our texts from last semester and posting your work on the class website.
Required analytic component:
You are required to include a short analysis of your own creative work (1-2 paragraphs). In this short analysis, you will both identify which lines of the poem or play served as a conceptual starting point for you, and you will explain the choices that you made in your adaptation. What new insight did you gain into the original character? What did that character lose when you adapted him or her in your new way? What did that character gain when you adapted him or her in your new way? You can use informal writing here, including first-person pronouns.
Instructions: Submit your creative project and your analytical paragraphs by 5:00 pm PT on Sunday before the start of class on Day 1 of Week 17. You will be able to access the website through an invitation email via Weebly, which I will send to you on Wednesday of Reading Week.
Grades: You will get a homework grade for this assignment based on your completion of the creative component and the sophistication/thoughtfulness of your analysis.
Skim over the website and discover all that your classmates contributed as well!
My aim is to show you your work alongside others, so that you can start thinking of yourselves as experts in training, scholars of literature and of visual rhetoric who have a real voice to contribute to the conversation.
PROMPT:
For this assignment, you will interpret one of the works we read last semester through the process of creative adaptation. Then, you will write a paragraph or two explaining your thought-process as you were adapting your primary text.
There are two parts to the assignment: a creative component (you can pick from one of the six options below) and there is a required analytic component.
Creative component:
Option 1: Visual Arts
Illustrate one of our texts from the Fall Semester. You may approach this task through any of the fine arts: painting, drawing, photography, film, or sculpture. You should visually reference specific lines in your art. Digitize your work, and load it to our class’ website for your classmates to see.
Option 2: Performing Arts
Perform a short passage (~50 lines as a max) from one of our texts, recording yourself as you do so. You may approach this task through the following performing arts: acting or dancing. You should reference specific lines when you are making choices with how you perform a character with your body, even in non-verbal performance like dance. Make a video of your performance, load the video to YouTube (you can leave it unlisted if you want) and then include the YouTube video on our class’ website for your classmates to see.
Option 3: Music
Some of our texts from last semester already have music in them (see Ariel’s song, “Where the Bee Sucks,” in The Tempest). You may either perform a song from one of the texts through playing a musical instrument, singing, or rapping; or you may write an original score to one of our texts from Fall Semester. If you are writing your own song, you should consider the tone set by certain lines of the poem, and use that as a starting point for your own music. Record your song (I think YouTube will work best on Weebly even though you don’t need to video record yourself), and then post it to our class’ website for your classmates to listen to.
Option 4: Design a Game
Adapt one of our narrative-based texts into a video game concept and story-board the game. You may have to consider such questions in this adaptation as the following: 1) who is the hero, 2) what is the style of game—a quest or a fighter game (for example), and 3) what is the central conflict and its resolution: how does the hero “win” in this adaptation? What lines of the original text are you going to use as a starting point for your adaptation? Find or create at least one visual to accompany this game concept.
Option 5: Creative writing
Write a short story or a poem that is either in the style of one of our texts or that adapts a character from one of our texts in a new way. Before you start writing your short story or poem, think about which lines of the original text will serve as a touchstone for your character.
Option 6: Choose your own adventure
You can develop your own creative assignment as long as you are starting from one of our texts from last semester and posting your work on the class website.
Required analytic component:
You are required to include a short analysis of your own creative work (1-2 paragraphs). In this short analysis, you will both identify which lines of the poem or play served as a conceptual starting point for you, and you will explain the choices that you made in your adaptation. What new insight did you gain into the original character? What did that character lose when you adapted him or her in your new way? What did that character gain when you adapted him or her in your new way? You can use informal writing here, including first-person pronouns.
Instructions: Submit your creative project and your analytical paragraphs by 5:00 pm PT on Sunday before the start of class on Day 1 of Week 17. You will be able to access the website through an invitation email via Weebly, which I will send to you on Wednesday of Reading Week.
Grades: You will get a homework grade for this assignment based on your completion of the creative component and the sophistication/thoughtfulness of your analysis.
Skim over the website and discover all that your classmates contributed as well!