Q HUMA 1301: Instructions for PD 2 Part One -- warm-up about curiosity (20%) Read or skim this article from the BBC: “The Secrets of the ‘High-Potential’ Personality” http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180508-the-secrets-of-the-high-potential-personality • Get the basic idea of the article, but don’t read it all, unless you’re just curious :) • Focus on the fourth trait, “curiosity” • Here is the relevant portion of the article: “recent research shows that an inherent interest in new ideas brings many advantages to the workplace: it may mean that you are more creative and flexible in the procedures you use, help you to learn more easily, increases your overall job satisfaction and protects you from burnout.” In humanities class, we often study old ideas that are clearly wrong or at least highly suspect. • For example, the journey of the deceased in the Egyptian Book of the Dead is probably only imaginary. • You can come up with other examples of this sort. • So why should we be curious about something so long past, so outmoded, so fishy? Directions: • First, write down as many reasons as you can think of to learn about the life and habits, values and stories, buildings and artwork, of foreign cultures. o Just make a list -- but also, on your document, provide some written context for your list so it’s clear to any reader what you’re talking about. • Second, if you went back in time to ancient Egypt, what are two things that you would try to figure out about the people? o In other words, what would you be curious about? o Take a second to reflect, and imagine yourself there, based on the things you have seen in class. What do you encounter? What do you want to know? Part Two -- Culture Heroes and the Hymn to the Aten (80%) We have warmed up our brains, and established curiosity as an important skill for success in life and work. Now let’s get some practice in curiosity by inquiring into culture heroes in ancient literature. Last time, in PD 1, using images from the ARTstor library database, we told Sinuhe’s story -- three scenes from his life, plus a coda of his possible afterlife, following the events of the Book of the Dead. This time, in much the same way, we’ll tell Akhenaten’s story. Tell Akhenaten’s story in four illustrated scenes The point of the assignment is to use CURIOSITY in finding images on ARTstor, to illustrate a story. For your scenes, you’ll mostly choose images that are NOT literal representations of Akhenaten or his time period. Choose something unrelated, but explain in your own words what the connection is. Explain the visuals of what you see in the image, and why they seem to relate. Find something clever or not obvious at first glance. Be curious. • But you’ll also have at least one image of an artifact from Akhenaten’s own time, in ancient Egypt. • The scenes are explained below. Deliverable -- here’s what to include in your submission Submit your illustrated history of Akhenaten -- in just four scenes. The four scenes are described below. Yes, you can switch up the order if you want! You’re the one telling the story. In your illustrations, which you find in ARTstor, use both kinds of images: • use one or two ancient images (ancient Egyptian artifacts from Akhenaten’s reign) • and two or three modern ones (things more recent than ancient Egypt, or unrelated to ancient Egypt) • To some extent, you can choose, but see the guidelines below for each scene. Be sure to label each scene -- first scene, second scene, etc. Label each image: • What it is (basic info found in ARTstor, such as artist, date, title, medium -- just some relevant facts, as appropriate for the object -- don’t copy and paste a bunch of info from ARTstor. Less is more.) • Link / URL to ARTstor What’s the point? For each image, in your own words, write WHAT POINT you’re making about it. • How does it help us to understand Akhenaten or the related ideas? • You don’t have to write a lot -- maybe on average 50 words. Theophany. Somewhere be sure to use the aptly or correctly, as it possibly pertains to Akhenaten. (Not sure about theophany? Try using the Open Discussion to ask, or reviewing the pages in Canvas.) Write it in bold, like this: theophany. The order of these scenes is NOT FIXED. There is no right or wrong order for your four scenes. It is OK to reorder the scenes. You can add a fifth scene if you want, but you don’t have to. Don’t do more than five scenes. Your job is to tell Akhenaten’s life. Make it so that any reader who comes to the document and reads it understands something substantial about Akhenaten’s story, just from your illustrated story of his life. Assume the reader knows little about Akhenaten, but is curious to learn more. Guidelines for each scene • First scene -- A symbol of power in an ancient artifact -- include an image from ARTstor showing an ancient artifact that portrays Akhenaten: o Search “Akhenaten” in ARTstor and see what comes up o Find an ancient artifact from Akhenaten’s time that all seems to serve as a symbol of power. o What should you choose? o Remember the Canvas quiz on “symbols of power” -- remember how timeless the symbols are, from ancient Egypt, to modern classrooms, to the democratic state. Keep going with that idea from the quiz -- the universality of symbols of power -- and apply it to Akhenaten. o In this scene, choose an actual, ANCIENT ARTIFACT from Akhenaten’s time o Look for a “symbol of power” of any sort. How did Akhenaten visually get across the idea of his position as pharaoh and his new era? o Be sure to explain in your own words how you see the idea of power in the image of Akhenaten or his time period. o (Hint for this scene -- look at the last four letters of Akhenaten’s name -- “Aten.” If you don’t know what that hint means, review the materials in Canvas. Or be bold and ask in the Open Discussion!) • Second scene -- Iconoclasm -- include a modern image to get across the “feel” of iconoclasm. o Search ARTstor for “iconoclasm,” or any related word that you want. o You’re looking for an unrelated image -- NOTHING to do with ancient Egypt o But it should get across the feel or idea of iconoclasm o After you select an artwork in ARTstor, write some words to explain how there is iconoclasm expressed in it, o Finally, give the Egyptian history. What was up with iconoclasm in Akhenaten’s time? Why did he do iconoclasm? o Explain it to any reader who might not know anything about Akhenaten. • Third scene -- a line or two from the Hymn to the Aten, illustrated with any image you choose o Find an image to show the idea of “culture hero” as you see it in the Hymn to the Aten o Find an unrelated image in ARTstor -- something with an imaginative connection to the idea of the Aten, in your opinion. ? (Or, on the other hand, if you want to show something ancient, related to Akhenaten, an artifact from the time period, that’s great too.) o Include the keyword that you searched for in ARTstor. ? You have to think of a good keyword to search for -- or choose words that seem especially significant in the hymn o Quote the line or lines you are illustrating, and use “quotation marks” o and cite the lines, more or less. Make clear the source of the quotation, so the reader doesn’t have to guess. Strict MLA style is NOT required. Hints about where to find the lines in the whole text are appreciated. • Fourth scene -- just like the third scene above, another line or two from the Hymn to the Aten It is okay to reorder the scenes if you want and tell them in a different order. Your goal is to get across to the reader what Akhenaten was all about. How you tell the story is your choice. Checklist: • Four or five scenes (and you can get an A with four good scenes) • The scenes roughly tell Akhenaten’s life story in some way • Each scene is labeled -- first scene, second scene, etc. • Each scene is illustrated with an image from ARTstor (screenshots are fine) • Each scene has words of your own explaining what the point is -- the connection to Akhenaten • Each ARTstor image is labeled with basic identifying info: artist, title, date, medium, as relevant for the artwork o And NOT a bunch of boilerplate copied and pasted from ARTstor -- less is more o PLUS IT HAS A URL or LINK BACK TO ARTSTOR • The word theophany appears somewhere in the document, in bold type, used correctly of course • Proper formatting -- heading, meaningful title, page numbers