Doll Box/DVD Case Project
Marketable Selfhood

This is a version of an assignment designed by Jody Shipka

John Berger's Ways of Seeing offers us a critical framework through which to view the cultural images around us. He contends that every image requires a response from its viewers, and that what an image communicates depends on the point-of-view of the viewer. Kate Bornstein's My Gender Workbook critiques the ways in which we represent/perform/image our gender(s) for ourselves and for those around us. Often who we want to be and who we are expected to be conflict and we become aware of the fact that we are performing a "self" for a particular audience. We make sure we look and act the part we are expected to play. This assignment asks us to think about the ways in which we "package" our selves in order to be successful in the cultural roles we play.

Content
The question to answer with this assignment is: Who am I and what does it mean for me to be a student? We are all students, but each of us has personal histories and individual cultural backgrounds that go into our student package. Brainstorm the ways in which your race/ethnicity, religion (or absence thereof), gender, sexuality, and family background work together along with the educational system to create your student self. What parts of your self conflict? What aspects of your self-hood are foregrounded and which are backgrounded? What skills are you expected to demonstrate? How do you and how are you expected to visually present yourself?

Format
For this assignment you will create the doll box or DVD case that would package and sell a student doll/film version of you. The primary purpose of all packaging is to sell the product inside, but your doll package should also be a form of critique. It should expose the difficulties you encounter in performing your student self.

You are required to submit a 2-3 page typed rationale accounting for the choices you have made in designing your product. Remember: Each mark you make on the box/case allows you to do or say something that another mark would or could not. Nothing is more disappointing than to find that a student has presented an astounding feature only to have that student say--when asked why they chose to put it there--"Oh, I don't know-I just stuck it on the box."

Final Note: I will not be assessing your artistic ability. Rather, I will be looking for evidence of careful reflection on your part--as well as evidence of careful planning and execution of the project as a whole. In short, I will be looking for evidence that you have spent enough time engaging with the prompt to come up with a provocative concept of student self.