Select a work of art or cultural artifact that you would like to use as the subject of your writing. You are free to choose one of interest to you, as long as it hasn’t been used in the other assessments. The artifact can range from things like literary works, films, musical pieces, or artwork. After you have your artifact selected, find a person with whom you can have a 10–15 minute dialog about your artifact. This person might be a family member, friend, coworker, et cetera. You may hold your conversation in person, over the phone, or virtually; the choice is yours.
Your conversation should be informal and relaxed—we want you to have fun with it. And here are some ideas on how to guide your conversation:
Show or play the artifact to the other person and allow them to examine it.
Share your reasons for why you chose this artifact and why it resonates with you.
Provide a few interesting details about the artist.
Invite the person to share their thoughts about the artifact and reactions to anything you shared.
Instructions
In this assessment, you will write an academic piece that addresses the prompts listed below.
Step 1: Reflect on how culture and artistic expressions influence human thought and behavior.
Provide insights on how this artifact might influence people’s thinking and behavior in the future.
Step 2: Explain how the artifact or work of art reflects both collaborative and individual efforts.
Describe the path, journey, or process the artist used to create the artifact and discuss the collaboration or influences that happened between the artist and others.
Describe the ways the artist put his or her interpretation and creativity to shape and craft the final artifact.
Explain how the artist’s cultural and personal experiences can be detected in the cultural artifact.
Provide specific examples to support your response.
Step 3: Relate how the creative process uses problem-solving, relationship-building, and self- and social-awareness skills.
Describe the creative process the artist used and provide examples of how the artist used problem-solving, relationship-building, and self- and social-awareness skills to help him or her to complete the artifact.
Provide an example of how you can use the artist’s process and methods to support your endeavors. If you have had a similar experience, you may use your experience to illustrate the connection between these concepts and skills.
Provide specific examples to support your descriptions.
Step 4: Explain how the interpretive process can be a collaborative process.
Identify how people in a group sharing ideas, thoughts, experiences, et cetera, could influence one another in the course of connecting with or interpreting the artifact. Provide a specific example of when you experienced this.
If so, how did it change? Provide specific details.
If not, why do you think this is?
Describe your conversation with another person about your artifact.
What did you enjoy or not enjoy about the conversation?
Did the other person point out something you didn’t notice? What was it?
Did you connect with the other person and find some shared experience through your conversation about the artist or artifact?
Did this also uncover something new you learned about yourself or the other person?
Did you connect with the other person by finding some shared experience through your discussion about the artist or artifact?
Did this also uncover something new you learned about yourself or the other person?
Provide specific examples to support your response.
