Work Statement

Develop a 150–500 word work statement that thoughtfully employs relevant and critical art and design language. This statement should be developed with feedback from your instructor to adjust tone, terminology, and structure. You will use MS Word tracked changes to refine and edit the statement over the duration of the project.

The statement's use of language should seek a balance of accurate technical terminology, concise statements about the work, and language that is accessible to a diverse audience and is wholly descriptive. It is easy for artists and designers to adopt opaque language when attempting to describe abstract works. Developing playful language can be a fun exercise, but has the tendency to confuse or shut out those with-out a strong grasp of obscure and creatively applied vocabulary. There are really no rules with how language is used, but ultimately the goal in a work statement is that the artist or designer can clearly communicate their ideas, processes, and outcomes to a wide audience.

👉 Write your statement in the past tense, as if the project is complete. Imagine it as the plaque on the museum wall or a published portfolio blurb.

Structure of the work statement

Please write the statement using proper grammar, sentence structure, and with complete paragraphs. Do not include the requirements as sections, the writing should flow as a single description of your project.

1. Include your name, project title, semester and year (IE – Fall 2022).
2. Explain what the project is and how it works.
   • E.g. "This project is an online game for children that teaches players living in war-torn countries how to avoid landmines."
3. Describe the type of media used and why that choice is effective or interesting.
4. Describe the design challenge that your work addresses (the provocation, or existing problem you hope to tackle). Do not write about challenges you personally had in producing the work.
5. Describe the process or how you approached solving for the design challenge.
6. Describe the impact the work might have, the context in which it sits, why it's interesting, etc.

Statement writing advice

• Artist Statement Guidelines
• UNSCA

Helpful terminology

• Moma Art Glossary
• Technical Design Terminology
• Linguistic Glossary
• Critical thinking terms
• Example of a needlessly complex statement and it's translation

Artspeak

• International Art English
• International Disco Latin
• artspeak.wtf
• The Guardian: A user's guide to artspeak

Artist Statements

The Work Statement is specifically about this project, but artist statements are a helpful analog. These are short, pithy statements that summarize an artist's entire body of work. Good ones minimize "artspeak" (above) in favor of intimate and provocative accompaniments to their work.

• How to Write an Artist Statement
• Sample Artist Statements
• Artist Statements We Love

Example of Student Work

View a sample work statement (pdf) from a previous student.

AI-Assisted Revision

As you explore the use of AI in design, it's worth seeing how AI can help us with writing too.

Algorithms are not very interesting; they don't know what you know, and they don't care about anything. But they are really good at regurgitating the writing style of other people into a sort of average result. And you can iterate and guide an AI to give you more interesting results, possibly editing its suggestions into your own writing. This can be help align your writing with the conventions and language of a particular industry.

For one draft of your Work Statement, you should use an AI assistant to revise the text or generate feedback.

Use one of the AI resources listed under the Text section of the Resources page.

You can paste your entire statement into one of the tools, and say something like:

• "Rewrite the following text in the style of a UX case study."
• "Help me improve the following design statement, including grammar and clarity of ideas."

Or you can start from scratch to see what it generates; this will produce something super generic and lacking important details about your work, but the language and structure may be useful reference:

• "Write an artist statement for someone who makes digital photo-collages of body parts."

Submission details:

• Upload the work statement as an MS Word Document to Canvas as indicated deadlines.
• For the AI-Assisted Draft:
  • Identify which AI program you used
  • Include your prompts
  • Make it clear which writing is your own and which is computer-generated. (That could mean color-coding text, or including multiple versions of your statement with clear labels.)
  • Include a brief reflection on the use of AI, such as describing its strengths and weaknesses.