Whereas your initial proposal was a mixture of laying out ideas and–perhaps especially–thinking through the project’s logistical and material needs. In this moment–before most of you have started actively creating, but after you’ve had two weeks to think, talk, and rethink–you are poised to write a proposal emphasizing the project’s conceptual dimension. 

By Sunday at 9 pm, write and post a proposal of 3-4 paragraphs (~750-900 words). The proposal should give your project a title. Beyond that, it should lay out  (1) your project’s central concept(s)–partly captured in the title!–(2) the relationship of its proposed material form to those concepts, (3) how you hope to communicate those ideas to your audience (without, of course, coming out and saying them!), and (4) what you hope viewers/readers/spectators will take away from their encounter with your work of art. Include an image in your post: it can be of your group at work; of your materials; or of something in the world–another work of art, perhaps–that inspires or influences your project.

Questions to spark thoughts as you draft/redraft/write:

-What is our project’s central concept, its driving idea? Is it an idea about New York–a thesis or claim about the city itself? Is it an idea about the world–about something that needs changing or fixing or simply more attention? Is the idea a question? Or a thesis, a claim? Is it a message for the viewer?

-How does the material form of the project communicate its concept? How does the object we’re creating embody a concept of the city, or expose a problem, or —? (Most of your projects contain myriad elements. Ask yourself: how do the pieces, together, create a coherent whole? And at the same time, how does the irreducibly multiple nature of this project form a crucial part of its form, and its message?

-How will viewers interact with the object? What do you expect them to notice first? How do you expect a prolonged encounter between a viewer and the artwork to develop–what will they interact with, wonder about, tinker with, be delighted or shocked or intrigued by? What affective (emotional) response do you hope to provoke in the viewer? What cognitive response? What do you hope lingers in the viewer’s eyes, or mind, after they have moved on–what do you want them to take away?

NOTE: Do not write a bullet-pointed, blow-by-blow response to these questions. Rather, write an internally coherent standalone statement. To do this, you’ll need to pick which questions (and which answers) are most important and relevant for your project, and carefully choose the order in which to discuss them. All proposals should convey a strong sense of the driving concept, the material form’s relationship to that concept, and audience interactions; beyond that, it’s up to you. 

NOTE 2: All group members should contribute. Divide the labor, and work together (Google docs is a great way to do this collaboratively). Ultimately, the proposal will be written in your collective voice–that is, in the first person plural (ie, “With our project, ‘Whitman 2019,’ we hope to foster attention to the city’s transit hubs as spaces of connection. Combining poetry and photography, we imagine Walt Whitman traveling in time to today’s New York, and writing about–and documenting–his experiences in ferry terminals, subway stations, and busy footpaths. Inspired by ‘Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,’  our goal in this work is not simply to _____, but also to _______.”)