About The Third Mind Project

Our project was created out of a strong passion, a shared vision, and a ceaseless commitment to finding new ways to integrate different disciplines into the students' curriculum. Started in the 2020 fall semester, our unique approach to the Sacred Object prompt was designed to provide our students with the opportunity to think laterally and connect with other areas of the arts.

​

Inspired by a book of the same title (Third Mind: Creative Writing through Visual Art by Tonya Foster) this project is a joint effort between the department of Fine Arts and the department of Writing at Pratt Institute Main. Students in the courses "Illustration & Symbolic Imagery" and "Community as Classroom," taught by professors David Gothard and Rachel Levitsky respectively, engaged in a collaborative interdisciplinary project involving both illustrative, sculptural, and written works. Students in both courses engaged with the following prompt:

​

Select an object with no inherent symbolic significance, sentimental, religious or cultural value. Transform how we perceive the object by changing its context. Infuse it with sacred meaning. Without using symbols from any known religion, it should become something that, if you were suddenly to happen upon it, the object would communicate to an uninformed finder a feeling of veneration power, or something used in ritual.