User:Eawilson

Emily Wilson

Overview

The paragraph should give a three to five sentence abstract about your entire London HUA experience including 1) a summary of the aims of your project, 2) your prior experience with humanities and arts courses and disciplines, and 3) your major takeaways from the experience.

Milestone 1

London Architecture
Objective: A descriptive timeline of the change in architecture throughout the city through photographs including comparing different churches, buildings, a bridge, and even unsung architectures accomplishments such as parking garages (or car parks).

This is a collaboration with Natalie Bloniarz and Olivia Gibbs.

Over the course of 2 weeks, we have travelled around London taking pictures and researching some of London's most stand out buildings. We have found the best source for finding architecture information which is the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Library, and some interesting facts about all of the buildings. Many buildings have been built multiple times due to the great fire of London, and more recent buildings were built in controversy. The buildings that we researched all have a rich history and interesting architectural design elements that add to the city. This has been a great experience and we have learned a lot about the buildings that make up the city of London.

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Milestone 2

Street Art in London
Objective: London is known for it's street art, so I will be taking a look at the street art and the history and artists behind it. London has very street laws against graffiti and artist chose to continue anyways. I will be looking into the iconic artists of London, and how there art has made an impact on the streets"

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.
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Milestone 3

Photography Guidebook
Objective: I will be taking the photographs from my other objectives, as well as photographs of iconic London spots and artwork and create a guidebook. This guidebook will have the locations where the photographs were taken and a few words about the work of art so it can be used as a resource for those traveling to London. This guidebook will have a glossary that has each page as a pinpoint on a map of London. This will allow people reading the Guidebook to find all types of art in London, from street art to museum art and architecture."

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.

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Activity Journal

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

8 May 2017: Westminster Abbey, Tower of London

Bright and early in the morning of May 8th, 2017 we headed to the tube to get to Westminster Abbey. Form this tube ride we figured out just because you take the tube eastbound one way, heading back does not mean you take it westbound. After many delays and just making it on time for the tour to start, we ran out of the tube station. When you exit the tube and look up you can see the gorgeous structure ahead, and with one of my milestones being architecture, I immediately took notice of the architectural details. We met up with a tour guide who took us into Westminster Abbey. He told us about the gothic feature of using stone to disperse the weight of the ceilings which allowed for larger windows. Because the weight is dispersed to the walls flying buttresses are needed to keep the building together. Continuing through the church, there were many beautiful memorials, all very detailed, but unfortunately we could not take any pictures inside because it is a sacred place. The Westminster Abbey was a great place to start our activities! After visiting Westminster Abbey we hopped back on the tube (this time with no troubles) and headed towards Tower Hill. When you first see the Tower of London you are taken aback. When you enter you are surrounded by towering walls. You have the freedom to walk around the Tower and visit exhibits that interest you. My group went to see the torture exhibit which was fascinating yet grim all at the same time. We also saw the crown jewels, the precise detail of all the stones, and the overwhelming presence of gold in the room, it really was jaw dropping. We did the wall walk, where we got to walk through some of the tours, and see a wonderful view of the London bridge. As we were heading down the wall we saw actors throwing projectiles over the wall as a demonstration! This was my second time at the Tower of London and I still enjoyed it. After the Tower of London we headed over to the British Library, which to our surprise had no seats on any of the floors. Olivia, Justine, Ben, Andrew, Emily Mceachern, Trinity, and I all sat down out side of the library in the cold, to work on the Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London articles.

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  Westminster Abbey
  The Exit

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  Westminster Abbey
  Ceilings

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  Westminster Abbey
  Gate Detail

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  Tower of London
  Jewel House

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  Tower of London
  White Tower

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  Tower of London
  Stone Walls

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  Tower of London
  Actor from Demonstration'

9 May 2017: British Museum

Today we went to the British Museum. When you first walk in the building your attention is drawn to the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court. The Great Court is one of the most amazing architectural features in the museum, and it is how this activity related to my milestones. The Great Court used to be an open aired court until it was covered and it is now the largest covered public square in Europe. It was opened in 2000 by Her Majesty the Queen. After marveling at the open aired court I ventured through the different galleries. I was especially interested in the Europe and England galleries. We saw many tiles, pieces of jewelry, sculptures, and figurines. We also got to see the Rosetta Stone, which is something you read about in the history books but you never expect to see, it was a lovely surprise. After we finished up looking through the galleries, Olivia, Natalie, Cole, Peter and I sat down and worked on the British Museum article. After working the rest of the afternoon I went back to Westminster Abbey for Evensong. It was the mens choir signing and it was absolutely amazing. We couldn't see much because of where we were seated, but just sitting back and listening was still an experience. After Evensong finished Justine, Olivia, and I walked down the River so we could take photos for our milestones. Along the way we discovered some street art, and the strangest thing we have seen in a subway, bubble waffles! We ended our walk by walking over the Tower Bridge and taking pictures of our buildings as the sun set. It was another great day in London!

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  The British Museum

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  The Great Court

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  The Rosetta Stone

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  Reconstructed head of a Sumerian women

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  Ram in a Thicket
  more accurately described as a Goat

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  Gold necklace with flying eagles and pendant discs

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  London Street Art
  by Billy (2017)

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  London Street Art
  by Jimmy C.

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  The Shard

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  Hay's Galleria

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  The Queens Walk
  at Sunset

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  London Sky Line

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  View of
  City Hall

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  View from Tower Bridge

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  Tower of London

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  View from
  Tower of London

10 May 2017: St. Paul's Cathedral

Today we went to St. Paul's Cathedral in London. It was built in the Baroque style which was new form the gothic style that England has typically seen. Unfortunately again we could not take pictures inside. There were many architectural features to the Cathedral and it is actually one of the buildings I am focusing on in the first milestone. The main feature of the Cathedral is the dome, the first of its kind on a church in England. Form the audio guide, there was a lot of politics that went into the design of the church. The dome was painted with the scenes of the life of St. Paul without colors because a big concern was looking to much like a Catholic Church. I found this very interesting since they are both Christian faiths. The organ was also very interesting. It dates back to 1697 and can still date back to that year because there are a few original pipes remaining. We also went up to the whispering galleries and Olivia tried to whisper to each other across the dome but it did not work. Some people around us had said it worked for them so I tried it again with Sofia and it worked! After finishing up at St. Paul's we went across the street to the Soho Coffee Co. to contribute to the St. Paul's Cathedral article. Once we finished up there Olivia, Natalie, and I went on a walk to find more of our buildings for our first milestone. The most impressive building was the Barbican center, we found information about concerts and a nice seating area so we will probably go back there again.

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  Front of St. Paul's

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  The Dome

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  Side of St. Paul's

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  Group 2
  Hard at Work

11 May 2017: The National Gallery

Today we went to the The National Gallery. While there was not anything inside that relates to my current milestone while we were walking in we saw a ton of street artists in Trafalgar Square. They were using chalk as there medium and you can read more about there work on my milestone page for milestone two. This was my second time visiting the National Gallery so I have seen a lot of the paintings before. When walking through it was interesting to see how the subjects and styles of paintings have changed over the years. The Gallery is set up so that the paintings are group by century so it really easily allows you to see this change. The most interesting style of painting to me was Impressionism. I really enjoyed looking at Claude Monets work. His Lily's on the Water and The Thames below Westminster caught my attention. Some other works of art that caught my attention were The Virgin on the Rocks by Leonardo de Vinci and The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele to Rome by Andrea Mantegna. The Virgin on the Rocks caught my attention because of how uniquely it was framed. Most are framed with very straight lines however this painting has a half circle top. This really draws your attention to the people and not on the background. The second painting caught my attention because of its neutral colors in the forefront but dark reds and oranges in the background. This is unlike any other painting we had seen in the section of the 1500's.

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  The Virgin on the Rocks

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  Cult of Cybele to Rome

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  The Thames below Westminster

12 May 2017: Natural History Museum

Today we went to the Natural History Museum near Hyde Park in London. We had a nice surprise on the tube on our way there when a group of street performers came on and played a song. The Natural History Museum was not what I was expecting at all, it actually reminded me of a science museum with the subject matter and how interactive it was. To my surprise there was a small exhibit on building materials used, which relates to my current milestone I am working on. It even had information on The British Library which is one of our buildings in the top 20. The exhibit talked about the use of red bricks, the origination, and the materials used before that. They also had information on the building material glass, which is very common in 21st century London Architecture. Some other interesting exhibits include the one on minerals and stones, fossils, and the entrance to the red zone was a very cool escalator ride up into the exhibit. The red zone had lots of information on natural disasters, as well as some information about space. After the Natural History Museum Olivia, Natalie, and I headed across the Street to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This museum had a large exhibit on architecture, and had some specific information about London buildings, they also hold some of RIBA's ( Royal Institute of British Architects) library in there study room, and we are going to try and make an appointment so we can use this resource.

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  Entrance to the Red Zone

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  Building Materials Exhibit

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  Fossil Exhibit

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  The Cocoon

16 May 2017: Victoria and Albert Museum

Today our group went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. A few of us had already been there to look at the architectural and materials section which is very interesting. There was an exhibit that gave us a lot of information that we could use for our first milestone. There was a lot of information on the materials used and building styles. They not only had information on architecture in London but the rest of the world. Today we took more time to wonder around the rest of the museum as well. The museum is huge and around every corner is something new and unexpected. You can be in an Iron Exhibit and then walk into a fashion exhibit. They had so many pieces from different time periods that it was very interesting to see how everything from ceramics to sculptures have changed over time. I sat in the museum for a little while and worked on the Victoria and Albert Museum page and then Olivia, Natalie and I worked on our milestone. We then went over to take pictures and Kensington Palace and Royal Albert Hall to get some of the last pictures we need for our first milestone.

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  Sculpture

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  Porcelain Sculpture

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  Choir Screen From 'S-Hertogenbosch

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  Cast of Giovanni Pisano

17 May 2017: Tate Modern

On this rainy day in London we took the bus over the Thames river to the Tate Modern Museum. While there was not anything that related to my milestones there were a few artists that caught my eye. The First one was Louise Bourgeois, who had an artist room on the fourth floor. She is described by Tate Modern as," an artist of intense psychological insight". Her work can be seen as an autobiography, showing experiences such as birth, death, and love. She was born in Paris in 1911, and had an interest in tapestries which she got from her parents work in restoring antique tapestries. Another Artist that interested me was Mark Bradford, who is actually from the USA. In the museum he had a collage called Los Moscos which includes materials that were found on the streets around his studio in LA. His goal for using this was to show the paper as memory of things passed. The closest thing to my architectural milestone was a sculpture of the Burj El Murr building in Beirut, Lebanon which was made by Marwan Rechmaoui. Construction on the building began in 1974 but it was never finished because of a civil war. What was meant to be an office was only used a sniper post, it is too tall to knock down and to dense to implode. It will continue to be a part of the skyline and acts as a memorial to what Tate Moderns says "the internal conflict that was never resolved". After we finished at the museum Olivia and I went to Royal Institutes of British Architects Library at Portland Places and got some more solid sources for our milestone. Afterwords we went back to our flat and contributed to the Tate Modern article.

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  Louise Bourgeois Exhibit

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  Los Moscos

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  Monument for the Living

18 May 2017: Museum of London and Tate Britain

Today I went the the Museum of London and Tate Britain, and the two were very different form each other. The Museum of London have a a lot of historical information on the history of London. It was a very interesting Museum with exhibits that walked you through London from ancient times until the 1940's and gave you a quick look at the 2012 olympic torch. One exhibit that I found interesting was the time period of the 1550's to the 1660's, which was the time of war. plague and fire. In this exhibit they have they limestone that is known as the stone that marks the center of London. It is currently on display in the Museum of London while its home at 11 Cannon Street gets worked on. After you walked through that exhibit you walked into the exhibit called Expanding London which was the time period of the 1670s-1850s. There was a very big focus on "London Made" and all of the shops owned by Londoners that were making and selling goods. One final exhibit that I found interesting was the People's City exhibit which was the time period of 1850s-1940s. In this exhibit that had a Unic Taxi, which was the first licensed petrol taxi in London. After I finished look around at the Museum of London I went of the Tate Britain.

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  Stone that marks the center of London

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  London Jewelry

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  Unico Taxi

After being at Tate Modern yesterday I was unsure of what to expect and it turned out to be an interesting museum. There was a combination of paintings and modern art both recent and older as well. One painting I found interesting was one that was painted directly onto the wall. A hand-painting done by Jeremy Deller called "History of the World". The painting is a flow diagram showing social. political, and musical connections between acid house and brass band. Another painting I found interesting was called "The Identi-Kit Man" by Derek Boshier. Boshier was interested in the fact that there was an increase of Americanization of British culture. The man in the picture represents the image of a man as a jig-saw piece. He is turned into toothpaste because it was to repent both cultures. Boshier wrote: " The figure features in my painting as a symbol of "self-Identification"., represents me (us), the spectator, participant, player, or cog in the wheel--- the amorphous "us". After Tate Britain I went back to my flat to work on the article pages linked in the journal entry above, and finished up my first milestone.

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  History of our World

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  The Identity-Kit Man

20 May 2017: Street Art Tour & Graffiti Workshop

Today Olivia Gibbs and I went on a street art tour with a company called Alternative Tours London. We looked at some major pieces by big name artists in the Shoreditch area, which is only about a mile away from our flat. The street art was very interesting. Some of my favorite pieces included one by Van Wilson, who not only shares my last name but also makes work of art out of gum! He takes pre-chewed gum and paints it and puts it on the side walk, so if you ever look down at your feet and find and interesting tiny mural that is him! The next artist that I enjoyed was Jimmy C. and this was not the first time we have seen him. Olivia and I stumbled upon him when we were walking the Queen's walk. If you look back in my journal you will see his mural that is of Shakespeare, that was partially covered by someones tag which is known as throw-up. This mural however was just as studding and not defaced. This one was of Bob Marley and done in the style of pointillism with a spray can. Our guide told us that if you measure, each drip is exactly the same length which is very hard to do. We went on this walk for our milestone so I won't spoil any more of the artwork you are going to see there!

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  Work by Van Wilson

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  Work by Jimmy C.

21 May 2017: Street Art Tour and Concert

This afternoon we took a street art tour, this time of East London. Our tour guide today, took a more historic route of street art rather than focusing details of the piece of art. He explained why certain areas have more street art, and helped us look at the definition of what street art is. It was a very interesting tour and you will be able to read more about what I learned in my milestone, I do not want to give to much away here. In the evening I went to the open-aired concert in Trafalgar Square. I was surprised how many people were there, and by the fact that they had the square sectioned off, it was not just one large area. We got there 20 minutes early, and the inner square was already full so we had to listen form the other side of the fence. It was okay though because the London Symphony Orchestra still sounded amazing even on the other side of the fence. Overall it was a very busy day for a Sunday, and this has been a busy weekend of work to pre-pare for our second milestone.

Day #21

My Complete Contributions

All of My Created Content and Edits

Copy each of the three category tags below (respective to your year and advisor), edit your page, and paste the tags at the bottom of your page. Category tags for your profile page must include 1) the tag [[Category:Profiles]] and 2) the present year in which you are participating in the London HUA experience, and 3) the advisor(s) tags; that's it!

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