Exhibition Review. Communications & Media Review.

Exhibition Review
Assignment Instructions
CMST 2BB3, Winter 2021
Overview: Write a paper that reviews the virtual exhibition “Women: A Century of Change” on view at the National Geographic Museum at: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/events/visit/women-vr/ 
Directions:
• Spend at least 2 uninterrupted hours navigating through the virtual exhibition. There are 12 sections, each with several images, labels, and videos. Spend time getting oriented to the virtual space and engaging with the material. Take notes on what you notice. What stands out to you? What draws your attention? • As you navigate, ask yourself: 
1. What is the main message of this exhibition? What do I see that makes me say that? What narratives about the world, groups of people, democracy, progress, oppression, etc. is the exhibit putting forth? What message do the creators want me to take away from this experience? Are those the messages that I am taking away? Why or why not? Are there images that support the intended message by relying on problematic representations or naturalized ideologies? Which ones?  HINT: this set of questions will help you develop your thesis statement.
2. Does the exhibition acknowledge or address National Geographic’s apology? If so, how? 
3. In what ways does the exhibition reproduce the tropes of National Geographic discussed in Week 7? 
 HINT: Choose specific photographs and conduct a visual analysis like the ones we have been practicing in lectures. The guided viewing questions we used with the Migrant Mother photograph in Week 5’s lecture will be helpful). Are there ways in which this exhibition challenges the tropes discussed?
4. In what ways does the exhibition reproduce Orientalism? In what ways does it challenge Orientalism? 
 HINT: Choose specific photographs to analyze to support your answer. Do not write in generalities.
5. Did you notice any elements of institutional critique in the exhibition? Explain your answer. 
6. What ideologies are promoted or embedded in this exhibition?
7. If Fred Wilson was asked to “mine” this museum exhibition (refer to Week 8), what do you think he would say/think/do? Imagine you have had the great fortune to be awarded an internship with the artist Fred Wilson. He has asked you to insert an object into the exhibition that uses juxtaposition to make a comment about the ideas presented. What object or image would you insert? Write an exhibition label that explains what your juxtaposition exposes. What is your message?Structure and write your paper according to the following guidelines:
• Intro: Describe what you see as the main message of the exhibition and support your assertion with evidence from the exhibition’s images, design, texts, etc.  Develop a thesis statement based on your answers to prompt #1 in the directions. 
o HINT: a good thesis statement must be able to be supported with evidence from the exhibition and must be debatable. Being debatable means that it is non-obvious and you could reasonably argue against it. For instance, a bad thesis example would be “The TV show Kim’s Convenience tells the story of an immigrant family’s experiences in Canada” because it’s an obvious point that you cannot reasonably argue against. A good thesis example would be: “Although the Royal BC Museum has attempted to return artifacts to Indigenous communities, its exhibitions continue to reinforce the idea that Indigenous culture is stuck in the past.” This sentence sets you up to support your argument with evidence and to make an interesting and non-obvious point about an exhibition.
• Supporting paragraphs: Support your thesis statement with specific image examples from the exhibition. You should have at least three supporting paragraphs. 
 One paragraph must address at least one trope (see prompt #3 above).
 One paragraph must address Orientalism (see prompt #4 above).
 You may wish to include additional paragraphs that address the prompts above about apology and institutional critique or you may wish to spend multiple paragraphs identifying how additional tropes were used or avoided.
• Conclusion: Close your review by telling your reader what you would have included (one specific image or object that you find) and why. Make sure you tell your reader you are working in the tradition of Fred Wilson and include the text of your actual exhibition label as a separate appendix at the end of the review. 
• Paper should be 3 full pages, not including exhibition label. Must be in 12pt Times New Roman Font, 1-inch margins, no extra spaces between paragraphs or elaborate schemes to space 
your
words
out. 
Marking Rubric
Total points possible: 22
Please note: point amounts are the maximum you can earn for each component, which means getting the max points for any component requires a stellar job addressing it. Just doing something related to the component will not yield the max points. For instance, if you say, “the main message is about women,” that will be 0 points for the “main message” component because it is not specific and is obvious. 
o Main message identified and supported – max 2 pts
o Thesis is appropriate to instructions and able to be debated and defended with evidence from the exhibition – max 3 pts
o Supporting paragraphs #1 and #2 (must follow instructions, choose specific images, analyze them appropriately using visual analysis methods from lectures, to get the max points examples must be convincing to the reader) – max 4pts per paragraph (8 total pts)
o Additional supporting paragraphs (relevant, well-argued and follows instructions) – max 2 pts total
o Conclusion – max 3 pts
o Exhibition label attachment – max 1 pt
o Follows formatting – max 1 pt
o Overall impression, quality of paper and writing (good transitions, spelling, word choice, technical aspects of writing, components come together to form a coherent whole, thesis is supported) – max 2pts
PLEASE NOTE:
• Please do not look up already existing reviews of the exhibition. Recycling these ideas will not get you many points because you need to use visual analysis to support your points. The strongest papers will be your original ideas and analysis of the exhibition and its images. Don’t cheat yourself and remember our class code of integrity – NO GOOGLING FOR ANSWERS!! This is not about answers, it is about learning to develop your own analysis. Google can’t do that for you and will lead you astray. For the millionth time, believe me. 
• Please review the general writing rubric that is posted on A2L for additional tips on what constitutes an A paper.