Essay 3: Public Space in Context

Science, since people must do it, is a socially embedded activity. It progresses by hunch, vision, and intuition. Much of its change through time does not record a closer approach to absolute truth, but the alteration of cultural contexts that influence it so strongly. Facts are not pure and unsullied bits of information; culture also influences what we see and how we see it. Theories, moreover, are not inexorable inductions from facts. The most creative theories are often imaginative visions imposed upon facts; the source of imagination is also strongly cultural. (emphasis added)

—Stephen Jay Gould, from the introduction to “The Mismeasure of Man” (1981)

 

While we’ve been working on matters such as analyzing evidence, coming up with problems and questions, developing arguments, and thinking about how to structure an essay, we’ve also been thinking about knowledge and how we come to know what we know or to think we know what we know – and perhaps to question both what we know and how we know it. As we’ve moved along, we’ve not only read essays, but also considered other kinds of texts (photographs, films) and how they present arguments that might not be immediately apparent – but that become evident by analyzing evidence.

 

For this essay, the idea is to send you out into the world to investigate a public space in order to find and consider a problem of your own making: what can we know by interacting with and observing a public space? To do this you’ll visit and observe some public space of your choosing (see list below*). To help you craft an essay you’ll use sources: at least one from the Readings we cover in class (see “Public Space Readings” in the Class/Shared Folder) and two from your own research (in addition to ProQuest and JSTOR, we’ll also discuss resources that are perhaps tailored for thinking about public space).

 

Consider this essay for example: note how the writer’s observation locates an interesting feature of the neighborhood (chrome fences and railings in Sunset Park, Brooklyn) that tells a larger story about immigration and cultural values.

 

Your task is similar. First you’ll visit and observe a public space. You won’t know ahead of time what you’re looking for: that’s part of the fun! But once you’ve gathered your observations, you’ll look for evidence of larger patterns, anomalies, and idiosyncrasies that tell us that there’s more going on beneath the surface. You’ll combine your observation with research to help you tell this story.

 

Requirements: 1,300-1,800 words (5-7 pages); MLA citation (in-text and Works Cited page); at least 3 sources but you can, of course, include more as you see fit to do so.

 

Along the way to composing this essay, there will be two other graded assignments: the Annotated Bibliography (10%) and the Multimodal Presentation (15%). The Annotated Bibliography will ask you to annotate three sources. The Multimodal Presentation will ask you to translate your work into a visual presentation that you’ll present to the class in 5-7 minutes. See the separate instructions for each assignment.