Deanna Stover's Courses

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Deanna Stover is an Assistant Professor at Christopher Newport University. This website is a compilation of her syllabi since starting at CNU in Fall 2020.

View the Project on GitHub deanna-stover/coursesCNU

Museum Project

Proposal Due: Tuesday, September 21st by 11:59 pm
Percentage: 5%

Meetings with Me: Week 5

Showcase: Wednesday, October 6th (in-class)

Final Museum Project Due: Friday, October 8th by the end of our normal class period (no class)
Percentage: 20%

General Overview

After reading Phillip Hamilton’s Serving the Old Dominion: A History of Christopher Newport University, 1958-2011 and (if COVID allows) visiting CNU’s 60 Years of Significance historical exhibition, you will propose and then complete an analog or digital project related to CNU’s history or its present alongside a 1-2 page explanation of the project. Basically, we are “remixing” the museum with creative, critical making projects.

So, what is “critical making”? A term popularized by Matt Rotto, it is essentially the combination of critical thinking with making things. Although this is often digital in DH, there’s been a big push to visualize data in material ways as well. Because of this, I’m allowing you to create a digital OR physical artifact. Please be as creative as you can!

This is about taking data (broadly defined) and visualizing it in some way. Note that data doesn’t have to mean numbers, but it certainly can. The point is, you’re able to see (perhaps even touch!) data in some way.

Some examples of possible analog materials (but this list is not exhaustive!)

Some examples of possible digital artifacts (but this list is not exhaustive!)

Note that I’m not experienced in all of these materials (both digital and analog), so you will have to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the technologies (both digital and analog) outside of class. However, please come talk to me if you are struggling and I will do my best to help.

Assignment Breakdown

Proposal - Tuesday, September 21st by 11:59 pm

Your proposal should be 300 words and explain both your topic and why visualizing that data is important. The “so what?” as it were. Finally, your proposal should address how you’re going to find the data you need (the Hamilton book, the CNU data repositories I showed in class, etc.).

I will not accept the other portions of this assignment until your proposal has been approved.

Note that you can change topics and/or materials after the proposal, but I must approve these changes.

Final Museum Project - Friday, October 8th by end of class period

This is a creative project, so it’s hard to give definitive guidelines. When I give you feedback on your proposal and when we meet in Week 5, I will give you more guidance as to what you personally should be doing.

However, alongside your creative project, you will write a 1-2 page (double-spaced) explanation of the piece. This should provide adequate context for your creative work and show how it is, as Kathleen Fitzpatrick discusses, “critically aware.” You may need to cite Hamilton’s book, for instance, if you borrowed information from him or even cite the museum exhibit we will (hopefully) see. But it should discuss the choices you made as you developed your project and help me understand the project as a whole and how it visualizes data in some way.

Note that depending on your project, you might have additional materials. For instance, an embroidery project might also include a “Key” or “Legend” on the side. These materials shouldn’t take up too much extra time but are critical for viewers to interpret your project.

Late Work

I will be subtracting 5 points for every day your assignment is late unless you’ve been been given an extension.

Evaluation Criteria

- Museum Proposal

- Museum Project (and Explanation)

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