Goal:
To approach material culture as an archaeologist would, thinking about it in terms of space, time, and form. You will be taking photographs of material culture and-using concepts from lecture, recitation and readings-carefully describing what the photos you submit have captured and how they inform us about modern life.
Think about this assignment as a compliment to what Rathje and Murphy do with Rubbish! They are describing discarded material culture, you have the opportunity to examine material culture while it is still "active." Think also, about the information Rubbish! provides about material culture and modern life in the US. Do you see similar patterns in your observations? If not, what is different and why?
I recommend taking many pictures and then selecting only the most effective to submit. Please turn in at least four photographs.
You might photograph multiple pictures of the same scene over the course of several days, or at different times of day shots of material culture with or without people a very small landscape (a desk, a closet, a trash can) or a very large one (a campus quad, a parking lot) several versions of the "same" kind of thing (backpacks, chairs, windows), i.e.: a typology.
Remember to think about all three dimensions: space (where is your material culture? how does its location affect its meaning/function); time (when did you observe it? does it change? does it go away?); and form(what is it made of/how was it made? how is its form related to how people use it?) This list of questions is not exhaustive and you can come up with questions that combine dimensions (for example, does the arrangement of material culture [space] tell you something about the sequence or duration of its use [time]?)
Treat the text you submit as captions-let the photographs do most of the talking. Approximately 400 words