ART 102: ART HISTORY 2

Viewing Assignment

Coffee, Oppression and Imagery

Due: Thursday, April 10, 2008

 

Read the article by Robert Bates. You will find the article on the course web site under E-Readings with the abbreviated title, Coffee. Pay attention to the lessons that Robert Bates learned in his "fifteen year sojourn in the world of coffee, " as both researcher in East Africa and Latin America and as US delegate to the International Coffee Organization. Some of these lessons are about coffee, some about world economy, some about violence and some about peace. Bates describes himself as setting out to "review trade, refurbish the university, revitalize farming É" and realizing that "such elements of a decent life require Éan end to the fear of violent death."

In his conclusion, Bates states that "power can enableÉ and power can also exclude." Study the way that he connects his conclusion to two images of coffee consumers and coffee workers. He has chosen theses images because they reveal to him the role that images can play in defending the privileges of some while marginalizing the claims of others."  Bates concludes that Òthe ultimate mark of privilege is to achieve sufficient security that one can ignore the coercion that makes such security possible.Ó

 

Discuss the topic that you consider the most important in the article by Bates.

 

Identify a group of people (such as women, Jews, the poor, minorities, the handicapped, the insane) who were or are marginalized and/or coerced in Western history between 1400 and the present.  Find one image that marginalizes or trivializes that group and that seeks to disguise its coercion.  Find one image that reveals that coercion. Compare those images in terms of both visual form and content.

 

Attach a copy of the image to your page.

 

No more than two pages will be accepted.

 

You must use a good quality source and you must fill out a Quality of Information Worksheet. I will consider the quality of the source and the quality of the information that you provide in the worksheet as part of your grade.