Final Write-up/Due Oct 6--guidelines

“Berlin Viewpoints: Assimilation and Aspiration in Art” Honors in Berlin 2008
Individual Final Project, posted to your blog. Due Monday, October 6, midnight.

Guidelines for written component (refer to “Final Performance guidelines” for context)

Each student will do a final project write-up. Students will have several weeks to assess and assimilate the final composition performances and the experience of creating and performing the compositions. The write-up will be a synthesis of in-city research and the process of bringing this research into the compositions (and visa versa, bringing the compositions into your research).

The write up should be between 7-10 pages and should include:

1. Project question and abstract (200 words max). What were you addressing? State the question and write up a brief synopsis of issue

2. Background (~1000-1500 words approx) – an overview that synthesizes the project.
--discuss the core issues, common concerns, and debates surrounding the issue you investigated
a) Context (Why is the topic relevant?. How did it advance yours and others understanding of the issue? Remember to consider why it has been of personal interest to you.)

b) Problem(s) (what are the struggles you encountered while engaged in your research?)

3. Methods of investigation (~1000 words/approximately 2 pages)
(i.e. interviews, observation, texts, library research, excursions and field notes, etc. )
• Affordances- how was each method appropriate for your research?
• Limitations- what were the limitations of each method?
• Reflexivity- what biases and what assumptions did you bring to the project?

4. Analysis- how did the data collected help answer/ask your research question? (2-4 pages)
Consider:
a) How did the creative and collaborative act of presenting character(s) in specific situations effect your interpretation of your in- city research?
b) Did the compositions (the process of creating and performing them as well as the end result) broaden the research you did in Berlin? Did it effect your findings?

5.Where could this research go from here if you were so inclined?


***In the end, we hope you will have gotten outside of yourself to interpret the results, to have experienced what it is like to live your research by virtue of performance. There is potential for you to see your research findings with new eyes, more depth and form.

*** Completed write-up should also include visual or media enhancements. Be creative!! Photos, audio, mapping, video blogging, your personal art, poems, recordings of interviews (if subject has given consent, etc.)


Bonus: Discuss the group dynamics of presenting your research through composition and performance.