CMST 1061

Final Project
The purpose of your final project in this class is to incorporate all of the class
materials weve covered so far, rhetoric, performance, comm. theory (which
we kind of made into a comm.. philosophy), and your writing and
organizational skills. Now some of you may be thinking, But we havent
really learned anything yet! We barely covered the book! You underestimate
me (1) You have actually learned more than you think you have if you have
been paying attention and (2) Remember that first part of the syllabus where
I said that people learn by doing? Well now you will see what I mean. By the
end of this lil activity you will have a fine understanding of the fundamentals
of communication studies and you will be surprised. This is kind of like
hypnosis; if you will just trust my process and not be cynical from the get go,
you will have an amazing experience and will leave this class ready to take
on your other communication courses with supreme wisdom that everyone
who sat through lectures and took a bunch of multiple choice tests will
simply lack. Working in groups of three or four you will design a performative
and/or rhetorical collage on any medium you choose that meets the following
criteria:
(1)Cultural Criticismthe goal of the collage is to persuade an audience
to change, reflect upon, consider in a new way, enrich our
understanding of, contemplate, question, heighten, etc. a preexisting
community value, belief, or practice.
(2)Conceptually Influencedthe belief, value, norm which your collage
persuades us to think about in a new way should draw heavily on the
concepts that each individual member in your group has chosen to
write about. Consider if the terms are universals are particulars, if they
are physical or metaphysical, etc. What is a universal?
(3)You need to choose an object to put your concepts in relationship with
and use this relationship as the focal point of your creation. (Explained
below)
(4)Bodies/Performanceyour collage should incorporate in some way, I
dont care how, the idea of a bodya human being.
(5)Collagethe medium for your message will be a collage. What does
that mean? Well, Wikipedia.org is a great place to start: A collage
(From the French: coller, to glue) is a work of formal art, primarily in
the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus
creating a new whole. A collage may include newspaper clippings,
ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other
artwork, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of
paper or canvas. You are not limited to paper. First of all, you can
choose any surface your lil mind can imagine. Second of all, you may
if so inclined, do a digital collage if you are technologically adept; even

if you arent, the folks in Coates Studio 151 will be glad to help you out
and loan you equipment.
Combining numbers one, two, three, and four the collage will bring
together your individual concepts and explore their relationship to our
culture and our bodies in an artistic, perhaps avant-garde mode, and this
exploration will push the audience to enriched and provocative
understandings of the concepts in question.
Example:
Let me tell you first, what NOT to do. Dont develop an art project and then
figure out a way to make your concepts fit. It is always easy to spot these
and they are horrible; even if they arent, that simply isnt the project! I dont
want a cool art project. I want IDEAS that are transposed, collected,
shredded, grounded, with other IDEAS and OBJECTS and then I want you to
ask How? How do I get these ideas fused into my collage in a way that is
enriching to my friends experiences with them?
Choose a concept. Quick. Dont think about it. Write it down.
Now close your eyes and visualize your bedroom. Zoom in close. What object
called you to it? Write it down. Quick!
Now then, ask yourself, How can I explore the relationship between these
two things in a way that no one who has ever lived on this planet has
explored it? You are about to do something no one else has ever done!
Create something no one has ever replicated. SOOO much freedom! What
will you do with it!?
I chose anxiety. Its an emotion I think is so wonderful. I think one never feels
quite so alive as when they are anxiously waiting on the unknown future.
Imagine a criminal locked up in jail whose jailers will tell him nothing. He
hasnt a phone call, a prosecutor, knows not what he is accused of, knows
not how long he will be there. Will he/she ever see their family again. Day
after day, week after week, Will today be the day I get out of here?
Anxiety overwhelmingly alive when we feel it.
I glance up and see my computer printer. Fuck. I wanted a better object than
that. But my printer called me to it. It spoke and said, Look! Im right here!
Pick me! So I answered the call. Now how does my printer exists with
anxiety? Well the first thing I thought of was the anxiety of printers that fail
to work right when you need them most. My next thought was a bit deeper
though. Ever watch something print? Line by line or pixel by pixel? It can be
an anxiety filled moment. Will it print correctly? Do I have enough ink to
finish it? Is the color going to do justice to the picture? And low and behold, I

have a body as well! My body gets all tense and my eyes follow the lines
back and forth. Im in a hurry and my body checks the watch on my wrist.
What type of collage could I possibly make out of all this business? Well, LSU
doesnt have money for printer ink anymore because of the budget crises.
We have been put on a strict print limit. So I know Im going to make
something to show to either my peers (help them understand it in a new
way), my students (get them to go protest the cuts), or Gov. Jindal (change
his ideas on the budget cuts). I choose an audiencemy peers. Since weve
no more ink, weve no more anxiety over printing! I can get them to
experience this negative thing in a new way! What do people love more than
anything?...hmmmm. sex and puppies, I think. My collage is definitely
going to be sexy with puppies! So I find an old printer (my surface!) and I get
a bunch of blow up dolls and stuffed animals. Then, I film myself trying to put
them in the paper loader. Then I cut this film with pictures of money burning,
Jindal, and pornography. Then I put a music track on top of itmaybe MIAs
Take the money song. I play it for my peers. They giggle at all the silliness
and feel better about not being able to print and have less anxiety. Whoolah!
I also got an A from Mr. Rhodes! Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom! Take the
money!
Go to Wikipedia and search for collage for more examples. There are limitless
possibilities and I encourage you to explore some options for the project
outside the ones suggested here.
Grades
(100 points)
First things first. A group paper between 2-3 pages should be turned in with
the assignment and used to present the assignment to the class. It should
have brief mentions of the concepts and ideas you incorporated from each
individual in the group. After that, you should note the CHOICES that your
group made in each aspect of the project. This word is the most important
word in the whole assignment. I strongly encourage you to take it seriously. I
want you to make choices on everything that goes into the project. Think
about setting, scene, agents, bodies, colors, sounds, rhythms, words, shape,
spatial and temporal relationships, etc.
The collage itself will be graded by creativity, imagination, newness,
radicalness, coolness, and overall bad-assness, as well as its conformity to
the project guidelines noted here.
You will give each person in your group a grade when you turn your paper in.
Papers and projects are due on the day of projects are due and will be
presented to the class in a five-seven minute presentation. You will tell us

about the concepts you worked with, the choices you made, why you made
them and then field questions from myself and the audience.
Did you meet all the guidelines and did you obviously go above and beyond
the assignment requirements? Did you make the assignment your own? You
get an A.
Did you meet all of the guidelines? You get a B.
Did you meet most of the guidelines? You get a C.
Did you meet some well none of my students get Ds on shit so Im not
worried about it. I got faith in all of you (well not all of you. You will get a D
for sure!)
Folks to Google:
Guerilla Girls, Gertrude Stein, William Burroughs, Braque, Dada, Jonathan
Talbot, Paolozzi, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Hamilton, Romare Bearden,
Girl Walk,
This site is an EXCELLENT place to get started with some visual ideas (but
remember that you dont have to strictly or even partially use a classic
medium for your collage):
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/12/13/get-creative-with-collagetrends-and-inspiration/
note on this site the section at the bottom with even more links to other
collage blogs that will generate new ideas for you as well.
*Assignment for Thursday* (10 Participation Pts.)
Each group should bring an 8 x 10 sheet of thin cardboardlike the
kind on the back of a legal pad (which is perfect), two pair of
scissors (or preferably an Exacto knife), a magazine they dont mind
tearing to pieces, and couple of glue sticks of some sort. When class
starts, go ahead and be seated in your groups and have all the
materials out on your desk and ready to gowe have a LOT to cover
that it is in your best interest to cover!