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Exercises week 3

Practical exercise

For this week's practical exercise, we want you to bring an object to class. This should be a practical object you like to use, and use on a more or less daily basis. It should, however, not (or not per se) have a sentimental value for you. So you could e.g. bring a hammer that you like to work with, but not the hammer that you got from your father for your eighteenth birthday.

  • Lay the object that have have brought to class on the table in front of you.

  • Look around the room to all the objects that others have put there. Find an object that could be connected to your own object to create a new, metaphorical object.

  • Form pairs (or one group of three) based on these objects and make the methaphorical object or – preferably – objects.

  • Document and discuss the process and the end result.

Textual exercises

Part 1: Reading

Read "Concepts we Live By", the first chapter of Metaphors we Live By(pp. 3-6). Use the knowledge, insights and vocabulary that we have conveyed during this class to put this text in a broader context.

Again, read the text closely and critically. As you go, process the text: annotate by jotting down questions or comments in the margins, underlining important points, circling keywords, and marking places you may want to revisit. Feel free to underline, scribble, or doodle.

The processed text will be part of your exercises book.

Metamorphosis: going from one form into another
Figure 1: Metamorphosis: going from one form into another

Part 2: Writing

During the practical exercise, we made a metaphorical object based on objects that you have brought to class. Make a textual description of this object in which you make clear what it is and what it stands for (in a metaphorical way). In your text, try to make use of the vocabulary that was introduced during class, or the theory that Lakoff is writing about. Also be sure to include references to other metaphorical objects in (contemporary) art.