Reviewing the Arts – Summer 07

Review Assignment #1 (4-5 pages) DUE IN CLASS on June 12th: Choose any “issue-oriented” performance, set of images, film, cartoon strips, etc. to review. While writing the review, keep in mind the thoughts/ideas brought up in the readings we’ve done thus far in class. Write the review in first person and approach your writing with a personal tone that reflects your feelings and thoughts about both the “issue” and the ways in which the art piece you’ve chosen addresses this issue. Your review should certainly address the thematic elements, aesthetics, and ideology of the art piece in an intelligent, thoughtful way, but let your “person” come through in the writing – let the reader know that you, as an author, are present.

* Keep in mind the basic elements and components of a review: summary, analysis, argument (your opinion and why), erudition or ‘outside’ knowledge, (your) tone and voice.

The following are just a few suggestions that will help you bring your personal tone to the review (you can use some, all, or none of them – choosing your own):

• Tell a brief personal story that connects your feelings, thoughts, and/or reactions to the art (e.g. what did this remind you of? Why? In what way/s did this particular piece speak to you?). 

• Be creative! Use metaphors, analogies, adjectives, adverbs, and feel free to experiment with your style of writing. Feel free to use either past or present tense (as if you are sitting in the audience at the moment watching the performance, for example) – just be consistent with whatever tense you choose. 

• Address the audience in a way that creates a sort of dialogue and makes the reader feel as if you are talking with him/her (e.g. use of “you” when addressing your reader, posing questions to your reader, or use of conversational language).

While writing the review, keep in mind some of the following (these are just some thoughts and questions to get you started and to help you approach the review, you are encouraged to also come up with your own questions):

• What exactly is the “issue” brought up by the art? 

• What is the art saying about this issue and how? (How does the art aesthetically and ideologically speak to this issue?)

• What, if any, was your emotional reaction to this art? Why? And how does your emotional reaction potentially speak to the effectiveness of the art (or lack thereof)? 

• What did you think about the art? Did it accurately reflect the issue? How did the art use aesthetics (colors, voice, props, costumes, lighting, lines, music, etc.) to further enhance or give power to the issue it addresses? (or in what ways did it not do those things?)