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SPEAKER: And welcome to your Week 2 video tutorial.
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This week we're going to be talking about the concept
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of an artifact.
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For your upcoming assignments in Humanities 100,
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you're going to be choosing a number of artifacts
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that you'll be discussing in more detail.
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And as far as the definition of it
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goes and as far as the purposes of our Humanities 100 course,
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there's a specific way we want you
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to think about this concept of an artifact.
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You've got some readings, of course, the new materials
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in Blackboard to help you define the term artifact more clearly.
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But we also wanted to give you a quick tutorial
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to clarify, as well.
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So again, for the purposes of our Humanities 100 course,
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when defining an artifact you want
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to think of two main elements of that definition.
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That first element is that it must
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be something that is man-made.
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So it's not something that's naturally occurring or found
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in nature.
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It has to be created by man.
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So it can be a physical object.
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It can be one of the more traditional
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creative visual works of art like a painting, a building,
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a statue, even a photograph, something
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that you can actually hold.
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Or it can be an intangible creation--
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so a song, a dance, a choreographed performance,
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a television show, again these aren't
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things that are tangible, they're not physical,
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but they are created by man.
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Secondly, an artifact should not be primarily
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functional or practical.
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Its main purpose is not to create a function
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or to result in a particular function.
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It is more of that creative expression
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that we're thinking about here.
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So it should have some artistic qualities to it.
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It should embody creative expression
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in one way or another.
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And it should present individual ideas.
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So simply an object that performs a function or purpose
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like a chair or a table, while it might be beautiful
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or beautifully made, it's not necessarily an artifact
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because its primary function is to perform for an individual
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or to create a utilitarian purpose.
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So some examples-- we think about a seashell
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that's found on the beach.
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Yes, it's beautiful.
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We can admire it.
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But it's not an artifact.
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Again, it's not man-made.
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This is something that's natural found in the world
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without our having to create it.
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However, a necklace or another kind
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of adornment or work of artistic expression that uses a seashell
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or seashells would be considered an artifact.
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Because while the seashell itself is not an artifact,
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the necklace or the adornment that's created with it
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is created by man and therefore falls
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into the definition of artifact.
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Another example, a smartphone-- again,
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this seems like it would be an artifact.
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It's man-made.
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And there's definitely a case to be made for it being something
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that's beautiful.
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But a smartphone itself is not an artifact. ,
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Because its main purpose is something beyond just being
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a visual or aesthetic element for us to look at or to think
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about creatively.
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It has more purposes that are more at the forefront--
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communication, posting onto the web,
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those kind of technological elements to it.
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However, we can find artifacts that
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deal with the concept of a smartphone.
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So Eric Pickersgill's Removed photographic series
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of photographs that he made where
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he's looking at the affect of smartphones on us
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as a culture--
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these are creative expressions by the artist himself
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thinking about the concept of the cell
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phone or the smartphone.
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So these photographs and this series of photographs
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would be considered an artifact, because it's
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a creative expression created by man that
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brings in individual ideas.
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And its primary function is not that
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of what the smartphone is for, but it's
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for getting us to think or getting us to reflect
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on the ideas of an artifact.
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I also wanted to remind you of the difference
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between an artifact and a symbol--
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one that a lot of students think of is the idea of Uncle Sam.
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The simple concept of Uncle Sam would not
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be considered an artifact when we think about it.
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It's an idea.
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It's a symbol.
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It became a symbol or a personification
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of the United States based off of an actual man.
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But the idea of Uncle Sam, in itself, is not an artifact.
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However, if you wanted to focus on a work like James Montgomery
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Flagg's poster for the army, I Want You For US Army,
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that features this image of Uncle Sam,
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then that itself, the poster itself, the work
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created by Flagg would be considered an artifact.
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So again, you can kind of see the difference here
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that just the concept of Uncle Sam or saying that you're
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going to choose quote, unquote, "Uncle Sam" as your artifact
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would not qualify as an artifact because it's an idea.
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Whereas an actual creation of a work like the I Want You
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poster by Flagg would be considered an artifact.