nterpretive analysis should not be mistaken for the sum of all the analytic exercises that precede it: description and deduction followed by speculation and then, in turn, by research findings. The method is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Analysis should digest, develop, and present perceptions generated from these exercises, but differ from them in being structured by an argument, a clearly-worded claim defended though detailed references to both the object (entailing passages of description and deduction) and its context (entailing some citation of sources, primary and secondary, as well as figures and notes).

A research prospectus should be detailed enough to give a clear sense of what in your object has given rise to interpretation. From what that you See or know or feel has your sense of your object's thematic content emerged? Be aware that different questions lead to different areas of the library (or to places other than the library, including collections of comparative objects) in which to do originali research.

o recognize and so to evaluate, indeed question, the myriad conclusions we risk otherwise to draw uncritically; only thus can we control for our own-however well-intended-careless or precipitous or culturally-biased leaps to arguably wrong conclusions.

1968 was truly a year of protest around the world.

Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., walks on the arm of Dr. Ralph Abernathy, her husband's successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership conference, leading about 10,000 people in a memorial march to the slain Dr. King. The King children, Yolanda, Martin III, and Dexter are at left with Harry Belafonte. Reverend Andrew Young marches next to Dr. Abernathy. #

This aerial view shows clouds of smoke rising from burning buildings in northeast Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1968. The fires resulted from rioting and demonstrations after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. # AP

Civil-rights leader Andrew Young (left) and others stand on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel pointing in the direction of an assailant after the assassination of civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who is lying at their feet, in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

One of the last pictures to be taken of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as he spoke to a mass rally in Memphis on April 3rd, saying he would not halt his plans for a massive demonstration scheduled for April 8 in spite of a federal injunction.

he point is to begin to recognize the ways in which the object has created its effect. These more emotional deductions serve as a bridge to speculation about meaning

How does the object make one feel? Specifically, what in or about the object brings those feelings out? As these will be, to a certain extent at least, personal responses, the challenge-beyond recognizing and articulating-is to account for them materially.

The more self-conscious one becomes, the more complex one’s relationship to an object becomes, physically and ocularly as well as psychologically and experientially. For the purpose of analysis, there is value in isolating different realms of deductive response so that these can be handled more circumspec

These observations can be summarized asfollows:●we do not analyze objects; we analyze our descriptions of objects●writing constitutesanalysis: we do not really see with clarity what we have not said that we have seenComposing and revising an objective-as-possible description frees one to move from a narro

ormalizing our observations in language, we generate a set of carefully selected nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and verbs which effectively determine the bounds of possible interpretation. This is why the words we choose in saying what we see have such far reaching importance.

void uasting precious words at this point on introductions, conclusions, restatements of the assignment, or autobiographicalconfessions; just describe uhat you see.

t seems to depend on a linkage-formal, iconographic, functional-between the object and some fundamental human experience, whether engagement with the physical world, interaction with other individuals, sense of self (often expressed anthropomorphically), common human emotions, or significant life

2beyond their state of being, to these objects' cultural significance; attention not just to whatthey might be said to signify but, as importantly, to how they might be said to signify; to their gerundial meaning (active verb form:to bring meaning into being), to the uay they mean, both phenomenologically and metaphorically. This method of investigation may be usefully schematized in the form of an annotated course assignment.Choose an object to consider.All objects signify; some signify more expressively than others.

students will find value principally in learning from the models that these readings offer of how such interpretation can be carried Öut.While only some of culture takes material form, the part that does records the shape and imprint of otherwise more abstract, conceptual, or even metaphysical aspects of that culture that they quite literally embody

They constitute a sort of pedagogic sampler, an anthology of essays in the strictly etymological sense: experiments in orelaborations of a rigorously practical (as opposed to purely theoretical) approach to understanding things

Description provides the bridge between the realm of the material and thatof concepts and ideas

is to discover the patterns of mind underlyingfabrication of the artifact

Because the method places value on the interpreter's own input

Meaning lies hidden in thematic figurations

Composing and revising an objective-as-possible description frees one to move from a narrow focus on the object itself to a focus on the relationship between the object and oneself as its perceiver.

It is out of our paraphrase of what we see that all interpretation grows

he most persistent object metaphors expressive of belief” seem embedded in polarities

It seems to depend on a linkage-formal, iconographic, functional-between the object and some fundamental human experience,

All objects signify; some signify more expressively than others. As the list of objects studied over the course of time in a single university seminar attests, the possibilities are virtually limitless-especially considering that no two individuals will read a given object in the same way.

attention not just to whatthey might be said to signify but, as importantly, to how they might be said to signify

While only some of culture takes material form, the part that does records the shape and imprint of otherwise more abstract, conceptual, or even metaphysical aspects of that culture that they quite literally embody

Looking at the cover now, it’s hard not to notice that one of the villainous figures looks a lot like Fidel Castro, and one of his comrades wields a machete. It’s hard to say whether or not this moment of recognition is related, but in high school I fell hard for Che Guevara, whose Jon Lee Anderson-penned biography I read with great enthusiasm.

the machete has a special place in the labor history of Florida, where for three and a half centuries slaves and wageworkers cut sugarcane in the fields by hand. Indeed, machetes are unique to the extent that they have always been used for both purposes—and not just as a plot device in horror flicks, either.

That’s not entirely true: Florida state law requires that all carriers of concealed weapons, including knives, have a permit. But Wilson’s machete wasn’t concealed: it was tied to his thigh.

In the film, the Chicano anti-hero enacts a popular revolt against the white-dominated economic and political power structure of the director’s native Texas.

Despite its Spanish word origin, the first major industrial manufacturers of machetes were English and American. English machete makers did their briskest business in the regions under the Empire’s control: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, British Guiana, and Grenada.

One of the women wields a long knife as he cowers; it might be a sword, but it could be a machete. Not far away, I bought a souvenir blade emblazoned with the state seals of the five nations involved in Walker’s ouster. It was difficult to get past customs.

Looking at the cover now, it’s hard not to notice that one of the villainous figures looks a lot like Fidel Castro, and one of his comrades wields a machete. It’s hard to say whether or not this moment of recognition is related, but in high school I fell hard for Che Guevara, whose Jon Lee Anderson-penned biography I read with great enthusiasm.

the machete has a special place in the labor history of Florida, where for three and a half centuries slaves and wageworkers cut sugarcane in the fields by hand.

What you couldn't see, at first, was anything but static on the TV screen. Many Americans bought TVs before they could receive a signal.

As always, there’s a dispute over who was actually first.

obsolescence.

What kind of life did the CRT lead?

“Rust in peace,”

ice President Hubert Humphrey and his running mate, Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, with their wives shown at the final session Democratic Convention in Chicago following their nominations for president and vice president, on August 29, 1968. # AP Read more

busboy Juan Romero tries to comfort him in kitchen in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 1968

Senator Robert F. Kennedy is surrounded by hundreds of people as he leans down to shake hands during a presidential campaign appearance at a street corner in central Philadelphia on April 2, 1968. Kennedy had declared his candidacy for the presidency of the United States only weeks earlier, on March 16

A street scene from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Grant St. at 5th Ave. on August 24, 1968.

The Beatles pose together on February 28, 1968. From left are Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. This was the year they released the White Album. #

Original caption: Dr. Timothy Leary holds a conference in New York City on February 21, 1968. The LSD advocate said he is tuning in with peaceniks and “Yippies” and hopes to have a million young people in Chicago during the Democratic Party’s convention in August. He said he hopes they will disrupt the convention through “Flower Guerrilla” warfare. At left is Abbie Hoffman, who said he is an organizer and at right is Jerry Rubin, peace movement worker. #

The American trio was backed by the West German Rolf Hans Mueller big band and was celebrated with thundering applause. #

"Clothing for the Emancipated Man."

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in the 200-meter run at the 1968 Olympic Games, engage in a victory stand protest against unfair treatment of blacks in the United States. With heads lowered and black-gloved fists raised in the black power salute, they refused to recognize the American flag and national anthem. Australian Peter Norman is the silver medalist

The Beatles pose together on February 28, 1968. From left are Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. This was the year they released the White Album.

Firemen battle a blaze on 125th Street in Harlem, New York, on April 4, 1968, after a furniture store and other buildings were set on fire after it was learned that civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated

Fashion in 1968. Left: A male model wears a silk jersey print pajama leisure suit, sandals, and a necklace at a fashion show in New York on January 9. The show was entitled "Clothing for the Emancipated Man." Center: A sculpted silver necklace designed by Pierre Cardin features a diamond worth $60,000. The necklace is built into the halter that is part of a long black crepe evening gown presented in his spring collection in Paris, France, in February. Right: A cocktail dress of printed pure silk with a full skirt, a creation by the Fontana Sisters fashion house of Rome, to be presented at the upcoming Italian spring-summer ready-to-wear fashion show that opened in Florence on November 6, 1968

South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, fires his pistol, executing suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem (also known as Bay Lop) on a Saigon street on February 1, 1968, early in the Tet Offensive. Lem was suspected of commanding a death squad which had targeted South Vietnamese police officers that day. The fame of this photo led to a life of infamy for Nguyen Ngoc Loan, who quietly moved to the United States in 1975 and opened a pizza shop in Virginia.

Firemen battle a blaze on 125th Street in Harlem, New York, on April 4, 1968

This aerial view shows clouds of smoke rising from burning buildings in northeast Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1968. The fires resulted from rioting and demonstrations after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Left: A male model wears a silk jersey print pajama leisure suit, sandals, and a necklace at a fashion show in New York on January 9. The show was entitled "Clothing for the Emancipated Man."

The American trio was backed by the West German Rolf Hans Mueller big band and was celebrated with thundering applause.

U.S. National Guard troops block off Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, as Civil Rights marchers wearing placards reading, "I AM A MAN" pass by on March 29, 1968. It was the third consecutive march held by the group in as many days.

Two of the biggest catalysts for protest were the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and the ongoing lack of civil rights in the U.S. and elsewhere

A massive anti-Vietnam war demonstration in London on March 18, 1968. Hundreds were arrested as they demonstrated outside the United States embassy. #

This aerial view shows clouds of smoke rising from burning buildings in northeast Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1968. The fires resulted from rioting and demonstrations after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. # AP Read more

Civil-rights leader Andrew Young (left) and others stand on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel pointing in the direction of an assailant after the assassination of civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who is lying at their feet, in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

U.S Marine with several days of beard growth sits in a helicopter on July 18, 1968, after being picked up from a landing zone near Con Thein on the southern edge of the demilitarized zone in South Vietnam. His unit had just been relieved of duty after patrolling the region around the DMZ. # Stone / AP Read more

much of the world appeared to be in a state of crisis. Protests erupted in France, Czechoslovakia. Germany, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and many other places.

Two of the biggest catalysts for protest were the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and the ongoing lack of civil rights in the U.S. and elsewhere. Two of America’s most prominent leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, were assassinated within months of each other. But some lessons were being learned and some progress was being made—this was also the year that NASA first sent astronauts around the moon and back, and the year President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. It’s fitting that I post this retrospective today, since it is the day I was born—January 10, 1968. So, a 50th birthday present from me to you today: a look back at 1968.

Prague residents surround Soviet tanks in front of the Czechoslovak Radio station building in central Prague during the first day of a Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia

after returning home, became governor of Virginia in 1982, and later a senator for the same state. #

Soldiers cut a student's hair after he was arrested during the first hour and a half of shooting in the Tlatelolco area in Mexico City on October 3, 1968. Another student stands against the wall. #

the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968.

The American trio was backed by the West German Rolf Hans Mueller big band and was celebrated with thundering applause.

A Look Back at 1968

According to court testimony, they were killed seconds after the photo was taken. The woman on the right is adjusting her blouse buttons because of a sexual assault that happened before the massacre.

Miami policemen, one holding the man's arm and the other with an arm lock on his neck, drag away a Negro youth during a clash between police and rioters in that city's predominantly Negro Liberty City district on August 8, 1968. #

Members of the Black Panthers gather in front of entrance to the Alameda County Courthouse

A large crowd lines railroad tracks as the funeral train of Robert F. Kennedy passes on its way to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., walks past the casket containing the body of the assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on June 7, 1968.

Mexico's Norma Enriqueta Basilio, the first woman in the history of the modern Olympic Games to light the Olympic Fire, runs up the 90 steps with the Olympic Torch during the opening ceremonies here on October 12, 1968.

On the roadside, two emaciated Nigerian boys slowly die from starvation and malnutrition. Biafra was a breakaway state within Nigeria that fought a war for independence from 1967 to 1970, ending after years of fighting and a crippling blockade by Nigeria resulted in the deaths of between 500,000 and two million Biafran civilians by starvation.

Violent clashes between policeman and students take place during the May 1968 protests in Paris, France.

Coretta Scott King, the widow

Civil-rights leader Andrew Young (left) and others stand on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel pointing in the direction of an assailant after the assassination of civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By late summer, talks between the Soviets and Czech leaders were not going the way the Kremlin wanted, so more than 2,000 tanks and thousands more Warsaw Pact troops invaded and occupied the country in August.

Two of America’s most prominent leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy,

Protests erupted in France, Czechoslovakia. Germany, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and many other places.

The fires resulted from rioting and demonstrations after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. #

lying at their feet

This column of Soviet tanks was lined up in a street in Prague, Czec

It was the third consecutive march held by the group in as many days

Civil Rights Ac

His unit had just been relieved of duty after patrolling the region around the DMZ. #

The Beatles pose together on February 28, 1968.

1968 was truly a year of protest around the world.

The fires resulted from rioting and demonstrations after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

April 4, 1968

One of the last pictures to be taken of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as he spoke to a mass rally in Memphis on April 3rd, saying he would not halt his plans for a massive demonstration scheduled for April 8 in spite of a federal injunction.

this was also the year that

Apollo 8

A U.S. Marine keeps his head low as he drags a wounded buddy from the ruins of the Citadel's outer wall during the Battle of Hue in Vietnam on February 16, 1968. #

Helicopters fly low during Operation Pegasus in Vietnam on April 5, 1968. They were taking part in the operation to relieve the Khe Sanh marine base, which had been under siege for the previous three months. #

A U.S Marine with several days of beard

Civil Rights marchers wearing placards reading, "I AM A MAN"

Demonstrators march on Washington, D.C., during the Poor Peoples' Campaign Solidarity Day on June 19, 1968

President Johnson called federal troops into the nation's capital to restore peace after a day of arson, looting, and violence on April 5, 1968. Here, a trooper stands guard in the street as another (left) patrols a completely demolished building

Firemen battle a blaze on 125th Street in Harlem, New York, on April 4, 1968, after a furniture store and other buildings were set on fire after it was learned that civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated

Fashion in 1968. Left: A male model wears a silk jersey print pajama leisure suit, sandals, and a necklace at a fashion show in New York on January 9. The show was entitled "Clothing for the Emancipated Man." Center: A sculpted silver necklace designed by Pierre Cardin features a diamond worth $60,000. The necklace is built into the halter that is part of a long black crepe evening gown presented in his spring collection in Paris, France, in February. Right: A cocktail dress of printed pure silk with a full skirt, a creation by the Fontana Sisters fashion house of Rome, to be presented at the upcoming Italian spring-summer ready-to-wear fashion show that opened in Florence on November 6, 1968.

American figure skater Peggy Fleming practices on an outside rink on February 1968 in Grenoble, in the French Alps, during the 1968 Winter Olympic Games. Fleming took the gold medal in women's figure skating.

South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, fires his pistol, executing suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem (also known as Bay Lop) on a Saigon street on February 1, 1968, early in the Tet Offensive. Lem was suspected of commanding a death squad which had targeted South Vietnamese police officers that day. The fame of this photo led to a life of infamy for Nguyen Ngoc Loan, who quietly moved to the United States in 1975 and opened a pizza shop in Virginia.

It’s fitting that I post this retrospective today

Civil Rights marchers

most significant technological presentations in history, showcasing technologies that have become what we now know as modern computing

Here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, state police cavalry charge students attending a memorial mass for Edson Luis de Lima Souto, a student killed by police, at Candelaria Church on April 4, 1968

American figure skater Peggy Fleming practices on an outside rink on February 1968 in Grenoble, in the French Alps, during the 1968 Winter Olympic Games. Fleming took the gold medal in women's figure skating

much of the world appeared to be in a state of crisis.

A street scene from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Grant St. at 5th Ave. on August 24, 1968.

American actor Gary Lockwood on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The groundbreaking film premiered in April of 1968, and earned the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

This aerial view shows clouds of smoke rising from burning buildings in northeast Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1968. The fires resulted from rioting and demonstrations after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

A speaker addresses a mass rally in support of democracy organized by the youth of Prague at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on May 18, 1968. During a period called the "Prague Spring," Alexander Dubček, the newly-elected leader of the Warsaw Pact nation, enacted numerous reforms loosening state control and expanding individual rights, which both encouraged citizens and angered the Soviet Union.

South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, fires his pistol, executing suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem (also known as Bay Lop) on a Saigon street on February 1, 1968, early in the Tet Offensive. Lem was suspected of commanding a death squad which had targeted South Vietnamese police officers that day. The fame of this photo led to a life of infamy for Nguyen Ngoc Loan, who quietly moved to the United States in 1975 and opened a pizza shop in Virginia.