Ideas for Civic Artifact Speech
For my artifact speech I was automatically drawn to elements of history, to artifacts that have been a part of key moments through time. At first I thought of the Scales of Justice, which would relate to my passion blog, which is about law and the expression of our rights. I was drawn to the Scales of Justice based on their symbolic importance, the physical representation of the scales, and how they act or do not act as a call to justice.
As another option I was going to select the Declaration of Independence. My reason behind possibly selecting this artifact, other than my mom recommending it, is based on the large role it has played in not only our countries history, but histories of other countries, and how regardless of topic, The Declaration is always a hotly debated subject. What did the founding fathers really mean? Is it outdated or timeless? Can we really use it as a reference? The list goes on.
However, I have found a commonality between these two artifacts, other than their strong hold in history, both relate to freedom and the right for everyone to express those freedoms.
When writing this short summary about my options, I feel myself leaning more towards the Scales of Justice, for I feel there is more room to interpret their meaning through many mediums and produce a more relatable speech.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice
https://www.reference.com/world-view/meaning-scales-justice-384aeb50c2804335
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0843225/
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
Honestly, I like both of these ideas, but I disagree that the Scales of Justice could give you more to talk about. I think the Declaration of Independence will give you tons of things to talk about-not only its representation and meaning, but its use through issues, such as gun control, the history of it, or like how you said talk about the relevant issues of whether its outdated or not. Both frame the civic in sort of the same genre: freedom, justice, our rights, etc (all the founding ideals) I like the Scales of Justice because its something not overused and I didn’t even know that much about it. I definitely think you will do better if its something you are more passionate speaking about! I, as were you, drawn to artifacts with historical meaning, so I liked how you picked something that has had meaning for a long time. I’m doing the American flag which is very similar to yours in terms of the civic part. When you said that you could express it through many mediums, I actually wouldn’t recommend using a lot of videos because we want to hear you speak. Obviously pictures and visuals are a nice way to make your presentation flow, but I think you actually wouldn’t need any video to further explain in this case. It might just sound repetitive.