hIARTS 3MD3

P1: Critical Research-Creation Profile

Work format: Pairs
Final format: Public multimodal profile on the course Webador website

Overview

In pairs, you will research an artist or collective whose practice addresses issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Using course readings, academic research, artist sources, and selected artworks, you will develop a multimodal profile for the course website.

The project has five versions. Each version builds on the previous one. You will establish a research direction, develop critical connections between research and artworks, write a critical analysis and preliminary research-creation proposal, design and discuss a research poster, and revise and publish the final public profile on Webador.

Project index

• Version 1: Research Direction
• Version 2: Critical Connections
• Version 3: Multimodal Profile Draft
• Version 4: Poster Session
• Version 5: Final Profile

How the project develops

Each version is part of the project process. Keep all research notes, source information, writing, images, captions, credits, permissions, and links organized so you can revise and reuse them in later versions.

Research and writing expectations

• Read, watch, or listen to the assigned and selected sources in full when required for the current version.
• Examine the artworks through reliable images, video, audio, exhibition records, or other documentation.
• Write notes, annotations, descriptions, and analysis in your own words.
• Use specific evidence from the artworks and sources instead of broad claims about an artist, artwork, or community.
• Clearly distinguish what the artist states, what another author or source argues, and what you interpret.
• Use APA citations for borrowed ideas, information, paraphrases, and quotations.
• Do not assume an artist’s identity, intentions, beliefs, experiences, or relationships with communities.
• Do not reduce an artist or community to trauma, discrimination, or identity categories.
• Consider representation, consent, access, positionality, cultural context, and accountability when relevant to the research.
• Use only images and media that you have permission to publish on the public course website.
• Provide complete captions, creator or photographer credits, source information, and appropriate text alternatives for published media.
• Use high-quality images that remain clear and are not visibly pixelated at the size they appear on the webpage.

Accessibility and media expectations

• Organize information using clear headings and a logical reading order.
• Use readable text and strong contrast between text and background.
• Do not communicate important information through colour alone.
• Give links descriptive names instead of using phrases such as “click here.”
• Add a caption, credit, and useful alt text to every image.
• Provide captions for video and a transcript or equivalent text summary for audio-only material.
• Provide a text alternative when important information appears in a poster, diagram, collage, or other image.
• Export documents as text-based PDFs with selectable text and working links. Do not submit scanned pages or screenshots as the complete PDF.

Alt text is a brief text description that communicates an image’s relevant content or purpose to someone who cannot see it.

What the final profile will include

• A 100–150-word introduction to the artist or collective
• 2 selected artworks or projects, with descriptions and documentation
• The research questions, revised thesis, and 2 central concepts
• A revised 500–700-word critical analysis
• A revised annotated bibliography with 8 core sources
• A revised 100–150-word research-creation proposal
• High-quality images and media with required captions, credits, source links, permissions, and text alternatives
• The final research poster, with its important information also available as webpage text

The research-creation proposal may inform Project 2, but it does not commit you to a final artistic direction.

Credits: Jessica A. Rodríguez