Fieldtrip, 18 March

artefact ...Anything made by human art and workmanship; an artificial product. In Archæol. applied to the rude products of aboriginal workmanship as distinguished from natural remains.

The Assignment:

• Explore the antique mall, and find and purchase an arte(i)fact under $10 which connects somehow to Geography of Human Culture(s), either because it's in the chronotope of something we've discussed, or because it's something we could have discussed if we'd gotten to it.

• Write a page or so of explication of the arte(i)fact, revealing how it fits into what we've been doing for the last 10 weeks. Save that text as mall.html before class on Tuesday 23 March, and bring the object to class on Tuesday.

• We'll put all of the objects onto the table and see what sense we can make of them, individually and as a collection, before looking at your explications.

So what's an explication? The OED again:

1. The action or process of unfolding (flowers, leaves, etc.). Obs.
2. The process of developing or bringing out what is implicitly contained in a notion, proposition, principle, etc.; the result of this process.
3. The action or process of stating or describing in detail; a detailed statement or description.
4. The action or process of unfolding the cause or origin of a phenomenon; a statement made for this purpose. Obs.
5. The action or process of removing difficulty or obscurity from, or making clear the meaning of (a word, statement, symbol, etc.). Also, that which effects this; an explanation, interpretation.