User:Dmpayette

Dakota Payette

Overview

My aims for the project over in London are to complete the entire humanities and arts requirement for graduation. I want to finish my two breadth classes and my capstone project while in London. My prior experiences in humanities and arts while at WPI is finishing my depth in history. I've taken three history classes here and plan on doing my capstone in history. My major takeaways from the experience are the traveling to London since it will be my first time overseas.

Milestone 1

Architecture Project 1
Objective: Comparing the architecture of the Apollo Victorian and Theatre Royal, Durry Lane Theaters

Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
Comparing the Architecture of Two Theaters in London

Milestone 2

Architecture Project 2
Objective: Comparison of Normal and Victorian architecture and lifestyle through photos and historical stories.

Once completing this milestone and looking back on it, it was definitely a fun project to work on. I had a lot of good travel experience going out and traveling to Peterborough, Ely, and Winchester to visit the three cathedrals I need for this project. Ely Cathedral and the Octagon Tower blew my mind away with its beauty and architectural advances there were made in order to keep the Octagon Tower from falling, unlike its predecessor, the Norman Tower. Looking back at the history of the cathedrals was really interesting also to see that the Normans weren't the first ones to build abbeys on those sites, for most of them have had religious buildings there for many decades.
Looking through the change from Norman to Victorian was definitely interesting. The change from a feudal society to a much more modern one was what I expected with comparing the lifestyles. The social classes hadn't changed much between the two which wasn't a shocker. The monarch was at the top of both societies and the hard working and labor intense class was both at the bottom. In between was the average everyday worker or knight in the Norman society. Overall, it was a fun and exciting experience to travel and look at some of the really old and architectural importance of the island. To look more in depth about this milestone, click here.

Milestone 3

History Capstone Paper/Presentation
Objective: Timeline of the important changes to the role of the monarch during King George VI and how that impacted Queen Elizabeth II ruling now.

Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. If this milestone, for you, represents a humanities and arts capstone, please indicate so. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
Read More

Activity Journal

The activity journal represents an ongoing log of reflections gained through each and every project activity on the calendar.

Activity #1: Westminster Abbey

Being able to view Westminster Abbey this morning was amazing. One of my milestone aims is comparing the different styles of architecture in the city, so looking at all the crypts and sculpting in Westminster Abbey really helped kick start my knowledge and comparison of the different architectures in the city. Some of the takeaways from Westminster Abbey was how crowded it was in there, but that is expected when going to a huge tourist attraction in the middle of the city. The Westminster Abbey page does exist on here, and an interesting reflection about the trip to Westminster Abbey was how caring they were towards Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his time as President of the United States. Together, he and Winston Churchill powered through the dark days of World War II and emerged victorious. Without the support of FRD, Britain might not stand here today. It's interesting to see how far a country is willing to go to help their allies, and the United States did that by entering into the war on Great Britain's side.

Add a paragraph about this experience noting the ways in which it related to one or more of your milestone aims. Did this experience directly relate to your milestones, or was the relation more indirect? In what ways did this experience cause you to think differently about your milestone aims? What were some of your other takeaways from the experience? For each site-specific term that you enter, check to see if there is a page in this wiki that exists and link to it. For example, if your reflection mentions William Shakespeare, check to see if William Shakespeare exists on this site. If an article page does exist, 1) link to it here, and 2) edit the page with a section or just a few sentences to ensure that the content on that page relates to this activity journal entry. For example, if while writing your activity journal reflection about your trip to Westminster Abbey, you recall seeing the headstone of William Shakespeare, note it in your reflection, and then edit the William Shakespeare with, at least, a sentence or two in an appropriate section about having a memorial site in Westminster Abbey. While your at it, edit the entry for Westminster Abbey with the relevant information. Did you take some interesting pictures or videos at those sites? Add those to the relevant pages. If an article page does not exist, create the page for the missing topic (link from main menu) and add some general information. For each activity scheduled on our calendar, you should 1) create an Active Journal Entry here, and 2) add/edit at least three related articles. The tone of this article can be personal, but still quality professional writing; the tone of article pages that you edit should be objective professional writing.
Think of this process as building a platform or a case that will help you make particular claims and conclusions through your project milestones.

Activity #2 Natural History Museum

Today, our group traveled to the Natural History Museum in Kensington, London. I’ve always loved visiting museums and seeing all the many types of exhibits on display. This was a different museum than the ones I’ve been to in the past because it was more related to natural history, something that I haven’t seen before. The only part of the museum that is related to milestones was the architecture of the building on the outside. Even though there was a wide range of different exhibits in the museum, none of them could relate to any of my milestones. The experience of walking through the museum wasn’t really that impacting towards my milestones. My milestones don’t relate to natural history, but it was really interesting to see the human body exhibit. I took an anatomy class back in high school and seeing all the interesting facts about the human body and how it works rekindled all the fun memories from that anatomy class. The part I remember most about the class was the human senses, so being able to go through all the interactive exhibits on the human senses really fascinated me.

Activity #3 National Gallery

Today, our group traveled to The National Gallery to go look at some paintings. We decided as a group that the best way to do this to conserve time was to split up and take pictures of paintings and painters that the other group hadn't done yet. While looking through the paintings, one painter caught my attention: Giovanni Antonio Canal. Canal, also known as Canaletto, was a painter who mostly used oil on canvas to paint magnificent scenes of the Venetian landscape. The canals were filled with gondolas and many people dressed for the times. Even though it was fun to come into The National Gallery to look at the paintings, it really didn't have any impact on any of my milestones. The architecture of the building is wonderful and caught my eye immediately.

Activity #4 British Museum

Today, our group traveled to the British Museum. The entire museum is absolutely stunning. History of basically everything interests me a lot, so being able to see a lot of historical things today was absolutely amazing. I loved being able to see parts of the Greek Parthenon since ancient Greek history and the Greek gods and goddess is my all time favorite part of history. Seeing the Rosetta Stone was also pretty amazing since they used that to decode the ancient Egyptian language. While looking at the map of all the galleries at the beginning, I had hoped that more of the museum would have related to my different milestones, but it sadly didn't. I had marked down the 1800-1900 Europe gallery as one that I could hopefully pull some Victorian style architecture out of, but it was mostly just jewelry and households items from around Europe. I also went into the Greek and Roman living style galleries to look in there. They had some fascinating artifacts in there that I loved seeing, but sadly none of them could relate to my milestone. Overall, it was an amazing museum to go to and visit. My camera sadly died half way through the museum, so I'm planning on going back there one day to finish taking the pictures that I missed. I also want to go back to look at the Greek vases exhibit. It was closed off when I went with my group and we were disappointed about that.

Activity #5 St. Paul's Cathedral

Today, our group went to St. Paul's Cathedral and it was amazing. I'm not religious at all, but the cathedral was amazing. The architecture of the building fascinates me. Throughout the history of the cathedral, many greats have been inside the cathedral and it was cool to be a part of that history by going into the cathedral. Being able to climb the stairs to the whispering gallery was the best part about going to the cathedral today. Looking down from the whispering gallery gave an amazing view of the entire cathedral. I walked the entire way around the whispering gallery and I stopped to align myself with the length of the cathedral. It was so cool to see the length of the four sections of the cathedral from high up in the whispering gallery. It would have bee really nice to see the original cathedral since it had Norman architectural aspects of it and that is part of my milestone. It was a wonderful experience going to St. Paul's Cathedral today.

Activity #6 Tate Modern

Today, our group went to Tate Modern. I am not a fan of modern art at all. To me, it is like someone randomly put piece of material together that have no purpose whatsoever. The photos that I saw were random photos and described life in Soviet Russia. The only theme to those photos was that they all included the color red, saying that the Red of Soviet could be seen from all over Russia. There is just no complexity to it at all. Modern art has absolutely nothing to do with either of my three milestones. It was honestly a boring experience to visit the museum today. Modern art is nothing like the art in history.

Activity #7 Museum of London

Today, our group went to the Museum of London and it was pretty interesting. I've always like museums that go through history, so being able to literally walk through the history of London and see all of its changes was pretty cool. It was a nice and relaxing walk through the history of London. The part that I really enjoyed was the walk through the streets of London during the Victorian Era. It was really interesting to read about and see what the city would have looked like. The different shops that they had lined up in the street were amazing. Bring able to walk into a few of them and hear the sounds playing in the background of what it sounded like to walk through the streets made it feel very lifelike. The Victorian gallery does relate to one of my milestones because it involves Victorian style architecture. Though I'm not involved with learning about the lifestyle of British subjects during the Victorian Era, seeing how they lived and in what conditions helps for my milestone.

Activity #8 Tate Britain

Today, our group went to Tate Britain and it was not the best. Our group doesn't like going to see art galleries, so this was very boring today. It doesn't make sense as to how people can actually pay to go visit modern art. To me, some of these works looks like a five year threw paint onto a canvas and called it art. This place has nothing to do with any of my milestones since they either relate to architecture and history, not art in anyway.

Activity #9 Victoria and Albert Museum

Today, our group went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and it was one of the best activities we went to so far. Even though may of the exhibits were already covered in the wiki page dedicated to the museum, it was still very a very interesting museum to go to. I went upstairs to the fourth floor to go see the architecture exhibit and that was pretty cool to see. I had taken drafting classes back in high school for three years and learned a lot about the architecture of homes and of different buildings. It was interesting to remember all the different things I learned back in high school and see them implemented in the exhibit. This exhibit does somewhat involves my milestones since they involve architecture.

Activity #10 Horniman Museum

Today, our group went to the Horniman Museum. It was actually quite interesting to visit this place because it is very far away from the center of the city that we are used to being in. Our bus ride took us out of the city and into the far edges of the city. The museum is actually half a museum and half a park with beautiful gardens. The park and gardens are a wonderful takeaway from the city and puts my mind at ease. The museum itself was kind of disappointing because two of the four different exhibits they offered needed a paid ticket to get into. The other two exhibits, a natural history gallery and a music gallery were pretty cool. I’m really into music and different instruments so seeing all the old instruments that were played for royalty were really cool to see. Overall, however, this museum had nothing to do with my milestone.

Activity #11 Hampton Court Palace

Today, our group went to the Hampton Court Palace and it was really interesting. The palace reminded me of the Tower of London with all of its history, and that was cool. Walking through the gardens was also really interesting since they surround the entire palace. Knowing that royalty used to walk through these halls and gardens makes it feel really special knowing that I'm seeing a part of history. The coolest part of the walk through was seeing the old kitchen in the palace. They had a real fire going in the huge fireplace and fake food to represent what the kitchen would have looked like while preparing food for the royals. Even though this palace was really interesting to walk through, it still has very little relevance to any of my milestones. It was a cool and interesting experience, however, to take the train out of the city to here and be able to walk through the halls of English royalty and history.

Activity #12 Museum of London Docklands

Today, our group went to the Museum of London Docklands. Back home, I live right on the water, so seeing all the cool and interesting stuff about docking lands, ports, and sea warehouses was really interesting. My favorite part of the museum was seeing the sailor life exhibit and being able to see what life was like for the sailors back then. Even though this museum was really interesting, it doesn't relate at all to any of my milestones.

Activity #13 Imperial War Museum

Today, our group went to the Imperial War Museum and that was a really cool and interesting museum to look at. When we first walked through the gates, we were greeted by a huge war cannon that more or likely was on a destroyer ship at some point in its history. Walking through the front doors of the museum was really cool too because of all the hanging planes from the ceiling. The First and Second World War exhibits were really interesting since it took you through England's side of history, something that we don't see often while studying about the wars in America. The most interesting exhibit there was the war on terror exhibit on the fourth floor of the museum. It was really interesting to see how prisoners in Gitmo live their lives in one of the world's most intensive prisons. It was also sad to see the letters from their children and that the guards had to black out some of what their children had wrote. I really wish that I was doing a milestone on war history, but I'm not, so sadly this museum doesn't have much to do with any of my milestones. I would come back to this museum another day however since it was really interesting to visit.

Activity #14 Science Museum

Today, our group went to the London Science Museum. The Science Museum was actually pretty interesting. Our group, including myself, were thinking that this was gonna like the science museums we have back home. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with this museum, but it was still actually pretty interesting. I'm very sad that the robot exhibit was a ticket event that needed money to get into it. My major is robotic engineering and I'm sad that I wasn't able to get into that exhibit. I would have loved to see it, but I'm not gonna pay money for it. I wish that I was working on milestones that relate to this museum, but I sadly aren't. Overall, it was an really cool museum and I would definitely visit it again.

Activity #15 Wallace Collection

Today, our group went to the The Wallace Collection, and it was very, very boring. The only interesting thing about the place was the armory in the back of the house. Other than that, this was a very boring place to finish with. I don't really care for any art, old or modern, but this was just too much. I've seen too many museums and art galleries to take notice of the different paintings, busts, and furniture at this place. It all just looks the same to me. This place has absolutely nothing to do with any of my milestones because since I'm not doing anything relating to art, furniture, or medieval styles of armor and war.

My Complete Contributions

The journal section should end with the following link to your complete contributions (new articles, edited articles, added media, etc.); delete this sentence and replace the username Vjmanzo below with your own username:

Category Tags

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