Project Indigo

A Celebratory Study of the Sensory Material of Black Texts & Black Life

Overview: For the final project, students will work together to create a series of synchronous and asynchronous spaces designed to share and continue the course exploration of how black texts invite us to consider black life through evoking and playing with the senses and sensory material. The form of the space each group will create will be determined by the group with the approval of the instructor. While the type and form of the space each group will design will differ, every group’s final project must include the 10 elements described below. Groups are also expected to complete the project check-ins and share an informal presentation about their project with the class at the end of the semester.

10 Requirements – Overview

1. Explore the relation between 2 or more types of sensory details.
2. Analyze a literary text & a non-literary text from the course.
3. Examine relationship between race and (sensory) perception.
4. Examine how Black texts engage sensory materials.
5. Incorporate relevant and reputable historical research.
6. Incorporate relevant and reputable science research.
7-8. Demonstrate 2 textual analysis methods.
9-10. Appeal to at least two different modes of sensory perception.

10 Requirements – Breakdown

1. Explores the relation between 2 or more types of sensory details: Ask yourself how do these different type of sensory details work together as assemblage? (Do they amplify; contradict; contrast; invert; interrogate; etc.?) How do the characters utilize their various faculties of perception? What kind of perceptual orientation does the text ask readers to adopt?
2. Analyze a literary text & a non-literary text from the course: Your project should include an analysis of at least one literary text from the course and one non-literary text from the course. A non-literary text may include but is not limited to the following: a music video; a painting; a dance performance; a song; movie clip; commercial; a speech; etc. A “text from the course” includes any required readings and texts or suggested readings listed on the syllabus (including ones that were cut); texts referenced in class lectures and discussions; texts referenced in journal prompts and/or extra credit challenge posts; and/or texts explicitly recommended to your group or a member of your group by the instructor during office hours.
3. Examine relationship between race and (sensory) perception: Throughout the semester we will examine how cultural texts, especially literary narratives, make use of the dynamic relationship between our perceptual faculties and our cultural narratives, especially in terms of how we imagine race and personhood. Your project should continue this examination by addressing in some way how cultural and political narratives around race both impact and are impacted by our sensory perception.
4. Examine how Black texts engage perception & sensory materials: Throughout the semester we will examine how black texts work both within the perceptual constraints and representational limits of white middle class society and in opposition to these limits. Your project should continue this work by examining how at least one black text engages sensory material and/or its readers faculties of sensory perception in a way that undermines or challenges a dominant constructions of race, personhood, and black life.
3. Incorporate relevant and reputable historical research: Relevant means that the historical information you research is directly applicable to a specific person, place, event, or thing referenced in the text you’re examining. The goal is to enrichen you and your readers’ awareness of the potential historical factors that might have significantly affected the nature of a character(s)’s sensory experience in the story and/or the nature of how the contemporary audience (at the time the text was published or released) may have related to the sensory material at play in some part of the text. Note: More than likely you won’t find a single piece of historical information that is in and of itself compellingly related to the story. You will have to bring a few related pieces of historical information together in a story (or, history!) that helps your readers understand how this history relates to the story and how considering this history might affect the way we interpret some aspect of the text. Your historical contextualization should draw from at least two reputable sources.
4. Incorporate relevant and reputable science research: Relevant means that the science research you incorporate is applicable to a specific sensory detail in one of the texts you’re examining. Make sure that the science is applicable to the time, place, and physical conditions at play in the text you’re examining. Some scientific research may be applicable even if it’s published before or after the setting and/or publication of the text you’re examining. However some scientific findings may not be applicable to the setting of your text. (Ex. Recent findings about UV rays and Ozone pollution may not be anachronistic if applied to Hawthorne’s 1830s New England.) Your science research should draw from at least two reputable sources.
7-8. Demonstrate 2 Textual Analysis Methods: Utilize at least 2 of the following 4 textual analysis methods: Compare & Contrast; Follow the Trail; Archaeological Dig; Through the Lens. See: “CR Methods.”
9-10. Appeal to at least 2 different modes of sensory perception: The form or final product of each group’s project will be different. Some group’s will produce interactive events that are ephemeral and include real time audience participation. Some groups will produce asynchronous activities, and others will produce a discrete object (e.g. a book or a virtual gallery). Regardless of the form, each group’s project should be designed with an audience (albeit not necessarily a live audience) in mind, and each project design should appeal to (i.e. ask its audience to engage) at least 2 of the 6 types of sensory perception.

Check-Ins & Presentation

Project Check-ins:

As a way to provide feedback and help students think ahead, each group will be ask to submit two project check-ins. The due dates for those check-ins are on the syllabus. In advance of each check in, the group will find a post with several “project check-in” questions. These questions are meant to help students think through details and logistics of their project. Each group should submit ONLY ONE response to each of the project check-ins via the course site. The professor will provide feedback to the group as a comment to the post.

Informal Presentations:

Towards the end of the semester each group will be required to present their project to the class. This presentation is informal, and should be thought of as part show and tell and part workshop. Your projects do not need to be completed by the time your group presents. However enough of your project should be completed that you can share with us some visual or sonic aid (i.e. a picture, video, soundbite, website, etc.)

A Note: I will not assign a grade to the project check-ins nor to your presentations. Your group will receive a check and some feedback. The purpose of the feedback is to help your group move towards the next stage. While these aspects of the assignment are not graded, not completing them may negatively affect your overall project participation grade.

Project Assessment

What You Hand In:

In order to successfully complete the project, each group will submit the following:

A copy, link and/or invitation to participate in the group’s project.
A 2-3 page reflection essay (One reflection essay per group.)
4 thoughtfully completed evaluation forms (one from each group member)

Calculating Final Project Grade

Individual Grade:

50 % Group Grade
50 % Evaluation Grade

Group Grade:

50 % Project Grade
25 % Reflection Essay
25 % Project Participation

Project Grade:

25 % Completeness (includes all ten of the required project elements)
25 % Content (relevance, accuracy, thoroughness, and cohesion)
25 % Form (relevance, thoroughness, cohesion, and effective)
25 % Language and Citations