Rosinski 120-008

F 2012
Unit One: Focusing
19 September 2012
DUE: 1 October 2012

project one: biographic box

Framing: We usually think of a text as a book or something written (alphanumeric text like this
that I am typing) and an author as the person who wrote that text. But for this project, we
should be thinking of

text as box = author as collector/designer/mixer

You are looking at yourself or a personal story or (close to you) event and seeing it as stranged, made curious, something interesting to consider, an object of intellectual fascination as
much as an emotional possession (Geoffrey Sirc, BOX-LOGIC). These compositions should be
something that interest you. The focus is on

selection, arrangement, and

expression. This should not just be a box of stuff, it should be a trace of you in this

moment or a situation/event that once existed and was strongly felt. Your composition will
communicate meaning in the rhetorical choices you make.
Materials: these texts can be made of

anything...

Container: either a box of your choosing (at least the size of a shoebox) or a blogbox on
WordPress (NOTE: if you choose a blogbox, you must have a laptop to display it on during our
gallery exhibition).

Consider: whatever fits the meaning/message you are trying to convet

!
!

photographs, postcards, buttons, pins, small artifacts, toys, envelopes, colored or layered paper,
string, stickers, product packaging, MP3 players/audio, painted elements, fabric, newspapers,
magazines, poems, lyrics, pages from books, cards, game pieces, or whatever else strikes you

Form:
box composition + collected composition
The box composition is your biographic box.
The collected composition is a 3 page document that frames, describes, and accounts for
your composition. This collected composition must be at least 3 full pages in length (computer
sized paper), but it doesnt necessarily need to look like academic writing (MLA format, 12 pt.
Times New Roman, writing in a series of continuous paragraphs). It can have headings to break

up different sections, can include images/quotes/graphs, use different fonts/sizes (but refrain
from trying to use giant font/spacing to eat up space from the set page count), can explore
options with how to make a point and illustrate with examples from box composition. What Im
saying is, I am giving you page parameters and points that must be considered thoughtfully,
but you have some say in how you want this to look/read. You have rhetorical choice.
Components of the Collected Composition:
a material inventory of your box composition (list of things used) + the meaning you are
conveying with each material (what does it represent?)
from the Picturing Texts reading, concepts you use in your composition with an explanation of
these choices (refer to pgs. 25-47)
a definition of rhetoric in your own words + where you found the framing for your definition
(source) + how you consider rhetoric when you are composing (in visuals, in writing, in
talking)
a rewinding the tape reflection that explains to me how you are feeling with the demands of
this course, composing visual texts, what types of texts you would like to read or try writing
in this class with an explanation why
Grading: A grading criteria sheet will be handed out on Monday. To receive full credit for Project
One, you must turn in a box composition (thoughtfully created) as well as a collected
composition that addresses each of the four components.
Project Framing Checklist for Submission:
_____biographic box composition
_____collected composition (3 pages)
_____gallery walk response card (from the in class exhibition on October 1)
Mini Calendar:
9/24 Monday: We will spend the class period working on your projects, so bring your materials.
You must also have the reading completed with questions/comments/notes on the text.
From EMUOnline, print:
Project One assignment sheet
Picturing Texts reading
CPO/LPO handout
9/26 Wednesday: We will spend the class period working on your projects, so bring your
materials. You will get a mini-conference from one peer and myself on your compositions.
10/1 Monday: Project One, in its entirety, it due. No exceptions. We will hold a gallery
exhibition and an informal talk about this process.