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tags: essentialsLab
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# Celebrity Construction


So.

In this class we've learned about what *really* goes when "A Star is Born."

That is to say, we've learned that stars aren't so much "born" at all, but, rather, constructed and assembled––manufactured just like the other industrial products that we desire and consume.

And we've paid particular attention to the ways these "stars" are fabricated from multiple media. This isn't *just* to say that these stars frequently create products we can find on both Spotify and Netflix (though that's certainly true). Rather, what we are getting at here is that the Star is a construct comprised of an array of media, a story told across films and late-night interviews and children's toys and video-games and the self-indulgent, second-tier genre of performance art we call the "Awards Show."

In your final project, you are invited to reveal and critique this system of star-production. There are two options:

1. **the multimodal essay**: in whatever group of forms you wish to deploy, offer and interpretive analysis and critique of the modern star system, using at least one contemporary star as a focal point of your analysis
2. **the star-construction manual**: for the creative project, you can use any array of media you wish to give us a guide or manual for building our own star. Here again you can use a particular star as a focal point, but it might be even more interesting to offer us an image of a generic star or type of star (the popstar, the celebrity chef, the football star, etc).

Whether you choose the essay or the creative option the intellectual requirements are the same:
* you should offer readers/viewers/listeners an insightful and systematic account of the ways stars are produced that demonstrates you have engaged thoughtfully with the course materials
* you should offer original interpretations and arguments about the star-production system
* you should aim for precision and specificity in your analysis rather than dwelling in cliches and generalities. That is to say, you are *critiquing* the cliches of the star-system in insightful ways rather than engaging in obvious lists of cliches yourself.

This is a complex assigment, so it will require multiple steps to complete it.

1. a high concept pitch. In a single sentence or two, give your TF the logline.
2. a lookbook. In a 5-8 page lookbook, show your TF some reference images that give us a sense of your inspirations for the project. Include a paragraph of text explaining how these images relate to your plan.
3. a rough draft.
4. a final version.
5. a gallery version. This class isn't just a class. It's a movement, an avant-garde artistic collective. We will give you a grade based on Step 4, but we will be launching an AR installation in the middle of the College's quad next year. If you wish to have your work included you have until the end of next term to submit the gallery version of this project.

## Imaginary lookbook for a student using 3D modeling for the creative project.

Reference work

### 3D models of humans


### Engineering diagrams for product parts




### Dolls, models and other simulated humans



### Instruction Manuals