What is “private” about this space? What is “public” about this space? Is the setting meant to foster community engagement in the public sphere or is it designed o foster private reflection…or both?

Sociology of Culture

Essay Assignment #3 . Discussions may go beyond this date and will be posted in the discussion board.

Material culture embodies the non-material, and a deeper understanding of cultural content, images, ideas, and representations from the various interpretive readings in your text, MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES, as well as the additional readings on the “Evolving Monument” and the social construct of the “Statue of Liberty”, building, placement, and generational viewing are preparations for doing an observational analysis of culture, materially and non-materially.

The cultural production process and culture consumption processes are open to interpretations through the encoding/decoding process. Sociologically, we can use significant categories like age, gender, class, race/ethnicity, nationality, religion/sprituality to establish dominating patterns of representation. The Essay requires observations, documentation, and analysis of cultural embodiment in this project on monuments.

STEPS:

Identify and select a monument in your community (your LI town, city borough, what you consider to be your physical community. You will make at least 2 on-site visits to the monument, photodocumenting the monument, any textual signage, the setting of the monument, any observations of other people (socially distancing) who visit to the monument to see the monument or to use the space for other purposes. What is “private” about this space? What is “public” about this space? Is the setting meant to foster community engagement in the public sphere or is it designed o foster private reflection…or both?

You will photodocument and you will need to write notes of your observations to use in your essay.

Format:

5 typed pages in the following order: (plus attachments)

Page 1: Name (the official name and location) of your monument. Include 2 of your photoimages.

Page 2, 3, 4: In sentences & paragraphs, describe the material aspects of the monument and describe the non-material (symbolic) representations and meaning of the monument. Start with what is “officially” designated. You can add interpretations of multiple meanings based on age, race/ethnicity, gender,,, class, and other sociological categories that imply differential perspectives.

Use your photos as a springboard, and write your descriptions of the monument, the setting, and the “interaction” of others in the space of the monument. What is said? Did you engage anyone in a conversation about the monument.

Does your monument have any history or current responses (like the wave of anti-confederate protests and alterations of confederate statues)? If so, what? If not, do you think there should be some type of “alteration” removing, defacing, relocating….”?

Page 5: Discuss your views on these representations. Are there images that you identify with? Are the images/representations those that you believe should be changed? If so, in what form?

Attachments: Attach more of your photos; you can use thumbnails for multiple images, limit yourself to 4 pages.