Here are some of my notes regarding the Group Project taken from lecture:

• Study a particular object - man-made or industrial object which would be more about production... which later could become a personal object.  Crafted objects would have different issues as would art objects.
• Divide your group into tasks - create an outline and assign sections; you will be looking at the life stages of the object.  Synthetic vs. Organic, Where it was produced, how the object has traveled, personal history of the object..... how many people have owned it/had it and what experiences has the object had along the way?  Also consider associations/context... how has significance & meaning changed?  Use the model of Biography!  Why did it come into being in the way that it did? 
• Materials, Production, Travel, Personal History, Symbolism - divide your group into these categories; then share info to compose final paper. 

So, last Thursday when our group proposed our idea of using the sewing machine as the object for the project, Prof. Bowen seemed to approve our idea.  The issues brought up in regards to the sewing machine were workers rights, Woman's issues and issues of domesticity... somehow I'm wondering if these issues make up a separate category since we have 6 people in our group - or if these fit into symbolism.  Prof. Bowen said that since the object chosen was mine, I should do the personal history section of the project/paper.  Therefore, it is up to you to decide how to divide the rest of the topics amongst yourselves.  I will definitely be able to provide images for the group power point, but I'm sure that this power point should also include images of older sewing machines and cultural icon type imagery as well from the 30s-50s/60s era as well as probably the industrial revolution. 

Does anyone want to volunteer to create the power point because they enjoy doing this sort of thing?  I do not have much experience in power point but have used Google Docs to do this sort of thing for a seminar class before.