Nature: Image and Object
Procession of the Species Assignment

Important Dates

4/4/08 (Friday) Field Trip to visit Procession Community Art Space
4/18/08 (Friday) Workday for fine-tuning costumes – no class that day
4/25/08 (Friday) Five Minute Oral PowerPoint Presentation on Species Research
                      Species Research Paper Due
                      Costume Due
4/36/08 (Saturday) Procession of the Species Parade 4:00-6:00 pm

Goals of this Assignment

1. To learn about a community oriented environmental art festival through participation.
2. To have the opportunity to make a piece of wearable art using recycled materials. To explore the sculptural possibilities of every day objects around you.
3. To learn basic library research strategies for artists in order to expand your creative thinking.
4. To practice giving an oral presentation.

The Procession of the Species community celebration was started in 1995 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Earth Day and the renewal of the Endangered Species Act. The Procession has three rules:

1) No written words
2. No motorized vehicles
3) No live pets

Also, the idea is to make the work out of recycled materials.

Your assignment is to choose a species and make a costume (alone or with others) that celebrates that species. The Procession is organized into sections: earth, water, fire, and air. So, for example, the birds march in the air section, the plants march with earth, and the fish march with water. No one knows ahead of time which section will go first. So if you want to march with classmates, you might coordinate your efforts.

In preparation for designing your costume, you need to complete some library research, write an individual short five-page paper (excluding images and bibliography) and prepare a five-minute (individual or team) oral PowerPoint presentation about your findings.



The library research should include:

1. A discussion of the biology of the critter (e.g. life cycle, reproduction, predators, feeding, range, habitat and conservation concerns). Your report should include images about the biology.

2. A discussion of the mythology and symbolism related to the organism. Here you will need to move up from the species level. For example, instead of Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris rapae) could just research butterflies. Butterflies are often associated with transformation. If possible your report should include artistic images of the organism from different cultural traditions. For example you might include an image of a basic basket design based upon the butterfly or a picture of Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party.

Most of this information is available in the reference section of the library. These are scholarly sources and peer reviewed. See the reference librarian for assistance. Some information may be available on-line, but the source may not be good. See the handout on evaluating Internet sources (also available on our website). Be careful of plagiarism of on-line sources.

Your paper needs to include:

1. Five-page double-spaced typed pages
a. Introduction with a thesis
b. Body (Your interest in this organism, Mythology, Biology, and Conservation)
c. Conclusion
2. Bibliography with proper citations. The Writing Center and Library Websites have info on this. Any standard is okay (e.g. APA, MLA etc.)
3. At least five images of biology and/or art (these need to be included in the body of the paper and referenced in the text).