How to Write A classic: William Strunk, The Elements of Style, is available free on-line at http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

How to do Footnotes and Bibliographies Generally, very few if any students in this class know how to do footnotes or bibliographies. Here’s a site that tells you how: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm

San Jose State Library Web Site for Philosophy
Go to sjlibrary.org , then to research, then to philosophy. Or click on this link: http://www.sjlibrary.org/research/databases/sguide_subjectList.htm?subID=57&getType=5

Be sure to provide a ticket stub or solid evidence that you attended the performance or exhibit, in person, this semester!!

Attend an art performance or visual art exhibit that is ‘arts’ based – it is something that is considered ‘art’ rather than ‘crafts,’ ‘sports,’ ‘simple entertainment,’ etc. You may do either field paper first.

Visual Art Field Paper. Same as the first paper (i.e. answer the ten questions listed), except that in this case you will attend a museum or art gallery exhibit. The art may be photography, painting, sculpture, architecture, quilts or any other art form exhibited in a museum or art gallery. Select at least two works in the show to discuss in detail. Observe the work(s) carefully for at least five minutes. It is usually helpful if you include an image of the works you are discussing; therefore, plan on trying to obtain images when you attend. Note: some museums do not allow photographs.

In the case of visual arts, there are often collections of reviews of the artist’s work in the gallery itself.

Some Galleries and Museums in the South Bay:

[Check the Metro, a free weekly newspaper in San Jose http://www.metroactive.com/arts/]

Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design 366 So. First Street, San Jose 408.271.5155 www.galleryAD.com

Empire Seven Studios, 525 No. 7th St. [at Empire], San Jose http://www.empiresevenstudios.com/
San Jose Museum of Art 110 S. Market St., San Jose. Tues-Sun. This excellent museum has several concurrent shows. http://www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

Stanford University Cantor Arts Center Lomita Dr., at Museum Way (off of Palm Drive) Stanford. http://museum.stanford.edu/ This excellent museum has several permanent exhibits and usually some interesting temporary shows.

KALEID Gallery 88 South 4th Street, San Jose, www.KALEIDgallery.com
(408) 947 1785. Right near campus and free.

MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americano 510 S. 1st. St., San Jose. This is the leading art gallery in the South Bay devoted to Mexican and other Latin American art. Free.

The Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, Art Building (1st Floor on the South side) SJSU. In addition to this there are three or four smaller galleries (in the same building) devoted to student work, much of it quite good. On Tuesday nights there are art openings for all of the shows: well worth attending. Also at 5:00 pm on Tuesdays there is often a public lecture. These lectures are usually related to the current show. Attending this and then looking at the art might be particularly valuable in writing your paper.

Triton Museum of Art 1505 Warburton Ave., Santa Clara.
Villa Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga. They also have various performing arts events.
San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles 520 South First Street http://www.sjquiltmuseum.org/visit.html Some people think that quilts are not fine art, but you may disagree after seeing a show at this unusual museum.

Also:
San Francisco has several important museums: Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, M. H. de Young Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Mexican Museum, etc.

(1) Describe the work of art (not only the play, musical work, or dance but also the particular performance of that play, musical work, or dance).

(2) Describe your overall aesthetic experience. (For example, the design of the theater might be part of that experience.)

(3) Give your reaction to the work.

(4) Interpret the work: What do you think the artist was trying to say, if anything? Are there any parts open to multiple interpretations? Support your interpretation with evidence from the work and from information about the work or the creator(s) of the work. (Information can often be found in the performance space itself. There may be information about the artist, director, or composer in the library or on the internet. Or you could interview the artist or someone else related to the performance. You need to do some research here. Check the San Jose Mercury News and the Metro for recent reviews.)

(5) Evaluate the work.
a. Was it better or worse than works similar to it which you have experienced (for example, other dance performances)? (If you have never experienced something in the same genre, for example ballet, then compare the work to ones in similar genres you know, for example flamenco.)
b. Did it provide a good aesthetic experience? Was the experience valuable?
c. How does your interpretation and evaluation compare to that of a reviewer of the show and with other people who viewed it? (Again, you might have to get creative here. Perhaps there is a review of the same play or dance performed in another city.)

(6) Explain and defend your evaluation.

and answer the following questions:

(7) What role did emotions play in your experience?

(8) Did the work teach you anything? Does it help us to know something?

Finally, and most importantly:

(9) Relate your discussion of the work to the ideas in one of the readings we have done in this class.
Demonstrate an understanding of the philosophical argument at hand. Use textual citations from the text to support your analysis of the topic. Then relate the discussion to your aesthetic experience in a relevant way.

[The difference between a B and an A paper often depends on how well you do on this last question.]