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PROJECT #3 : THE ANTI-PAPER |
| ROUGH DRAFT AND FINAL DRAFT DUE:
December 2, 2004 "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." - Albert Einstein Rationale So far in your education you've been used to people telling you what to write about, what to be interested in, what to research and study. But in this project, I want you to find that out for yourself. As you get older, the things you may be interested in may not fit into the normal academic structure. Say you have an idea that involves chaos theory, the history of chess, and palmistry (reading palms), for example. How do you talk about something that doesn't fit into its own neat little category? How do you articulate your idea using the discourse (language) of any ONE of those fields? Can you? Or would you have to find connections & disconnections between the discourses (and therefore, thoughts) where the language breaks down, and then create a NEW discourse? In this paper, I'm asking you to do just that! As we've discussed in class, language LIMITS what we are capable of thinking but at the same time, it ALLOWS us to think. It provides us a box (the chaos theory box, the palmistry box, etc.) in which to communicate safely and easily, but we also have to be AWARE that that box exists, and that we are in it. And sometimes you want to break out of that box. When you are writing this paper, which I call the Anti-Paper, after one of Alberto Rios's assignments (I only borrowed the name, not the assignment), you should keep in mind what a "Paper" is. Not what a "paper" is on the surface, but what a "paper" means: what is at the core of a paper? Is it the ideas? Is it the development of arguments? The words? The contextual interdependencies? The rhythms and sounds? A certain kind of feeling? By "Anti-Paper", what I mean is I want you to keep the core values of a paper (i.e. what a paper is supposed to do or mean (for you)). But at the same time I want you to forget all the conventional methods of approaching "how to write a paper". (Does a paper even have to be written, in words?) Start at a different angle. See if you can get at the ESSENCE of a paper through other means. Think about this: is a dance a paper? Is a song a paper? Is a website a paper? What about a dance-website? What IS a dance-website anyway? Why not think outside of the categories and create something called a dance-website-song-paper? Where do those things cross or meet? I am asking you to be COMPLETELY free and creative with your ideas. Experiment! Write a paper consisting completely of quotes you overheard at the MU. Or write a paper linking the ideas of Freud and Bart Simpson. Write a paper from the point of view of the piece of paper you are writing it on. You do not have to worry about your grade, so why not do something crazy? This is your one chance to do whatever you want, as far out there and as fun as you will allow yourself, and still get a good grade. So go for it! Assignment Write an anti-paper (as I described above). And then write a short description of what you were trying to accomplish in your anti-paper. The purpose of the latter is that if your anti-paper is completely experimental, it might be hard for me to decipher what you were trying to do with it. And it helps to know what assignment you gave yourself while I read the final product. Sources If you have sources, you must cite these sources on a separate bibliography page. Otherwise it is plagiarism. Use MLA style when citing. If you need help, go to this page for more formatting specifics. Please note that I am not a stickler for MLA formatting. So don't sweat it... if you get a comma wrong or something, it's okay. It's more important (to me) that you ARE citing your sources than that you get the formatting down. Paper Format Completely up to you. Let me know if you have any questions! |