1. Just one of the millions of ways …
How to analyse stuff
Just one of the millions of ways …

2. RFID
Radio Frequency Identification Your homework was to find out about RFID and the projects that people have done with the technology and those they have not yet made. Do a mini presentation of your findings to the group.

3. Questions:
What do you personally think about the piece? What was the artist’s intension in making the piece? How does this piece relate to other projects by the artist? Are there are particular themes or theoretical ideas that the projects discusses? How does the project relate to historical ideas? What is the wider cultural meaning of the project? How successful is the piece? (Explain your criteria)

4. What do you personally think about the piece?
Your personal reaction to a project is an important guide for further analysis. If you find something exciting then this can be a good start for further analysis. If you don’t understand the piece or find it boring, it might be that you have missed some crucial aspect. If you find something offensive than this is a great place to think about the intentions of the project.

5. What was the artist’s intension in making the piece?
This is a difficult one and it sometimes helps to look at how the artists themselves has written or talked about the project. Like everybody else artists deceive themselves about their intensions. Take any stated intensions with a big dose of salt! Does the artist’s intension match our understanding of the piece? If it doesn’t what is going on?

6. How does this piece relate to other projects by the artist?
Well for this you need to do some simple research.
Seeing the history of the artist allows you to make sure that you really understand the piece properly. Some artists continue their same basic concept from project to project. Some change rapidly with each piece.

7. Are there particular themes or theoretical ideas that the projects discusses?
Here for example we should consider how the project functions. Is the project trying to create new social relations? How does the project relate to the technology? Who funded the project and why?
How does it relate to concepts such as security and control? How does it relate to other people?

8. How does the project relate to historical ideas?
Does the project relate to specific art historical movements or events? Conceptual art? Futurism? Cinema? Photography? Historical political events?

9. What is the wider cultural meaning of the project?
This is the big question that might take up 70% of the text you need to write at the end of this module. This question pulls together all the previous ones. Here you need a strong and clear argument with lots of relevant references to sources. Remember there are many different cultures in this world and a project might relate very differently to one than another.

10. How successful is the piece? (Explain your criteria)
This is again useful way of bringing your own opinion into the discussion. Criteria are important. The same way I have some criteria by which I have to mark you, you can set your own criteria and explain why they are relevant. One criteria might be how beautiful the project is. Well then you need to qualify beauty and see if it applies to this project.

11. RFID Summary
What categories of projects have emerged? What have we learnt?