Assessment 4: Creative Process of Creating and Interpreting Cultural Artifacts

 

Select an artifact that interests you and conduct a conversation about it with another person then incorporate that dialogue to write a paper about how artists collaborate and influence each other’s work.

INTRODUCTION

You can’t live through a day without making an impact on the world. And what’s most important is to think about the impact of your actions on the world around you.

– Jane Goodall, primatologist and anthropologist

Think for a moment and try to remember the last time that a piece of art—a book, a movie, a song, a painting, or any other work—made you cry. Perhaps, they were tears of joy. Or, maybe you were sad because a certain lyric reminded you of a painful moment from your past, or because you could relate to a character’s struggles. In any case, the art made an impact on your life, just as it was designed to do. Understanding the positive and negative impacts we can have on others through art and other artifacts is a critical part of working together successfully.

In this assessment, you will continue to strengthen your self- and social-awareness skills and relationship-building skills as you explore how the humanities can be used to impact others, why it’s important to reflect on that impact, and how understanding your impact can help you collaborate with your co-workers and peers.

What you see depends not only on what you look at, but also on where you look from.

– James Deacon, artist

Throughout this course, you have studied what it means to be human. And you’ve explored the unique ways people all over the world express themselves and their different perspectives through art, culture, music, religion, literature, and more. Along the way, you’ve also learned how important it is to broaden your own perspective, so you can think and act appropriately in different cultural environments and better collaborate and solve problems with peers, colleagues, and co-workers whose experiences and perspectives are different from your own.

In this assessment, you’ll look back at all you’ve learned so far and discover how these same concepts and skills will allow you to continue to broaden your perspective, collaborate with others, and solve problems as you encounter new cultures and ideas outside of the classroom.

Many of humanity’s finest achievements—such as the International Space Station, the Allied victories in Second World War, and the founding of the United Nations—were made possible by people of different cultures coming together to pursue a shared goal. In fact, history shows us that when diverse groups collaborate, they are likely to achieve more than groups that are less diverse (Page, 2008).

You’ll continue to strengthen your relationship-building skills by exploring how nations and cultures have collaborated throughout history. And you’ll consider how collaboration can help you to achieve success in your own workplace and community.

Because teamwork is so important in most fields, good relationships are necessary if you want to grow your career. Honing your relationship-building skills can also give you other benefits: It increases career satisfaction, helps you find new job opportunities, and prepares you for future leadership roles. Inside and outside of work, positive and supportive relationships can help you feel happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.

References

Page, S. E. (2008). The difference: How the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/978069…

Quotefancy. (n.d.). Jane Goodall. https://quotefancy.com/quote/981661/Jane-Goodall-Y…

Quote Me on That. (2016). Where you look from. http://www.quotemeonthat.com/quotes/category/persp…

OVERVIEW

This assessment gives you the opportunity to practice your problem-solving skills and self- and social-awareness skills as you reflect on the nature of the creative process. In this assessment, you will:

  • Explore how your own personal experiences influenced your choice of a cultural artifact. Did you choose a literary work, film, song, or painting? Explore ways in which your personal experiences and cultural context might have influenced that choice. This gives you the opportunity to think critically about our perspectives are shaped by cultural context.
  • Examine the creative process then use the information to analyze your selected artifact. Do you think there are fundamental differences in the creative process when it is a collaborative process rather than a solitary one? Also apply what you’ve learned from your research into the life of the artist, or the artists working together, who created the artifact.
  • Explain the ways in which their cultural and personal experiences can be detected in the cultural artifact. No matter what profession you work in, creative thinking is a path to success. Reflecting on the creative process and learning about what inspires others will help you better access your own creative potential.
  • Expand your interpretive skills and deepen your understanding of the practice of interpreting the achievements of human creativity. Exploring similarities between the creative and the interpretive processes will give you new insights into both, and thereby improve your competencies in creative problem solving.

PREPARATION

Select an artifact that you would like to use as the subject of your paper. You are free to choose from any type of artifacts such as a literary work, film, musical piece, or artwork. After you have your artifact selected, find a person with whom you can have a 10–15 minute dialog about your artifact. This person might be a family member, friend, co-worker, et cetera. You may hold your conversation in person, over the phone, or virtually; the choice is yours.

Your conversation should be informal and relaxed—we want you to have fun with it. And here are some ideas on how to guide your conversation:

  1. Show or play the artifact to the other person and allow them to examine it.
  2. Share your reasons for why you chose this artifact and why it resonates with you.
  3. Provide a few interesting details about the artist.
  4. Invite the person to share their thoughts about the artifact and reactions to anything you shared.

Additionally, unlike the previous assessments, you won’t have a template to use. Your paper should follow an academic format and flow.

INSTRUCTIONS

In this assessment, you will write an academic paper that addresses the prompts listed below.

  • Step 1: Reflect on how culture and artistic expressions influence human thought and behavior.
    • Provide insights on how this artifact might influence people’s thinking and behavior in the future.
  • Step 2: Explain how the artifact reflects both collaborative and individual efforts.
    • Describe the path, journey, or process the artist used to create the artifact and discuss the collaboration or influences that happened between the artist and others.
    • Describe the ways the artist put his or her interpretation and creativity to shape and craft the final artifact.
    • Explain the ways in which their cultural and personal experiences can be detected in the cultural artifact.
    • Provide specific examples to support your response.
  • Step 3: Relate how the creative process uses problem-solving, relationship-building, and self- and social-awareness skills.
    • Describe the creative process the artist used and provide examples of how the artist used problem-solving, relationship-building, and self- and social-awareness skills to help him or her to complete the artifact.
    • Provide an example of how you can use the artist’s process and methods to support your own endeavors. If you have had a similar experience, you may use your experience to illustrate the connection between these concepts and skills.
    • Provide specific examples to support your descriptions.
  • Step 4: Explain how the interpretive process can be a collaborative process.
    • Identify how people in a group sharing ideas, thoughts, experiences, et cetera, could influence one another in the course of connecting with or interpreting the artifact. Provide a specific example of when you experienced this.
      • If so, how did it change? Provide specific details.
      • If not, why do you think this is?
    • Describe your conversation with another person about your artifact.
      • What did you enjoy or not enjoy about the conversation?
      • Did the other person point out something you didn’t notice? What was it?
      • Did you connect with the other person and find some shared experience through your conversation about the artist or artifact?
      • Did this also uncover something new you learned about yourself or the other person?
      • Did you connect with the other person by finding some shared experience through your discussion about the artist or artifact?
      • Did this also uncover something new you learned about yourself or the other person?
    • Provide specific examples to support your response.

Additional Requirements

Your submission should meet the following requirements:

  • Written communication: Write in complete sentences free from errors that detract from the overall message.
  • Font and font size: Arial, 12 point.
  • Citations: Include complete citations of your sources. Review Evidence and APA section of the Writing Center for more information on how to cite your sources.

COMPETENCIES MEASURED

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

  • Competency 1: Analyze personal cultural bias.
    • Reflect on how culture and artistic expressions influence human thought and behavior.
  • Competency 2: Examine how diversity influences decision making and collaboration.
    • Explain how the artifact reflects both collaborative and individual efforts.
  • Competency 4: Analyze the role of culture and artistic expression in human thought and behavior.
    • Explain how the interpretive process can be a collaborative process.
  • Competency 5: Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
    • Write in a well-organized and concise manner that adheres to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.

WHEN WE’RE OPEN TO DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

At the beginning of Second World War, U.S. troops faced an urgent problem. Japanese code breakers were deciphering America’s secret communications, and the U.S. armed forces were losing supplies and men. But then, an ex-marine named Philip Johnston had a brilliant idea. He proposed recruiting Native American men to collaborate with military specialists and use their complex Navajo language to develop unbreakable secret codes. These Navajo code talkers gave United States a critical advantage that saved many soldiers’ lives (Levenson, 2017).This cross-cultural success story is a shining example of what we can achieve when we are open to the diverse perspectives, skills, and talents of others. If the Navajo speakers and military leaders hadn’t collaborated, many important battles—and perhaps even the entire war in the Pacific—could have been lost.Throughout your life, you’ll have many opportunities to work with people who are different from yourself. You can use your relationship-building skills to create strategies that will help you engage productively with people from all walks of life. Such cross-cultural collaborations often lead to better solutions and more successful workplaces and communities.

CREATING PRODUCTIVE DISCUSSIONS

You’ve already learned about what makes a truly collaborative discussion—among other things, it’s a conversation in which all participants are sincerely engaged and respectful of one another’s ideas. But how do you foster a collaborative and productive discussion? Here are some strategies to consider.

  • Ask and listen: Collaboration isn’t just about telling everyone your ideas. It’s about listening to your group and asking questions to make sure you understand what they’re saying. Make sure you let people know you hear them—restating what they said can let them know you’re listening and also give them a chance to correct you if you’ve misinterpreted their words.
  • Look for common ground: Even team members who share common goals will disagree sometimes about how to move forward. When that happens, try to find something you can agree on. This will help you strengthen your relationship and increase the chances that you’ll be able to come to an agreement.
  • Share the credit: Remember, in a collaborative effort, credit doesn’t just go to the leader, or to the person who has the brilliant idea that solves the problem or makes the sale. Everyone who was a part of the discussion helped to build the group’s efforts up to that point; everyone in the group has a stake in the positive outcome.
  • Keep it positive: Group collaboration doesn’t always go smoothly. Sometimes, your progress might stall, or group members might start speaking over one another. More serious signs might be a group member disengaging from the process or showing defensiveness about their ideas. Conflict may even break out, indicated by raised or emotional voices.
  • Exploring Cultures.

Resources: Making an Impact

HUMANITIES HELPS US DISCOVER WHAT WE HAVE IN COMMON

You’ve probably heard the expression “art imitates life.”

The idea originally comes from Aristotle, who believed that artists take inspiration from their real-life experiences when creating their works of art. For example, an author who struggled with his weight when he was a child might write a novel about a young, overweight hero (Oatley, 2011).

Of course, sometimes the opposite happens, and life imitates art. In cases like these, a person is so impacted by a particular perspective in a movie, a song, or another artifact that they decide to take action in real life. These actions can be positive (like standing up for a cause) or negative (like acts of violence or discrimination).

As our world becomes more connected, it’s important to recognize that we’re faced with new perspectives all the time, not just in the humanities but also at home, work, and school. Understanding how outside perspectives can impact us (both positively and negatively) can help us reflect on our emotions, which allows us to better respond and react to our world.

You will continue to develop your relationship-building skills by exploring how different people are impacted and motivated by others. This ties directly into your self-and social-awareness skills because part of effective collaboration is taking the time to reflect on how you react to people with different perspectives.

This is especially true for leaders who want to have a positive influence on others. Being a leader could mean that you’re a supervisor who manages several employees. Or, it could mean that you’re a parent who wants their children to do their best. In either case, it’s critical that you recognize how your words and actions impact other people. As you reflect on your impact:

  • Remember that what motivates one person might discourage another. Understand the different perspectives of the people you hope to influence and target your actions accordingly.
  • Note that it’s important to focus on ways you can positively affect others. If you have to give someone negative feedback, try to frame it constructively.
  • Recognize that impact can come from small gestures. Even a simple smile can turn somebody’s day from bad to good or good to great.
  • Get feedback periodically from people about how you’re impacting them. Then, spend time reflecting on the feedback you receive, and make any necessary changes to ensure the impact you have is positive or meaningful.

By using your self- and social-awareness skills and relationship-building skills together to reflect on how you’re impacting others, you’ll be better equipped to build stronger relationships, broaden your perspective, and leave the best impression on people at home, school, and work.

So far, you have worked hard to understand how your own unique perspective influences how you see the world. And you’ve also considered how bringing together people with different perspectives can lead to the creation of incredible artifacts, ideas, products, teams, and more. That’s why studying humanities is so important.

Throughout our lives and careers, we will always come across people with different points of view. The study of humanities helps us discover what we all have in common and learn to acknowledge our differences.

As you’ve studied different cultures and perspectives throughout this course, you’ve also strengthened three essential skills that will help you continue to succeed in the professional world. You’ve learned:

  • Problem solving: As you examined the art, literature, and music of other cultures, you saw how diverse perspectives and critical thinking strategies help to frame problems, explain other people’s viewpoints, and create ethical solutions.
  • Relationship building: Through learning about cultures across different time periods, you discovered that even the earliest humans understood the importance of working with others. You also learned new approaches to collaboration and put them into practice by working closely with your classmates.
  • Self-awareness and social awareness: Recognizing your thoughts, emotions, and intentions is a uniquely human trait, which is why it is critical to the study of humanities. Because you learned to be more open to new perspectives, you’ll be better able to understand the people you’ll meet in your personal and professional life.

In the future, these skills will help you analyze and reduce your own cultural bias, find common ground with others, and appreciate the importance of artistic expression in any form. This could mean working with people from other countries at your job, or it might simply help you prevent a political conversation at a family gathering from turning into a fight.

Learning about what makes us human and broadening our perspective are all parts of a lifelong journey. The steps you have taken now— and will continue to take in the future—will help you work with anyone you meet, no matter where they’re from or how different your perspectives may be.

Reference

Oatley, K. (2011). Does art imitate life? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-psycho… art-imitate-life